Education Week - January 28, 2015 - 7

More Districts Expected to Follow Boston on Longer Days
Teacher pay often
a stumbling block
By Kathryn Baron
The Boston teachers' union
vote this month to support adding
40 minutes to the school day
is the latest in a steady trickle of
school districts looking to expand
extended-learning-time initiatives
systemwide.
"We're just now starting to see
districts take the leap and expand
districtwide," said Tiffany Miller,
the director of education policy at
the Center for American Progress, a
Washington think tank.
There are no hard numbers on
this trend, but 11 Massachusetts
districts with some schools on an
extended schedule are also moving
toward districtwide implementation,
as are the Camden and Elizabeth,
N.J., school systems. In New
York-where Rochester, Syracuse,
and Yonkers have extended-learning-time
initiatives-Governor Andrew
Cuomo created a $24 million
grant program last year to support
districts that want to add time to
the school day.
The National Center on Time and
Learning, a Boston-based group that
promotes schools' efforts to extend
learning time, is scheduled to release
an updated report in a couple
of months on how many individual
schools across the country have expanded
learning time. It expects the
number will exceed the 1,500-plus
schools in last year's count.
The Boston teachers' agreement,
which was approved Jan. 14 by a
margin of 4-to-1, would provide the
equivalent of about an extra month
of school in about 60 of the district's
elementary and middle schools.
The agreement followed years of
on-again, off-again negotiations
with the city, the union, and the
57,000-student district.
"I think the Boston agreement
is going to be groundbreaking and
other districts are going to really
watch," said Jennifer Davis, the cofounder
and president of nctl, especially
given that Boston is the largest
district in the state and has been
traditionally a very strong union
district.
'On the Radar'
Ms. Davis said she has been receiving
calls from districts all over
the country seeking the organization's
help in planning for expanded
learning.
"It is an issue that is more and
more on the radar in these urban
districts that are just not succeeding
for kids, and I think the highperforming
charter school networks
like the kipps and Uncommon
Schools are causing a lot of attention
because of their successes," said
Ms. Davis.
Advocates said many of the districts
coming on board in recent
years have taken a lesson from administrators
and educators in the
Meriden, Conn., public school system,
which decided in 2011 to explore
lengthening the day at some of
its elementary schools.
"There was nothing to go by," recalled
middle school literacy teacher
Erin Benham, the president of the
Meriden Federation of Teachers.
"We were sort of creating our own
model," she said of the 9,100-student,
high-poverty district.
The nctl collects examples of contracts
and letters of agreement between
districts and teachers' unions
that define the purpose of adding
time, spell out the teachers' role
in planning how that time will be
spent, and specify teachers' pay for
working longer days.
Compensation can be a stumbling
block. Boston teachers rejected an
earlier proposal that would have
paid them $16.67 an hour for the
additional time. The agreement
they approved more than doubles
that amount at $37.20 per hour,
which is about $6 less than the
average regular salary, said Ms.
Davis, who helped develop the proposal.
Her organization will also
work with the schools as they map
out how to use the additional time.
The extra pay is written into the
agreement as a stipend; it's not included
in the teachers' pay scale.
That differs from place to place, but
stipends are safer for districts, said
Linda Kaboolian, a researcher at Harvard's
Kennedy School of Government
and the author of the book, "Win-Win
Labor-Management Collaboration in
Education."
"I think it's very wise that the districts
make it clear that this is a stipend
because, without a doubt, it
means they're not responsible if the
money runs out," she said.
Stipends vs. Regular Pay
It's also better for teachers, she
added. While researching her book,
she said teachers agreed with the research
findings showing that the more
time children spend in school, the
more they learn. Their complaint was
that working the longer hours would
disrupt their families' lives, especially
if they're raising children of their own
who need to be picked up from day
care or school and taken to after-school
activities.
That's what Meriden teachers like
about the stipend, agreed Ms. Benham,
the Meriden union president.
Unlike Boston, where all the teachers
in participating elementary and middle
schools will be required to work a
longer day, Meriden teachers can opt
in or out.
Those that do commit to the additional
100 minutes a day earn an
additional $7,500 annual stipend. The
rest of the teachers are on staggered
schedules, some coming in earlier than
they used to but leaving earlier, and
others arriving later and staying later.
The Meriden agreement also gives
the teachers flexibility to split the additional
time so that, for example, one
teacher can stay late on Mondays,
Wednesdays, and Fridays, while another
picks up the hours on Tuesdays
and Thursdays.
It's critical that everyone agrees
ahead of time on the purpose and
goals for extending the school day or
year, said Carol McElvain, the managing
director of the Afterschool and
Expanded Learning division of the
American Institutes for Research. Ms.
McElvain said teachers should negotiate
specific activities in the contract or
memorandum of understanding with
the district, otherwise the extra time
will become wasted. "It shouldn't be,
'we're going to add 20 minutes [and]
therefore our grades should improve.'
That's too broad a brush of what the
outcome will be," she cautioned.
Coverage of more and better learning
time is supported by a grant from the
Ford Foundation at www.fordfoundation.
org. Education Week retains sole editorial
control over the content of this coverage.
The Time & Learning blog tracks
news and trends on this issue.
www.edweek.org/go/time&learning
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Education Week - January 28, 2015

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