District/School Administration Administration
Education Reform

Time and Learning: Results of Self-Reported Survey for Principals 1997-1998 School Year

November 1998

Dear Friends:

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education is pleased to provide this report on the actions taken by all schools to meet the responsibilities of the student learning time regulations adopted by the Board of Education on December 20, 1994. The purpose of the student learning time regulations is to ensure that every public school in the Commonwealth provides its students with the structured learning time needed to enable each student to achieve competency in core subjects. The regulations gave districts a period of three years to reach full implementation for the 1997-1998 school year.

In October 1997, principals were asked to complete a survey to report on the restructuring of the school schedules that occurred to meet the new time standards. This report contains statewide averages of time spent in different subjects at different grade levels as reported by the principals. While this report points out a few schools reporting non-compliance, many of those schools have since met the requirements for the current school year 1998-1999.

Some of the major findings:

• elementary school students on average spend more than 800 hours a year on core academic subjects;
• except for vocational schools, more time is spent in English language arts than in any other subject; and
• over 200 schools have a student year in excess of the state required minimum of 180 days.

The student learning time regulations are only one of numerous reform initiatives in the Commonwealth to improve learning opportunities for all students.

I hope you find this information helpful.

Sincerely,

David P. Driscoll
Commissioner of Education

Time and Learning
Results of Self-Reported Survey for Principals
1997-1998 School Year

In December 1994, after over a year of review, five public hearings, and over two thousand comments sent to the Department, the Board of Education adopted the Student Learning Time Regulations. These regulations establish a minimum standard for the amount of "structured learning time" that school districts must provide to students each year: 425 hours/year kindergarten, 900 hours/year elementary, 990 hours/year secondary.

The purpose of the regulations is to ensure that every public school in Massachusetts provides its students with the structured learning time needed to enable each student to achieve competency in core subjects.

Regulation 603 CMR 27.04: "Structured Learning Time Requirements" states:

1. No later than the 1997-1998 school year, schools shall ensure that every elementary school student is scheduled to receive a minimum of 900 hours per school year of structured learning time, as defined in 603 CMR 27.02. Time which a student spends at school breakfast and lunch, passing between classes, in homeroom, at recess, in non-directed study periods, receiving school services, and participating in optional school programs shall not count toward meeting the minimum structured learning time requirement for that student.
2. No later than the 1997-1998 school year, all schools shall ensure that every secondary school student is scheduled to receive a minimum of 990 hours per school year of structured learning time, as defined in 603 CMR 27.02. Time which a student spends at school breakfast and lunch, passing between classes, in homeroom, at recess, in non-directed study periods, receiving school services, and participating in optional school programs shall not count toward meeting the minimum structured learning time requirement for that student.

In April 1998, the Board of Education amended the Student Learning Time Regulations to clarify the definition in 603 CMR 27.02, as follows:

Core subjects shall mean the core academic subjects specified in G.L. c.69, section 1D (mathematics, science and technology, history and social science, English, foreign languages and the arts), and the subjects covered in courses which are part of an approved vocational-technical education program under M.G.L.c.74.

Other subjects shall mean subjects other than core academic subjects that are required to be taught pursuant to G.L.c.71, sections 1 and 3, and other subjects approved by the school committee as part of the district's program of studies.

Both "core subjects" and "other subjects" count toward the calculation of structured learning time for students.

As part of the annual October Report in which schools report on fiscal and programmatic matters, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education included a Time and Learning survey (Attachment A) for all superintendents and principals to report the status of their district or school with regard to time and learning for the 1997-1998 school year. A summary of the results of the Superintendents' survey was given to the Board of Education in January 1998 (Attachment B). The findings in this report represent the responses from the principals of 1,776 elementary and secondary schools. Survey instructions asked school principals to provide information based on the majority of students enrolled and to report on a "typical day and year" in the school/district. In all comparisons between elementary and secondary schools, middle/junior high schools are included in the group that the school committee designated for time and learning requirements (i.e., 900 annual structured learning hours for elementary or 990 annual structured learning hours for secondary). Throughout this report, "n" indicates the number of schools responding to the particular question.

FINDINGS

Findings are presented in the following categories:

• Annual Structured Learning Time (Hours)
• Annual Student Days
• Time in Content Areas
• Length of Student Day
• Non-Instructional Time
• Meeting the Standards for Student Learning Time
• Early Release
• Summary and Conclusions

ANNUAL STRUCTURED LEARNING TIME

According to the student learning time regulations, "No later than the 1997-1998 school year, schools shall ensure that every elementary school student is scheduled to receive a minimum of 900 hours per school year and every secondary school student is scheduled to receive a minimum of 990 hours per year of structured learning time, as defined in 603 CMR 27.02. Time which a student spends at school breakfast and lunch, passing between classes, in homeroom, at recess, in non-directed study periods, receiving school services, and participating in optional school programs shall not count toward meeting the minimum structured learning time requirement for that student."

Major Findings

• Seventy-four elementary schools reported more than 1,000 hours of annual structured learning time and eight reported more than 1,100 hours. The average for the 1,274 reporting elementary schools was 935.5 hours.
• Eight secondary schools reported more than 1,090 hours of annual structured learning time. The average for the 416 reporting secondary schools was 1,015.1 hours.
• Twenty-two elementary schools (4 districts) reported fewer than the required 900 hours of annual structured learning time.
• Twenty-seven secondary schools (16 districts) reported fewer than the required 990 hours of annual structured learning time.

ANNUAL STUDENT DAYS

603 CMR 27.03 (3) states, "Every school committee shall operate the schools within its district at least 180 school days in a school year."

Major Findings

• Annual student days over the required 180 were reported by 155 (11.5%) elementary schools and 52 (12.2%) secondary schools.
• Six schools (one elementary and five secondary) reported fewer than the required 180 annual student days. Except for Massachusetts Academy of Math and Science (161 student days), the rest reported 179 because of an orientation day where only a portion of students were scheduled to attend.

TIME IN CONTENT AREAS

Statewide averages in instructional time vary from grade level to grade level. Detailed information on instructional time in specific content areas is displayed on pages 8 and 9. For the findings on page 7, "core content areas" include English language arts, history and social science, math, science and technology, foreign languages, and the arts. Approved vocational-technical education programs under G.L. c. 74 are also counted as core content in vocational/technical schools.

Major Findings

• Elementary grades spend approximately 85% of the total student day in "core subjects" and "other subjects." Time spent on the core subjects ranges from 78% (861 hours) for Grade 2 to 73% (817 hours) for Grade 8-Elementary .
• Secondary (academic) grades spend approximately 87% of the total student day in "core subjects" and "other subjects." Time spent on core subjects ranges from 73% (843 hours) for Grade 6-Secondary1 to 59% (690 hours) for Grade 12.
• Vocational/Technical schools spend 89% of the total student day on "core" and "other" subjects. Eighty-two percent (960 hours) of the student year is spent on "core subjects" (including vocational/technical training) for Grade 10 and 83% (971 hours) for Grade 12.
• As can be seen in the graph on page 7, the total amount of time spent in the core content areas declines each year for elementary grades 2 through 8, and the same is true for secondary grades 6 through 12.

The statewide average of hours spent on foreign languages includes schools that have minimal or no foreign languages program. The table below shows the statewide average hours by grade, the number of schools reporting NO hours in foreign languages, the number of schools reporting SOME hours in foreign languages, and the average hours for schools that have any number of hours in foreign languages (excludes schools that have no foreign language hours).

LENGTH OF STUDENT DAY

• The average length of the student day is 6.2 hours for elementary schools and 6.5 hours for secondary schools.
• The majority of elementary schools (82.1%) have a student day that lasts between 6 and 6.5 hours. The majority of secondary schools (56.3%) have a student day that lasts between 6.5 and 7 hours.

• The majority of elementary schools (58.6%) have 5 to < 5.25 hours of structured learning time a day .
• The majority of secondary schools (86%) have 5.5 to < 6 hours of structured learning time a day2.

The tables on the next page identify the number of schools in each Structured Learning Time group (i.e., 4.5 to < 5 hours of structured learning time) by the total number of student hours in the day. For example, 44 elementary schools (see shaded areas of table on the following page) with fewer than 6 total student hours in the day have 5 to < 5.25 hours of structured learning time a day, and 48 elementary schools with 6.5 to < 7 total student hours in the day have the same amount (5 to < 5.25 hours) of structured learning time a day.

NON-INSTRUCTIONAL TIME

On average, 55 minutes of the student day was used for non-instructional activities (lunch, recess, moving between classes). Elementary schools reported an average of 56 minutes and secondary schools reported an average of 50 minutes of non-instructional time in the student day.

* Two secondary schools reported NO time in this category. All others reported 27 minutes or more. Six secondary schools reported over 1.5 hours in this category.

MEETING THE STANDARD FOR STUDENT LEARNING TIME

• The most common changes in non-instructional time made by elementary schools to comply with the full 1997 implementation of the Student Learning Time Regulations included reducing or eliminating early release days (44.7% of schools) and reducing or eliminating recess (33% of schools).
• The most common changes in non-instructional time made by secondary schools to comply with the full 1997 implementation of the Student Learning Time Regulations included reducing or eliminating non-directed study (64.4% of schools) and reducing or eliminating homeroom (57.9% of schools).

* Examples include the elimination or reduction of activity/club periods; reduction of the number of classes per day; and going to full day professional development days.

• Ninety-one elementary schools (6.8%) added student days to the year to comply with the Student Learning Time Regulations. The average number of days added by these 91 schools was 2.2 days. No elementary schools added more than 5 days.
• Thirty-five secondary schools (8.1%) added student days to the year to comply with the Student Learning Time Regulations. The average number of days added by these 35 schools was 3.1 days. One secondary school reported adding 13 days and another reported adding 30 days.
• Almost half of all schools added time to the student day, days to the student year, or both time and days.

• Of 1,776 schools reporting, 810 added time (minutes to day) to comply with the regulations.
• Of 1,346 elementary schools reporting, 601 (44.7%) added minutes to the student day. On average, 14 minutes were added to the elementary school day.
• Of 430 secondary schools reporting, 209 (48.6%) added minutes to the student day. On average, 16 minutes were added to the secondary school day.

EARLY RELEASE

• On average, schools had "early release" (for professional development, parent conferences, and/or pre-holiday time) on 7.83 days a year (8.20 days for elementary and 6.63 days for secondary).
• Of 1,201 elementary schools responding, 459 (38.2%) had 3 or fewer annual early release days (range 0-42).
• Of 367 secondary schools reporting, 160 (43.6%) had 3 or fewer annual early release days (range 0-44)
• Of the 1,552 schools that reported greater than "zero" annual early release time, the average was 18.9 hours (20 hours for elementary and 15.3 hours for secondary).
• 43.3% (514) of the 1189 elementary schools and 46.6% (169) of secondary schools had between 1 and 10 annual hours of early release time.
• Eighty-nine elementary schools and 10 secondary schools reported more than 50 annual hours of early release time. The highest number of annual early release hours was 123.3 for elementary schools and 99.0 for secondary schools.

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Nearly all schools reported being in compliance with the Student Learning Time Regulations for both annual hours and annual days. Only 19 districts reported at least one school out of compliance. The total number of elementary schools not in compliance was 22, and there were 27 secondary schools not in compliance. Of the 15 middle schools not in compliance, all have more than 900 annual hours of structured learning time, but they self-designated as secondary schools which require 990 annual hours of structured learning time.

The percentage of time spent on core academic subjects (mathematics, science and technology, history and social science, English, foreign languages, and the arts) and in subjects covered in courses which are part of an approved vocational-technical education program under M.G.L.c.74 was:

Grade 2 Elementary - 78% (861 hours)
Grade 4 Elementary - 78% (860 hours)
Grade 6 Elementary - 76% (845 hours)
Grade 8 Elementary - 73% (817 hours)
Grade 6 Secondary - 73% (843 hours)
Grade 8 Secondary - 70% (815 hours)
Grade 10 Academic - 63% (735 hours)
Grade 12 Academic - 59% (690 hours)
Grade 10 Vocational - 82% (960 hours)
Grade 12 Vocational - 83% (971 hours)

Both Grade 12 academic and vocational percentages reflect annual structured learning time for a full 180 day student school year, so the percentages are actually less due to senior early release. High schools are permitted to release seniors up to 12 days prior to the end of the regularly scheduled closing day. All but 7 high schools comply with the regulation (Attachment B).

At all grade levels (except 10 and 12 vocational), schools reported spending more time in English language arts than in any other core academic subject. Of the 10 grade levels surveyed, 5 provide fewer than 20 annual hours of foreign language instruction (grades 2, 4, 6 elementary and grades 10, 12 vocational). Three grade levels reported more than 70 annual hours of foreign language instruction (Grades 8 elementary and secondary and Grade 10 academic). The annual number of hours for science and technology instruction peaks at Grade 8 for elementary schools (154 hours). The annual number of hours for science and technology instruction peaks at Grade 6 for secondary schools (159 hours), and then declines. For all grade levels, math instructional hours peak at Grade 4 (180 hours) and then decline for the upper grade levels.

ATTACHMENT A

Click Here to download the Principle Survey in Adobe Acrobat format.

ATTACHMENT B

TIME & LEARNING REPORT: RESULTS FROM SUPERINTENDENTS SURVEY

Districts included in this report -- 339

* MA Academy /Math & Science reported 169 total days in line with the schedule of Worcester Polytechnic Institute

2. How many total days in your school year are ALL students scheduled to attend? Do not include kindergarten. Do not include orientation days unless all grades are in attendance. Do not subtract senior early release days.

3. How many days before the end of the regularly scheduled school year are seniors released?

4. Are middle schools in your district designated as Elementary (900 hours) or Secondary (990 hours)?

5a. For Districts with half-day kindergarten program only:

5b. For Districts with full-day kindergarten program only:

6. If there were any obstacles to achieving Time and Learning compliance throughout your district, rank order up to three (3) key obstacles A1", A2", A3", with A1" being the major obstacle.