Show all Posts


RSS
Subscribe to the Time Matters Blog RSS Feed

Time Matters Blog

More Learning Time Gaining Momentum

Friday, July 16th, 2010 - 12:10 pm EDT

There was a time a few years ago when a number of national foundations made some significant investments in researching and promoting the value of early childhood education. That effort—combined with some pretty compelling data—helped to lift early ed. to the top of the education reform agenda by the first years of the twenty-first century. Indeed, if you reviewed the education platforms of political candidates (of any stripe) in the early 2000s, investing in (and improving the quality of) early childhood education almost always appeared as the number one priority.

Read More...
Category: General

"Beyond Schools" Blog

Monday, June 14th, 2010 - 3:56 pm EDT

In a recent post on its “Beyond Schools” blog, Education Week highlighted the work of expanded learning in Massachusetts by way of promoting the report we released a couple weeks back. We’re certainly pleased that the work we are doing in Massachusetts, which of course was where NCTL got its start, is drawing the attention of folks around the nation.

Read More...
Category: General

Other Meanings of Alignment

Thursday, June 10th, 2010 - 6:54 pm EDT

With all of my recent travels—I just returned from Pittsburgh, the final stop on my tour of districts that have put expanded time into place for a designated number of schools—my head is swimming with notions about what it takes to make education reform effective. Of late, the word that keeps popping into my mind is “alignment.”

Read More...
Category: General

Another Scene from the “No Excuses” Movie

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010 - 8:55 am EDT

In her book about successful schools, It’s Being Done, author Karin Chenoweth explains that one of the keys to efficacy is attitudinal. Educators in successful schools simply will not give up on a child because of his or her background, no matter how much the student’s dysfunctional home or poor behavior or whatever might excuse subpar performance. Every child can learn, the “no excuses” schools demand, and they devote themselves wholeheartedly to living up to their belief. It is an inspirational notion, but how does this really play out in school? There are dozens of examples I discovered on my travels to nine schools in three districts, but one that stands out suggests that even educators who are wholly committed to the idea that every child can succeed, no matter the conditions, have to be reminded that they, too, cannot make excuses for themselves in their own push to boost student achievement.

Read More...
Category: General

More Time for Learning: Promising Practices & Lessons Learned

Monday, June 7th, 2010 - 4:43 pm EDT

The National Center on Time & Learning and Massachusetts 2020 are pleased to announce the release of our new publication, More Time for Learning: Promising Practices and Lessons Learned, the 2010 Progress Report of the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT) Initiative. The report, based on lessons we have learned over the past four years of the Initiative, highlights how successful expanded-time schools are using additional time.

Read More...
Category: General