Expanded-Time Schools Database Criteria

The criteria for identification as an expanded-time school in the 2011-2012 school year are:

•  The school must be a public school.

•  The expanded school schedule must apply for all enrolled students.

• The school must operate with an average school day length of at least 7 hours (does not include early-release and/or early dismissal days).

•  For schools qualifying based on the length of their school day, the length of an average school day must be 30 or more minutes longer than surrounding public schools (or compared to ET school's pre-conversion schedule). 

•  For schools qualifying based on the length of their school year, the length of the school year must be 10 or more days longer than surrounding public schools (or compared to ET school's pre-conversion schedule).

•  Starting in the 2011-2012 school year, NCTL sought to set baseline standards for the amount of time that schools needed to add (or in the case of newly-established schools, the amount of additional time that schools needed to start with compared to surrounding schools) in an attempt to ensure that the time modifications were meaningful enough to have some impact on student outcomes and/or experiences.  Further, an examination of the national data available on school time across schools indicated that the average school in the U.S. operates with a school day length that is approximately 6.7 hours, with some variance by grades served (U.S. Department of Education, Schools and Staffing Survey, 2007-2008).  As such, NCTL saw the value in ensuring that schools deemed as “expanded-time” had school days that were meaningfully longer than this national average.