The largest federal program that directly supports increased learning time is the School Improvement Grant program (SIG), which is part of Title I, the federal education funding stream reserved for schools serving students from low-income communities.
The SIG program targets the lowest-performing schools, making substantial grants available for whole-school reform. The SIG program was significantly reformed and expanded in 2010; since that time nearly 2,000 low-performing schools have received SIG funds. As part of those changes, schools receiving funding—usually a three-year grant—must select one of four reform models defined by the U.S. Department of Education (USED). More than 90 percent of grantees opt for either the Transformation or Turnaround models, both of which include “increased learning time” (ILT) as a core element.
In response to lessons learned over the last four years of implementation and amendments made in recent appropriations laws, the SIG program is changing yet again. In the appropriations bills for both fiscal years 2014 and 2015, Congress added new flexibility to the SIG program, directing USED to allow states to design their own school improvement model to submit to the Department for approval, increasing the allowable grant length from three to five years, and encouraging a planning year as well as a sustainability year at the end of the grant. Grants issued under these new rules are expected to be available for use in schools starting in the 2015-16 school year.