As with any profession, teachers need to constantly build and refine their craft. Unfortunately, the typical school schedule rarely affords the time necessary for teachers to learn and practice new instructional strategies. To build and maintain a cadre of highly effective teachers, schools can use an expanded schedule to provide more time for professional development and teacher collaboration. Teachers at successful expanded-time schools, for instance, spend substantial amounts of time working with administrators, instructional coaches, and colleagues to engage in thoughtful lesson-planning that takes into consideration student needs, effective teaching practices, and clear objectives for student learning. By providing more time for teacher development, teachers are better prepared to meet the needs of all students.

Below you will find examples of how schools use additional time to offer teachers more opportunities for teacher development.