Over the years, NCTL has written a number of reports from the field on the how expanded time opens up opportunities for educators to be much more effective in teaching science, the arts, and even creative problem solving (deeper learning).  Now, we’ve produced another in this series of case studies on the effective practices of expanded-time schools, but this one is different for a fundamental reason: it focuses less on what is being taught—though getting kids to proficiency is paramount—and more about who is being taught. And the “who” is English Language Learners, one of the fastest growing populations in American schools.

Yesterday, President Obama signed into law the long-awaited reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.  The new law, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act, or ESSA, makes broad changes to the nation's most important education law.  Among its many improvements over NCLB,   it marks a momentous step forward to support and replicate high-quality expanded learning time schools that better meet the needs of our children living in poverty.  Jennifer Davis, President and co-Founder of the National Center on Time & Learning said:

It is no secret that, when it comes to education, Massachusetts is a place of firsts. The Commonwealth is home to the first public school in the country, the first system of public education (as designed by Horace Mann), and the state has also ranked first in students’ performance on NAEP (the so-called “nation’s report card”) in fourth and eighth grade reading and math for the last several years

We are proud to join with more than 40 other education organizations to form the Teach Strong campaign.  Teach Strong, which will have its kickoff event on November 10^th, is focused on making modernizing and elevating the teaching profession the top education policy priority of our day.

On October 19, we gathered in Boston to celebrate Massachusetts educators who are breaking through traditional barriers that can stand in the way of creating great schools. 

What does it mean to “be innovative” – and what is the connection between innovative approaches to education and more time? For starters (and perhaps it goes without saying), innovation cannot actually be mandated...