Target Time Toward Teachers

Author: Darling-Hammond, L.
Publisher: National Staff Development Council (NSDC)
Publication Date: 1999
Journal: Journal of Staff Development
Full text available online at: http://www.nsdc.org/news/getDocument.cfm?articleID=420

Abstract (written by WestEd)

There is growing evidence that high-quality preservice education and sustained curriculum-based professional development improve pedagogy in meaningful ways and dramatically increase student achievement on state assessments. Professional development needs to be embedded in teachers' daily activities, connected to their work with students, and nurtured through school structures and schedules that provide time for teachers as learners and as teachers of their students.

Japanese teachers stay with students for at least two years, and German teachers stay with students from two to four years through 10th grade. In most European and Asian countries, teachers spend between 17 and 20 hours of a 40- to 45-hour work week in their classrooms with students, while the rest of the time is spent in class preparation, collegial work on curriculum and assessment development, one-on-one meetings with students and parents, and learning through study groups, observations of other teachers, research, and demonstration lessons. Teachers need the time to get to know their students, diagnose needs, and develop deep knowledge of how to help all students learn.

Some schools in the United States have restructured time to meet the needs of teachers and students. At International High School in New York City, teachers on interdisciplinary teams share 70 minutes of planning time daily and have a half day each week for staff-planned professional development while students are in clubs. At Central Park East Secondary School, also in New York, teachers meet in disciplinary teams for a full morning once a week while students are engaged in community service placements. They meet with other house teachers twice a month, during an extended lunch and planning period, and with the total staff twice a week. Students' hours are increased for four days in order to shorten a fifth day for staff meetings. At Hefferan Elementary School in Chicago, teachers have four full days of classes with students and spend the fifth day planning together with their multigrade teams and pursuing professional development. Meanwhile, their students rotate to "resource" classes in music, fine arts, computer lab, physical education, library science, and science lab.

"A new instructional vision must go hand-in-hand with new strategies for staff development," writes Darling-Hammond. "If schools are to be structured for success, professional development needs to be an ongoing, integral part of teaching, rather than a sideline activity." Bold approaches reduce teacher isolation through more teamwork, organizational changes to reduce fragmentation of services, and longer blocks of instructional time that reduce teaching loads while increasing planning and learning time.