Time!onTask! - cdn.ymaws.com · ©!2013!SAIS! !!! the$conversation$ continues$inside$of$...
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© 2013 SAIS www.sais.org the conversation continues inside of SAISconnect http://saisconnect.sais.org Time on Task FastStats By: Jeffrey Mitchell, Tuscaloosa Academy Published: March 2013 Time on task, which is counted among the most important factors affecting student learning and achievement, can be defined as the amount of time a class spends in quality instruction.* Researchers who measure time on task will take a stopwatch into the classroom and precisely measure the amount of time the class is productively engaged in learning. In this FastStats on curriculum and learning, an often overlooked factor called time on task is presented as a critical reason why college preparatory independent schools, like those in the SAIS, excel academically. The data presented in this FastStats is taken from data I collected earlier in my career as an independent school administrator. The genesis of my efforts stemmed from questions that arose among parents as to why the local public schools had more school days than we did. The perception communicated to me was that we were "not as rigorous" because we had fewer days. Although based on my experience as both a public and independent school teacher, I could say to parents that our school was not getting short changed in this way, I could only back up my argument with anecdotes. So I collected some data to support my position. Figure 1 shows typical days in school for three types of schools: public, independent (but not college prep) and independent college prep (my school). Indeed, as the parents at my school pointed out there seems to be a difference in that public schools mandated five more teaching days. This difference, bytheway, is found consistently among public and independent schools. Public schools tend do tend to have more mandated teaching days. This has been true for all three of the college prep independent schools I've worked in. When we look at the length of the school day the picture begins to change. Often, as is the case for the three schools I've worked at, independent college prep schools have longer school days. The typical difference being about 30 minutes. When annual instructional minutes are counted, this alone more than levels the playing field. Thus, independent college prep schools typically have slightly more raw minutes per school year.
Transcript of Time!onTask! - cdn.ymaws.com · ©!2013!SAIS! !!! the$conversation$ continues$inside$of$...
© 2013 SAIS www.sais.org
the conversation continues inside of
SAISconnect http://saisconnect.sais.org
Time on Task FastStats By: Jeffrey Mitchell, Tuscaloosa Academy Published: March 2013 Time on task, which is counted among the most important factors affecting student learning and achievement, can be defined as the amount of time a class spends in quality instruction.* Researchers who measure time on task will take a stopwatch into the classroom and precisely measure the amount of time the class is productively engaged in learning. In this FastStats on curriculum and learning, an often overlooked factor called time on task is presented as a critical reason why college preparatory independent schools, like those in the SAIS, excel academically. The data presented in this FastStats is taken from data I collected earlier in my career as an independent school administrator. The genesis of my efforts stemmed from questions that arose among parents as to why the local public schools had more school days than we did. The perception communicated to me was that we were "not as rigorous" because we had fewer days. Although based on my experience as both a public and independent school teacher, I could say to parents that our school was not getting short-‐changed in this way, I could only back up my argument with anecdotes. So I collected some data to support my position. Figure 1 shows typical days in school for three types of schools: public, independent (but not college prep) and independent college prep (my school). Indeed, as the parents at my school pointed out there seems to be a difference in that public schools mandated five more teaching days. This difference, by-‐the-‐way, is found consistently among public and independent schools. Public
schools tend do tend to have more mandated teaching days. This has been true for all three of the college prep independent schools I've worked in. When we look at the length of the school day the picture begins to change. Often, as is the case for the three schools I've worked at, independent college prep schools have longer school days. The typical difference being about 30 minutes.
When annual instructional minutes are counted, this alone more than levels the playing field. Thus, independent college prep schools typically have slightly more raw minutes per school year.
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But an even more powerful statement can be made about instructional time differences. Based on my data I found significant differences between college prep independent schools, non-‐college prep independent schools and public schools in time on task. So although raw minutes are relatively equal, when time on task is factored into the calculation huge differences arise. When I measured time on task in my school I found that very little time was spent "off-‐task". The classroom was, day after day, a very productive learning environment. In fact, I can say this about all three schools I've had the pleasure working in and I suspect all SAIS Heads would say the same thing. When I went into other types of schools, however, the time on task went down considerably. When all the numbers were crunched, and I assumed a baseline factor of 1 for my school, the proportion of time on task in the other environments was approximately .90 and .70 respectively. Figure 2 represents this data. In fact, further extrapolating these numbers leads to some eye-‐opening statistical differences. First, based on quality time on task college prep schools have the equivalent of about 30 extra days per year compared with non college prep independent schools and 60 days compared with public schools (Figure 3). This amounts to approximately 382 and 725 school days over the course of a 1-‐12 educational experience. This translates into over two more years of instructional time compared with non college prep schools and four more years compared with public schools! In my mind, this is powerful evidence for Heads of School when answering value-‐added questions. Data, and my anecdotal experience, suggests there is a huge difference, in the quality instructional time of the typical college prep independent school classroom. For the average Head it is likely not a revelation for them to read that we think that the quality of our educational product is superior in many ways. In fact, if you're like me you feel that given our good fortune to be a part of such outstanding schools we have an obligation to be exceptional. What might be interesting and novel, however, is that it is possible to make a very educated and quantifiable statement about this one important differentiator which speaks directly to the value parents want to derive from a college preparatory independent school experience.
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*From a chapter called "Time on Task" written by Tamara van Gog in the book International Guide to Student Achievement published in 2012. Edited by John Hattie, Eric M. Anderman.
Dr. Jeffrey Mitchell is the Head of School at Tuscaloosa Academy in Tuscaloosa, AL. He can be reached via email at [email protected]
