Small avoidable disruptions in a typical school can add up to the loss of up to 20 days of instructional time every school year, according to research cited in an Education Week article. Sarah Novicoff, a research fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, and her colleagues have found lost learning time includes the time taken up by an interruption and the time it takes for teachers to get their class back on track afterward.
Two school leaders who have worked to cut down on minor class time disruptions that add up to major lost learning time explain how they eliminated those disturbances.
Betsy Bockman, the principal of Midtown High School in Atlanta, says exempting classroom teachers from morning duty—such as greeting students when they arrive or monitoring gathering spaces before the first bell—and instituting a bell-to-bell ban on cellphones have made the biggest difference.
Cellphones “are a huge time waster,” Bockman says. The school’s ban has freed up time teachers previously used to address misuse of devices or device-related distractions.
Removing morning duty has allowed teachers to be prepared to start class right on time, Bockman says. To make it work, “just about everybody else” takes care of those responsibilities—from social workers to counselors to administrators to media specialists.
Support staff also run test retake sessions and monitor small groups of students who need extended time on assessments and assignments.
Every teacher has a “designated support person” to help at any time. Teachers can text or message their DSP to step in and address violations of the cellphone policy or other behavioral problems without the teacher having to stop class – protecting instructional time, Bockman says.
Noble Schools, a network of open-enrollment charter schools for grades 6-12 in Chicago, has implemented an intervention block for all students in many of its schools, shortening other class periods by a few minutes to create a new class period that fits into the schedule, says Lyndsay Cowles, the network’s director of academics.
Each campus determines how to use that block. The intent is to build in more time for intentional instruction without lengthening the school day or school year. “As we put in these things … we have seen consistent growth across the board with our students,” she said.
Bockman’s and Cowles’ experience with students missing out on hours of learning time every school year is more common than some might expect—and backed by research.
Novicoff offers another tactic: staff should use intercom announcements as a last resort when messaging a small number of students. Schools can send the student’s teacher a message on their phone or computer that they can relay during a break in instruction.
“There’s no need to disrupt the education of hundreds or thousands of students to make an announcement that only affects one of them,” Novicoff says.
Education Week
