The potential role of instructional time in pandemic recovery
This article shares the current state of efforts to make up for lost time due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.
Note: Per Oregon statute Or. Admin. R. 581-022-2320, Kindergarten through 11th grade students are required to have 900 hours of instructional time per academic year when divided over 180 days that is a 5 hours a day. Children in 12th grade must have 990 hours per academic year, or 5.5 hours a day on instructional time. In contrast 1,260 hours are required in Texas for Kindergarten through 11th grade students, or 7 hours each day over 180 days.
Sarah Novicoff and Matthew A. Kraft
Tuesday, November 15, 2022
Scores from the 2022 National Assessment of Educational Progress have captured national headlines, documenting unprecedented declines in student performance in math and reading. For lower-performing students, the drops were even more severe. The COVID-19 pandemic profoundly disrupted students’ academic progress by shuttering schools, but also because of the negative mental health effects caused by isolation and the trauma of economic hardships and the loss of loved ones. Recovery will take time, and there are no easy answers. Our recent research suggests that expanding instructional time, particularly for schools with shorter days and years, can play an important role in our ongoing efforts to accelerate student learning.
ADDING INSTRUCTIONAL TIME CAN INCREASE ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT
As part of our research, we conducted a systematic review of the most rigorous causal literature on the relationship between instructional time and academic achievement. Together, the literature paints a compelling picture that adding time can increase student achievement, though the benefits of this time depend on how time is increased and for which students.
The two primary ways of increasing instructional time are adding days to the year and lengthening the school day. Our review of the literature shows that both can be effective. Research from Mexico, North Carolina, Sweden, and across the United States finds a small positive increase in math and English scores from the addition of 10 or more extra days. Even small increases in the length of the school day–90 minutes or less, in Germany, Israel, and other contexts – have led to positive results, albeit with smaller effect sizes and sometimes only in some subjects. Effects also vary by grade level with many studies showing younger students benefitting the most.
Evidence of the positive effect of expanded learning time on student achievement appears strongest for extending the school year. This may be because there is little organizational or behavioral change required on the part of schools when extending the school year, whereas extending the school day is often coupled with efforts to adapt school schedules and adopt new instructional techniques.
While additional instructional time can increase academic achievement, it does not always do so. Research on the Expanded Learning Time Initiative in Massachusetts found no significant effect on achievement in math, ELA, or science. Studies like this demonstrate the importance of preventing staff and student fatigue and aligning how the time is used to the specific outcomes that schools hope to target.
INSTRUCTIONAL TIME VARIES TREMENDOUSLY ACROSS THE U.S.
Despite the importance of instructional time, some students are in school over the course of the year for hundreds of hours more than others simply because of where their families live. The figure below illustrates this wide variation wherein the total number of school hours per year differs by almost 200 hours between schools at the 90th and 10th percentiles (1,323 vs. 1,134 hours). That gap equates to a difference of approximately five and half weeks of schooling based on the mean of 6.87 hours per day.
As the main governing authority in education in the U.S., states can set the minimum length of the school year, the minimum amount of total instructional hours, and/or the minimum number of hours in a school day. A database from the Education Commission of States shows that 38 states specify a minimum total number of hours per year, with high school hours ranging between 720 hours in Arizona to 1,260 hours in Texas. Even setting these two outliers aside, there exist large differences across states. Graduating seniors in Maryland will have been required to attend high school for 30% longer–approximately 160 more days–than students in Alaska, Florida, and Connecticut.