With federal holidays, winter and spring breaks, teacher institute days and late start schedules, parents may feel their children rarely spend a full five-day week at school.
But school administrators and teachers say the late start days and teacher institute days give them valuable time to collaborate on improving student learning.
Scott Eggerding said when he first started teaching 25 years ago, professional development was left up to the teacher to choose. The school district offered a menu of workshops, such as how to write tests better or how to improve discipline.
“The district even brought in people to help us relax and de-stress,” said Eggerding, now director of curriculum and instruction at Lyons Township High School. “It was more scatter shot and did not always result in improved instruction.”
But staff development has become “laser-focused,” he said, on how to measure and improve student learning.
On late start Wednesdays at LT, all the teachers of a particular area, such as biology or geometry, meet as a team between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. The students’ day starts at 8:45 a.m., instead of 7:45 a.m.
The faculty has been developing tests that are administered at the beginning, middle and end of a subject or a unit, to measure student growth, and not just whether students can answer test questions correctly at the end of a unit or a course, Eggerding said.
Gathering by subject
On late start days, the teachers meet and review the assessment data from each test, to see what concepts students have mastered and where more instruction is needed.
The seven geometry teachers, for example, will get together and examine how effective their instruction was, how their lessons differed, and look for ways to teach and reteach certain concepts or skills.
“We have been doing this for about four or five years, Eggerding said.
“It’s a cycle in professional development,” Eggerding said. “We keep going back to ‘what are our outcomes, how do we measure the outcomes, what do we do when students are not learning and what do we do when students are proficient.'”
In the same class, teachers will have students who readily grasp the lesson and those who struggle to understand it. During late start days, they can discuss how to differentiate instruction so both students are engaged and learn.
Staff development time is “not just a grab of cup of coffee and chat with your co-workers,” Eggerding said.
York High School in Elmhurst Unit District 205 has 27 late start Wednesdays, when students arrive at 9:25 a.m., instead of 7:40 a.m. Class periods are shortened from 50 minutes to 38 minutes, so students are dismissed at the regular time.
Hinsdale High School District 86 schedules its late starts on Mondays, when students start at 8:50 a.m., instead of 8 a.m., so that teachers can meet between 7:30 a.m. and 8:30 a.m.
Comparing lessons
Like at LT, District 86 teachers of the same subjects meet to analyze and compare their lessons and assessment results.
“We are administering common assessments we developed last year,” said Arpan Chokshi, a social studies teacher at Hinsdale Central High School. “We want the assessments to be very tailored to the curriculum we are teaching and aligned with national standards.”
At a recent meeting of the world cultures team, about six teachers looked at student essays and discussed how they can teach students to use arguments more effectively in their writing, Chokshi said. Other times, the teachers have examined how they can teach students to write better thesis statements, or how to better support their thesis with relevant evidence.
Teachers will look for patterns in the way students write their responses to an essay question. If students in some classes have better-organized essays, the staff can compare their instructional approaches to see if the teacher of those classes might have a more effective way to explain organizing ideas.
“We share the different lessons we are using and share best practices,” Chokshi said.
Chokshi said, it’s his opinion that “any time we have time to collaborate with other teachers, it is very useful and having more frequent time is helpful, so we can make decisions quicker.”
At the start of each year, District 86 administrators ask each instructional team to create a plan for how it will spend the hour allocated for collaboration on 18 of the late-start Mondays. The five remaining late-start Mondays are dedicated to social and emotional learning goals, and school-wide meetings on subjects, such as literacy coaching, student involvement, the 1:1 Chromebook to student initiative, or technology issues at the schools.
Other days
In addition to the late start days, area school districts also have institute days and early dismissal days that provide larger blocks of time for training or districtwide programs.
LTHS uses institute days to bring teachers from its two campuses together, so that, for example, teachers of freshmen and sophomore English classes at the south campus in Western Springs and junior and senior English teachers from the north campus in La Grange, can collaborate.
Teachers also receive training on technology, such as Canvas, software LT has for teachers to create an online version of their class.
District 86 has two-early dismissal days and four institute days. The institute days are used to explain legislative changes, such as Senate Bill 100 that addresses in and out-of-school suspensions; employee-related matters, such as retirement savings plan options; or implementing the district’s 1:1 Chromebook to student initiative. March 3 will be a countywide institute day when teachers from different school districts can come together to share ideas and information.
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