Ferryway 2.0

Charlestown, MA 12-13-06

1. Can we get copies of the master schedules?

• See attached
• “Keep it simple”
• 4 80-minute classes
• They kept their existing school day in place…”don’t change what is working” and just added on 3 additional hours
• Pledge: “Not to un-do anything that is working”
• First hour is “Math League” everyday
• Next two hours are “Electives” which alternate every day; students choose two new electives at mid-year
• 6th grade is different. – All run by Citizen’s Schools from 1:30-4:30
• Guiding principles: Maintain and build on existing strengths of the school, address areas of weakness

2. How did the schedule change? Lunches/snack?

• Snack during 2 hour elective block…good to break up this long period
• Snack comes out of budget

3. Are start and end times the same for all (students and teachers)?

• School day for all students 7:00-4:30
• Fridays are early release 11:20 for students; 12:00 for staff
• Staff chooses end time
• Staff can work regular day 7:00-1:30, the regular day plus “Math League”, or the regular day plus “Math League” and Electives

4. How are extra minutes spent? Enrichment?

“Math League” 1:30-2:30

• For grades 7 and 8 (6th grade is entirely run by Citizen Schools)
• Students are placed on a team and practice math skills Monday-Wednesday
• 30 teams…not all “coaches” are math teachers…got people talking about how math was taught across disciplines
• Every student has a buddy
• Thursdays are the “Game Days” and teams compete against each other
• Very much a part of their school culture…the kids are really into it!
• All coordinated by the Math Chair for the school…unbelievable amount of organization…we were all very impressed
• Math chair makes packets for “coaches” every week
• All based around sports
• Week’s winners are posted on elaborate display board in hallway
• They are on the DOE’s “Restructuring” list for math, and now they have added 4 hours of math a week for every student

Enrichment 2:30-4:30

• Choose two, and meet every other day
• Choose two new electives at the mid-year
• Examples: step, drama, cooking, tennis, swimming (see handout)
• Transportation provided to alternative locations (high school for pool, Y for courts, etc.)
• Important to have choice built in for students
• Two hours is a long class, but Mr. Sabin did not want a transition at the end of the day…transitions hard for their students…trouble

5. How attentive are the students during the last hour?

• Advice: enrichment needs to be at the end of the day
• Kids are tired, but last two hours is a fun activity that they chose to take part in

6. Are all the staff involved in extended day?

• NO – no one being forced to do extended day
• Buy-in not a problem with this model
• But, they experienced difficulty finding qualified staff to take over from 2:30-4:30 (most staff elected to stay for Math League)
• Advice: Mandate a small increase in time and then bring in coverage for the last hour or so
• Need to get cynics on board from the start
• There is a feeling that exists within the school that there are 2 parts of the day…7-1:30 day and then the 1:30-4:30 with a very different staff…both a good and a bad thing

7. Are students kept after school? Or, are there other discipline policies in place?

• Friday is detention day, but there could be up to 60 kids
• “Definitely a problem” for us
• Thinking about doing a lunch table

8. How is extended day impacting students with disabilities?

• Math Team is helpful to reinforce skills
• For some students, only choose one elective and the other elective is student support
• same with ELL students…one elective chosen and the other is ELL
• This means that Special Ed and ELL students are getting 4 hours of extra help a week
• Has been harder for IM students…long day

9. Did you add staff? Who? How were they funded?

• Needed to add tons of staff to cover 2:30-4:30 shift
• Finding the staff was very difficult
• Paras, subs, teachers, community members, YMCA, interns
• EF sends tutors to school
• But, no training for elective staff…some being “eaten alive” and others doing a great job

10. Which groups were involved in the planning of the extended day activities?

• Team just like we have

11. What has attendance looked like for teachers/students?

• Good teacher attendance…don’t want to put burden on their colleagues if they are not there to run a math group or an elective
• Some staff even come back to school from off-site PD to run their electives
• Student attendance is the same (poor!)

12. What are the benefits of extended day?

• So much work, but “fantastic” for the kids
• For some teachers it may not be the best, but it is right for the kids
• Getting kids off streets…major gang issues in past

13. What are the drawbacks of extended day?

• Students tired at end of the day
• Exhausting for teachers and administrators
• Increase in discipline issues at end of the day (partly due to inexperienced staff)

14. Will you apply for the grant next year?

• Yes

15. What are your expected results?

• In terms of MCAS, hoping to see math scores improve with 4 additional hours of math per week

16. How are you meeting these results?

• Do not have any assessment pieces in place at this time

17. How did class time for specials/exploratories change?

• Did not really discuss

18. Does everyone have the same amount of preparation time?

• Varying amounts of prep time…did not get into detail

19. Is common planning time worked into the schedule?

• Did not go into detail

20. Is there time during the school day for homework assistance?

• Math homework always completed during “Math League”
• All other homework done at home
• Teachers reporting that math HW always done, but low completion on other area

21. Do you give homework outside of school?

• See #20

22. Did you have to negotiate with any labor unions?

• All done through unions/BPS

23. How are release days handled?

• Every Friday
• Only time they can hold staff meetings since everyone is still there…every other day, teachers leave at different times

24. What kinds of professional development activities have you been doing? How is it scheduled in? Do they use outside resources or internal resources?

• Wish that they could schedule PD for elective teachers, but not a lot of time
• Administrators have been trying to observe and model lessons for some of the staff who are struggling

25. Any advice? What would you do differently?

• Never realized how much work for an administrator
• 1:30-4:30 busiest part of the day
• Tired, not responding to staff as quickly
• Discipline is an issue in the afternoon…not as qualified staff from 1:30-4:30
• Can’t start daily admin tasks until 5:00
• Advice is to stagger administrators
• “We were naïve about this…we thought of it more as an extension of our after school program not of our school day, but we were wrong”
• (I’ve also added in some of his advice under the appropriate questions)

26. How did you choose your partner programs, and what have been the benefits and the disadvantages in working with them?

• Citizens Schools for the 6th grade (this was in place before the grant, I think)
• Bringing in lots of people from the community
• But, some people are under-qualified to teach a 2-hour class at the end of a long day with middle school students!

27. Student Feedback

• We had the chance to talk to a lot of students, and all but one said that they liked extended day better
• “It’s more fun”
• Many mentioned that they enjoyed “Math League”
• Many are really interested in their electives
• We even got a performance for the step group…they were great!!!

Compiled by Jenna Wasson