School Background

• Downtown Worcester
• Magnet school
• PreK-6; 500 students
• Large population of ELL students…almost exclusively Spanish-speaking
• 66% free or reduced lunch
• Had extended day in the past, but lost it due to budget cuts
• Extended day was a big draw for parents…had students coming from all over the city
• School continues to have an excellent reputation, so they did not lose students when they had to go back to the regular school day
•Jumped at the chance to apply for the grant…now school day goes until 3:50 (their old extended day went just a hour later than the rest of the city 8-2:50)

1. Can we get copies of the schedule?

• Yes
• Will be included in the binder

2. How did the schedule change? Lunches? Snacks?

• Lunches are now 45 minutes
• Morning and afternoon snack
• Snack is not provided by the school, and this isn’t a problem. Teachers send notes home to parents if they aren’t supplying a sufficient snack

3. Start and end times the same for students and teachers?

• Old school day = 8:00-2:00
• New school day = 7:50 –3:40
• All teachers start at the same time
• All teachers work the extra 7^th hour for a flat $5,000 stipend
• 8^th hour is optional for teachers
  • Increased staff buy-in
  • Paid at the contractual after-school rate ($30/hr)
  • Excellent response from teachers
  • Challenge = difficult at dismissal time because working with a skeleton staff…would like to try and restructure this for next year
  • Advice…you don’t want minimal staff during the last hour of the day

4. How are the extra minutes spent? Other programs, advisory, clubs, enrichment?

• Now a two-hour literacy block every day from 8-10 am with the first hour being whole group, second hour is small group
• Two teachers in the room all the time…teachers love this!
• Expanded math block
• Instrument lessons for grades 4, 5, and 6
• Cultural Partnerships all coordinated by Extended Day Coordinator
• 6 week modules, between modules are whole school activities
• One partner works with one grade level at a time
• Bring in professionals from Worcester Art Museum, Worcester
  Center for Crafts, Worcester Arts and Humanities, WPI, YMCA, Sturbridge Village, Clark University
• At the end of each module is a “museum” where the students showcase what they have learned
• All activities are embedded into curriculum…asked teachers who they would like to work with to strengthen their content
  • Example = English teachers saying they want to work with poets and storytellers, so a partnership was formed with local poets
  • Teachers are in the room too so that they can tie into their content
  • Art museum and others already had existing lessons that tied into the curriculum
  • Advice: need to go to prospective partners and tell them what you need…you want it to be directly related to frameworks…you want it to support your content
  • Some schools have their enrichment stand alone, Jacob Hiatt has all of their enrichment directly embedded
• Partnerships are done by grade level
• Electives during the 8^th hour are chorus, cooking, newspaper, strategies with board games, drama, Spanish

5. How attentive are students during the last hour?

• All activities are hands on, so the students do well during the last hour

6. Are all of the staff involved in extended day?

• All staff must work the 7^th hour
• 8^th hour is optional

7. Are students kept after school?

• Discipline is not really an issue at this school

8. How is extended day impacting students with disabilities?

• More time for differentiated instruction

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

• All funded through the grant…90% of grant money went to salaries
• Hired Extended Day Facilitator position…”essential”
• Added one 5^th grade teacher to keep class size down
• Added one pre-school teacher to keep numbers down
• Community/cultural partners (listed above)
• They are a lab school for Clark University, so they have lots of additional help from student teachers, also have 7 full time “Master teachers” who are in the Master’s program

10. Which groups were involved in the planning for Extended Day?

• Only had a committee of about 7 people…said that we should try to involve as many people as we can
• Full time Extended Day Coordinator

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

• Always been very good for both and hasn’t changed since ED
• High level of commitment among staff…rarely miss a day

   

12. What are the benefits of extended day?

• Cultural piece
• More time for literacy block
• Extended math block
• More time to extend the curriculum into using the cultural arts

13. What are the drawbacks?

• Change is always hard
• Tiring, but worth it

14. Will you apply for the grant next year?

• Yes

15. What are your expected results?

• Expect to see an increase in test scores

16. How are you measuring those results?

• Expect to see an increase in test scores

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

• Every class has art once a week
• Exploratory teachers come in at 9:35 and stay to end of day…not paid more because working the same day as last year just with a later start time
• Not sure what else changed

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

• Yes, the school is K – 6 and teachers get 30 – 40 minutes of prep time once a week. They try to squeeze in time during recess, etc.

19. Is common planning time worked into the schedule?

• Common time is an issue, teachers get 1, 30-40 minute block per week
• At first, they thought that they could have common time during the cultural time, but then realized the importance of having the teacher in the room during this time. This helps ensure there are no discipline issues, and the teachers don’t want to miss the cultural piece…because they want to see it so they can’t maintain the connection to the content area

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

• During the “eighth hour” session there is time for tutoring and additional learning time.

21. Do you give homework outside of school?

• Yes

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

• Negotiations were not bad because they only had one dissenting vote

23. How are early release days handled?

• They do not have early release days

24. What kinds of professional development activities have you been doing? How is it scheduled? Outside resources or from within?

2 extra PD days a year just for ED teachers

• ED teachers were paid a per diem from the grant money to go back two days before the rest of the faculty.
• Data driven assessment is big focus
• “Rounds”
  • Based on medical rounds
  • Chance to get feedback from peers on an issue you might be having
  • Pre-round = meet with group and tell them what you want to work on
  • Group observes your class
  • Post-round = feedback
  • Most teachers take advantage of this…also used with Clark students to show them a specific strategy

25. Any additional advice/comments?

• Whole staff should be involved in planning
• Initially there will be a lot of complaining the first year, but it gets better
• Extended Day Coordinator position is key
• Teachers need to be flexible working with partners
• Will constantly be a work in progress
• Don’t get swayed when you go to meetings with other schools who are applying…stick with your own ideas…needs to be tailored to your own school
• Year 1 is always hard, but they feel that they have a “culture of risk-taking” so it has been positive
• Last year’s grant was for a 30% increase in time – since the same money is being offered for a 25% increase in time this year, they might change to 25% next year. If the state increases the budget for the extra 5%, they will remain at 30%.
• Be careful when calculating % of added time…don’t forget about our early release days

Compiled by Jenna Wasson
Site Visitation Team: Marie Murray, Paul Teixeira, Jenna Wasson