An extended day means more time for learning 

A low-performing middle school in Denver implements extended-day enrichment activities — and turns the school around. 

 

In 2012, things weren’t looking good for Grant Beacon Middle School. Enrollment was declining, students weren’t reaching required academic levels, and the Denver Public Schools district said the school was “on watch.” In short, we were facing possible closure. We had to figure out how to meet the needs of all the students who walked through our doors, and we needed to do it fast.  

Our teachers, however, were working hard. More than half of our staff members would put in extra time after school to tutor kids or coach sports programs. Nevertheless, most students went home at 2:30. On a good day, only 15% of students stayed after school, and half of those were staying for detention.  

But today, things have changed. Students participate in a range of activities after school, such as rocket building, art classes, athletics, dance, advanced classes, and tutoring, and they’re excited to be at school and engaged. During our extended day, our entire student body — at their choice — participates in a variety of enrichment activities. 

It started with a plan 

Grant Beacon and its sister school, Kepner Beacon, middle schools are urban public schools in southwest Denver, Colo., and both have an extraordinarily diverse set of student needs — 85% of students are on free or reduced-price lunch, 20% receive special education services, and 50% are English language learners. Eighty percent of students are Hispanic.  

We turned Grant Beacon around by implementing an innovation plan that emphasizes expanded learning opportunities. After only a few years, Grant Beacon has moved from “on watch” to “meets expectations.” Attendance is on the rise (up 2%), and suspensions are down by 110%. We’re also seeing substantive gains in statewide measures of academic proficiency and growth, from slightly less than half of our students measuring proficient to about two-thirds of students last year. We’ve even been asked to replicate our model in another low-performing school in the district.  

The process began in 2012 with a three-year strategic plan that outlined our systems and structures and created a common language and commitment to three approaches: blended learning, character development, and extended learning. These goals were rooted in our mission and vision for our school and students.  

Five more hours to learn . . .  

At the heart of our new approach is an extended school day that adds five hours to each week. We use that time to offer enrichment programming, advanced classes, student leadership development, and academic interventions. Students’ school day is extended from 2:30 p.m. until 4 p.m. five days a week, with enrichment offered during the final hour Monday through Thursday. On Friday, teachers start work at 8 a.m., but students don’t arrive until 10 a.m.  

Enrichment for all students was a big driver for extending our day. In predominantly low-income schools like Grant Beacon and Kepner Beacon, students aren’t often exposed to enrichment activities that their more affluent peers typically engage in. We also know that when kids are involved in such activities as clubs, after-school programs, music, and sports, they’re more likely to do well in high school and go on to college (NCES, 1995). Before, only 10% of our students were taking part in such activities; now it’s 100%.  

Students are thrilled as they line up for enrichment classes such as hip-hop dance, tai-chi, cooking, advanced writing, and leadership development. The experiences are giving kids an incentive to come to school. Students are focused, they’re finding new passions, and they don’t want to miss a minute of it. In addition, many students are requesting to stay even longer after school because they don’t have a quiet environment at home or access to the technology they need to complete some homework. Notes Michelle Saab, the founding extended learning coordinator and now principal at Grant Beacon, “Our extended day has a powerful impact on closing the opportunity gap.” 

And five more hours to teach 

All staff, including teachers, deans, mental health supporters, and paraprofessionals share responsibility for facilitating learning during our extended day; it’s become an integral part of what we do and how we operate.   

Teachers submit high-quality lesson plans and are supported with resources to ensure excellent programming and sustainability. Interventions should have pre- and post-tests and include small-group instruction. We encourage teachers to include a project or task for students to complete during each nine-week course. 

An extended day gives teachers the opportunity to teach their personal passions or hobbies, as well as small-group academic interventions for struggling or advanced learners. For example, science teacher Jeff Kurtz is passionate about science and uses the extended time to create hands-on projects, such as creating solar houses, building bridges or designing roller coasters, with students. Kurtz also teaches his other passion, floor hockey, which allows him to develop a different relationship with students.  

Students are focused, they’re finding new passions, and they don’t want to miss a minute of it. 

The extended-day model also has given teachers more time to meet with their grade-level, department, and data teams, thanks to more than 20 community partners who teach many of our enrichment classes. For example, one of our parents is a pilot who wanted to teach a class on aerospace engineering. As part of this class, she recently took students to the airport for a behind-the-scenes meeting with pilots and mechanics. Another community person, Alton Coward, who has been a DJ for school dances, teaches a class where students learn how to mix and record their own music.  

Teachers can also now devote more time to students who struggle and can spend one-on-one time providing interventions that are having a noticeable effect. For example, one boy who has a lot of difficulty settling down in class signed up for choir, which was being taught by one of our community providers. We learned that he has an incredible voice and has been eager to participate in this enrichment activity. Other students choose to use this time for study halls because they don’t have quiet spaces at home to study. They leave school with a real sense of accomplishment.   

The model is further supported by our personalized learning approach that uses technology to create learning environments with more individual and small-group activities. All of students are assigned a Google Chromebook so they’re able to access academic supports, such as Khan Academy or Accelerated Math, if that meets their need. We also have a system of online interim assessments that teachers can use to measure real-time feedback on a student’s progress.  

Challenges along the way 

Every new program runs into some implementation issues. 

Buy in. 

Teachers had to buy in to the program so I asked the staff to vote on this plan. Fortunately, 96% of the staff voted in favor of the extended time. Their primary concern was being compensated for the additional time. Teachers earn $4,000 a year when they teach a content course. Teachers also have extra time for collaboration for data teams, grade levels, and department time. 

District support. 

A change like extended day involves a lot of details that go beyond instruction. For example, changing the bell schedule meant modifying the bus schedule. Because the union agreement with bus drivers did not allow for the late-start Friday, the school must pay extra for that. In addition, the community providers who teach some of those courses are independent contractors who are paid by the district. The school handles the background checks during the application process, but the district writes the checks to pay them. However, they can’t be paid until the district places them on an approved vendor list, a process that often takes more than 30 days, which is a difficulty for some of those providers. We’d like to have our own accounting system at the school so we can make payments sooner than that. 

Maintaining quality. 

As we were trying to get the enrichment classes off the ground, we had some programs that were more sit-and-get. Those did not last. During our planning, we believed we could tap into the district’s after-school programs, but many of those program managers declined to participate because of the wording difference of “after-school” and “extended day.” We’ve made some headway but still struggle with some providers. 

Key elements of success 

We’re often asked what elements are important in successfully implementing and sustaining our extended-day programming. Here are some we’ve found to be crucial. 

Start with a vision.

Having a common vision and purpose is essential in creating a successful program. Our extended learning committee created the following vision, which we use as an anchor for our programming: 

The Expanded Learning Opportunities (ELO) at Beacon Network Middle School provides enrichment opportunities for students to build their critical thinking and 21st-century skills. In collaboration with community partners, parents, teachers, and students, Grant Beacon Middle School and Kepner Beacon Middle School offer diverse enrichment programming, which lets students explore interests and professions that they may otherwise not be exposed to. These opportunities contribute to our mission of developing students academically, personally, and professionally. The enrichment time allows our educators to create an individualized learning environment for students, as their enrichment schedule will reflect the academic or social needs of the student. Our expanded learning model will continue to encourage and support creative learning environments for our students and educators, while fostering an enrichment program that empowers our students academically and personally. (Note: Beacon Network Middle School is the name for the network of schools that includes Grant Beacon and Kepner Beacon.) 

This vision is integral to all we do. 

Choose the right partners. 

Interested community partners must submit a detailed request for proposal (RFP). This RFP allows community providers to share with us their personal mission and vision for programming, thoughtful lesson plans, and some of the logistics of programming, including cost, funding, and shared responsibility. We look for partners whose mission and vision mirror our own, who embrace our school culture and character traits, who are passionate about their offerings, and who represent the diversity of our school community.  

Onboarding is particularly important when choosing community partners. We’ve even created a partner handbook going over all expectations, rules, and school culture, and we’re careful to review this material during our orientations. Our community partners have become an integral part of our school community; some of them have partnered with us for four school years. Students know them, and they serve as role models in our community, with its diverse interests and backgrounds. 

Our community partners have become an integral part of our school community. 

Include student voice. 

Students and student voice have been crucially important in developing our extended-day programming. Students choose their offerings four times a year from a course catalog of more than 50 different classes in the categories of athletics, arts, leadership, and STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics). Students also rate their classes, give feedback on instructors, and tell us what they’re interested in so we can continue to provide offerings that are engaging to our curious and creative student body. Course offerings and the quality of offerings have continued to grow and change on the basis of student ratings and our own observations about whether students are engaged in the courses. 

Hire a full-time coordinator.

Originally, the extended learning coordinator position was shared among several staff members, but because of the success of the program, we raised funds to secure a full-time coordinator. Our extended learning coordinator handles onboarding partners and communicating with, scheduling, monitoring, and training providers.  

Offer high-quality programming. 

Our extended learning program not only depends on committed teachers and staff who are focused and dedicated to the program’s success but also on high-quality offerings. With funding from the Rose Foundation, we are able to visit classrooms and evaluate them using a rubric we created to measure quality. We’re looking for student engagement, excitement, critical thinking, and joy during enrichment classes.  

But, because we believe that the extended learning program translates into academic gains, we also look at schoolwide measures. For example, attendance has improved from 89% to 93.5%, and out-of-school suspensions have dropped from 187 in 2010 to just 27 during 2015. And enrollment, which had been declining, has turned the corner: In 2015, we enrolled 470 students, up from 359 in 2010. 

As educators, we need to do all we can to help level the playing field to actively engage students who have challenges beyond their control. Extending the school day is about creating opportunities so students can overcome the challenges.  

Reference 

National Center for Education Statistics. (1995, June). Extracurricular participation and student engagement. Washington, DC: Author. http://bit.ly/NCESextracurricular 

 

Citation: Magaña, A., Sabb, M. & Svoboda, V. (2016). More time for learning.  Phi Delta Kappan, 98 (4), 26-30.