How many instuctional days do you have with your students? I know that we cannot reasonably compare those across our assorted disciplines and levels of teaching by using numbers of days. Let's think about this as a percentage of the time you have with your students. For example, my school calendar calls for 180 days of school. They are called "instructional days," and they are an important facet of the way our teaching contracts are designed. I must demonstrate 200 total days of employment, of which 180 are deemed instructional. The other days are made up of things like parent-teacher conferences, inservices, staff development days, and the seven national holidays we get off during the academic year.
180 instructional days would be plenty of time to teach middle school students my subject (math) if I actually got to use anything approaching that as teaching time.
The percentage of time teachers have in my system for actually teaching students in reality is about...
70- 75 percent.
15% of the school year is spent in NCLB testing and the remaining time is random assemblies, programs, etc.- not all terrible stuff, but put all together they really chip away at instructional time.
Here's a rough breakdown of where all the teaching days go (I've gone with the smallest estimate of lost time for each of the following items-many of you will be able to attest to other kinds of lost teaching/learning time as well.)...
Start with the last day before any scheduled break-- A large percentage of our students are absent from school because they have already left for their break destination. Can't really expect to teach with 20+ percent of your students not in the room-- plus the ones who are there are just bursting at the seams for the day to end (I teach 11-12 year olds.) I would not dream of teaching a new concept near a break-- so we review. Not wasted time at all, but a subtraction from instruction nonetheless.
180-5= 175 days
Next comes dealing with "snow days". In some school systems, this is a non-issue, I am sure, but where I live we average 8 to 10 snow days. Particularly when the missed days are bunched together this causes some bumps in instruction-- with these gaps comes some need to review some concepts before going on. Parts of the winter really consist of teaching in hiccups.
175-5= 170 days
I live and teach in Virginia where our "No Child Left Behind" accountability takes the form of SOL testing (and, no, the irony isn't lost on me)- the SOL stands for Standards of Learning. The standards themselves are not bad- a little unevenly distributed between grade levels, perhaps, but a good framework on which to build instruction. It's the testing regime that goes with these SOLs that many teachers and parents take issue with.
Many systems (including mine) have a "getting ready for the BIG test" testing program-- benchmarks. My county has benchmark testing every nine weeks-- 4 testing periods total. About four days are used each time to test core subjects. Not every testing day affects my classes, but for a few days before my math benchmark, I am supposed to review that nine-week's material. Again, NOT a bad thing- review and remediation time is good (I build a 45 minute review time every week- with math I don't think you can "save it up" for a nine-week review session)- just another hiccup in instructional continuity.
170-12= 158 days
Now we come to actual Standards of Learning Testing. In my specific school, there is a three to four week window of testing that takes place in May. During these weeks, we can still be teaching new concepts, but it is not really a good idea, because the students are getting also getting spring fever and end of school-itis to boot. So, we review with the limited class time we have, because classes are all re-arranged to allow for testing periods and proctoring schedules. Sometimes my students will not see me for the two days just before they take their math SOL.
158-15= 143 days
Now we come to one of the more intereting parts of being a public school educator in the era of high-stakes testing. The testing window ends near the end of May or beginning of June for us. We are still in school until mid-June most years because of snow days that must be made up. So we have this period of time that I use to build a bridge to the next year's math concepts and to do some fun stuff with my subject that "isn't in the test," but is important to know. But for many of my students, the school year is over. Since they were tiny, it has been made clear to them that it is all about "THE TEST"- so now that the tests are finished, so are they. Count in any school trips and award assemblies, and many of these days are lost for even "fun" instruction.
143-5= 138 days
I don't mean to come off as whiny (hopefully I am not), but I am expected to teach a pretty abstract set of concepts to students who are just arriving at the ability to work abstractly. All while they are adjusting to a new school and the onset of puberty. Throw me a bone! Can we structure the calendar to reduce the interruptions? Can we have less testing time and more INSTRUCTIONAL time? Keep benchmarks in place if you must- can they be one day things instead of week long? Give me a little more time to go into things in depth. I really bet that scores will be comparable, if not better.
This is my experience as a public school teacher... I wonder if this is affecting higher education at this point. I will be interested in your thoughts.