Collaborative Planning in Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT). Issue Brief

The Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT) initiative is designed to improve academic outcomes by increasing the amount of learning time for students. Schools are expected to provide opportunities to teachers for collaborative planning and professional development as well as add time to the school day or year for instructional and enrichment opportunities. This expectation is consistent with research about student learning that suggests that more time, alone, will not significantly improve students' achievement; rather, research indicates that improved academic performance reflects student engagement in high quality learning activities. Regardless of whether schools have expanded schedules, providing teachers with structured opportunities to work together, align activities, and coordinate instructional decisions has emerged as an important strategy for improving instruction and further developing professional learning communities within schools. Schools considering whether to allocate or increase time for structured teacher collaborative planning will need to consider such decisions as where to place CPT in the school schedule, which groups of teachers should share planning time, and how the time should be used. This brief focuses on key themes identified by schools about the implementation of CPT, based on a comprehensive evaluation of the Massachusetts ELT initiative. The brief draws primarily from surveys of teachers as well as interviews with principals in 17 ELT and 19 matched comparison schools that participated in the ELT evaluation during the 2010-2011 school year. The study found that the majority of teachers had weekly (or more frequent) opportunities for collaborative planning time. During these collaborative planning meetings, teachers reported that they had engaged in a wide range of activities, and the majority of participants described the activities as useful.