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High school teachers urge board to rethink calendar and restore weekly collaboration time
Summary
A West High teacher presented survey results showing most staff want fewer interruptions to instructional time and restoration of consistent professional collaboration time; a teacher reported an effective instructional rate of about 4.06 days per week this year.
A West High teacher told the Madison Metropolitan School District board on April 28 that the district should reconsider calendar design and the scheduling of staff-collaboration time to protect instructional minutes and better support special-education planning.
Emily Miller, a West High teacher, said a brief survey of staff found broad concern about reduced instructional time: 87 percent of respondents said interruptions hurt student learning; 68 percent preferred that full-staff only days be limited to three to four annually; and 78 percent said restoring consistent collaboration time for teams (via an hour-late start, early release, or similar) is very or somewhat important. Miller said special-education staff especially need weekly collaboration time to coordinate supports for students with the highest needs.
A colleague calculated the district had 163 instructional days spread over 281 calendar days this year, which Miller said results in an average of about 4.06 instructional days per week. Miller said the reduced weekly instructional cadence makes it harder to prepare students for advanced coursework, including Advanced Placement classes, and asked the board to "seriously rethink our school's calendar" to preserve instructional continuity.
The board received the input and noted the topic will be relevant to instruction work group discussions about scheduling, early learning and middle-school math in the coming work sessions; no immediate policy vote occurred.
