The Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time Initiative redesigns and reinvigorates the school day. Click here to watch a video to see what the school day means for teachers, students and parents (approx. 6 min. running time).
Senator Edward M. Kennedy and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino visited the Edwards Middle School in Boston’s Charlestown neighborhood to recognize the successes of the Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time Initiative – Massachusetts’ first in the nation effort to redesign schools with substantially more time for learning. Watch a clip of Senator Kennedy's remarks here and you can read more about this event here.
Massachusetts 2020 is pleased to announce the Expanded Learning Time 2006 - 2007 Annual Report. This report documents the first year success of Massachusetts' pioneering effort to expand learning time by 300 hours in public schools. Included are the promising academic results and survey data from teachers and parents from the first year of implementation. The report was released at A New Day for Schools: The Expanded Learning Time Summit and was featured in the Boston Globe.
Read the comprehensive summary in Time for a New Day, the first annual report on the Expanded Learning Time Initiative. In addition to the Boston Globe article, read the Globe’s editorial on ELT and view a segment on New England Cable News.
Nine schools in five school districts recently joined the ELT Initiative for its second year. Now, over 9,100 students learn in Expanded Learning Time schools with more opportunities for time on academics and enrichment classes. The nine schools join the 9 pioneering ELT schools* in a total of eight districts across the Commonwealth.
*In Fall River, the NB Borden School, a pioneering ELT school in the 2006-2007 school year, merged with Osborn Street School, also an ELT school, for the 2007-2008 school year.
Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation effort to redesign and expand the school day was the subject of freelance writer Lisa Prevost’s feature article in the Boston Globe Magazine on Sunday, April 29. Read the article here.
About Us
Children today must develop proficiency in a range of skills and knowledge unimagined by previous generations if they are to fully participate in our society’s economic and civic life as adults. Yet, our nation continues to prepare our children for the challenges of the 21st century with a 19th-century approach to education. Our schools try to squeeze a full curriculum into just 180 six-hour days, leaving teachers little time to enable students to explore, experience and master material. In too many of our schools the focus on standards and tests have also meant that many of the activities that have historically engaged children in school and life (e.g. arts, music, sports) have been reduced or eliminated from the school schedule. With students only spending 20% of their waking hours in school, millions of children fritter away hours each afternoon and summer in settings that do not fully tap their potential.
Massachusetts 2020 is working to create “a new school day,” affording children the opportunity to spend more time in robust, meaningful learning environments than the conventional school day and year allow. We operate as an “action tank,” employing high-quality research to develop policies and implement effective practices in two basic project areas. First, through our Expanded Learning Time Schools initiative, we assist public schools and districts in redesigning existing schools to engage students in a well-rounded, enriching education, enabled by a schedule that provides thirty percent more time to all students. Second, through several innovative and successful initiatives across Massachusetts, we seek to expand, improve and sustain after-school and summer programs (also known as “Out-of-School Time Programs”).
