Education Issues:
Expanded Learning Time Planning Grants
I wanted to let you know about a new state initiative to enable districts and teachers to work together to redesign their schedules in order to better reach student, school and district educational goals.
With the creation of the Expanded Learning Time Planning Grant program (FY06 Budget, Line Item 7061-9408), the legislature has committed $500,000 for planning and affirmed that additional learning time will play a crucial role in future school improvement efforts, particularly the goal of helping all students reach proficiency.
In order to assist in the complex planning required to change the school calendar, planning grants of at least $25,000 will be available to districts this fall. These grants will allow districts to work with collective bargaining units, teachers, administrators, school committees, community members, and external partners to plan how they would significantly expand learning time for a limited number of schools beginning in school year 2006-2007. Importantly, this program allows district-wide discretion on how schools restructure the time including:
(1) the creative use of extra time (e.g. longer class periods, adding enrichment activities, tutoring and homework help); and (2) staffing (e.g. extending classroom time, increasing teacher professional development and planning time, and/or building partnerships with external institutions to offer certain programming).
Your districts will be receiving a notice of these planning grants from Commissioner Driscoll soon, and the RFP for the planning grants will be released by the DOE later this summer. In the meantime, I wanted you to be aware of the timeline as early as possible. Applications for planning grants are due to the DOE by October 1, 2005. Get more information on the planning grants and the application process.
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