REPORT OF THE JOINT WORKGROUP ON ELEMENTARY PLANNING

6/1/2013

Meeting Teacher Planning Needs for Curriculum 2.0

Recommendations to the MCEA and MCPS Bargaining Teams for discussion and inclusion in contract negotiations.

Report of the Joint Workgroup on Elementary Planning

M E E T I N G T E AC H E R P L A N N I N G N E E D S F O R C U R R I C U L U M 2.0

CHARGE
To study and develop op ons to increase planning me for classroom teachers within the student day in elementary schools to support implementa on of Curriculum 2.0 and the Common Core Standards for presenta on to the District and MCEA nego a on teams.

DELIVERABLES
Survey of current practices in MCPS schools Survey of comparative data from other school districts Assessment of program and staff needs Analysis of budget implications Assessment of the structure of the student instructional day; including but not limited to the number, duration and frequency of specials defined as periods of instruction provided by educators other than the classroom teacher. Statement of budget neutral and nonbudget neutral options

SCOPE
Limited to planning time configurations Work group will gather data and conduct analysis and report findings to the negotiations teams. The work group will not make final decisions.

Report of the Joint Workgroup on Elementary Planning

OVERVIEW

The Joint Work Group convened in November of 2012. Members of the Joint Work Group convened eight mes during the 20122013 school year1, with numerous addi onal mee ngs of sub groups and facilitators. The Joint Work Group developed a set of shared interests to guide their work. The priority interests were in: High quality instruc onal programs in all areas Ensuring schedules meet student and teacher needs Mee ng the needs of the whole student Addi onal shared interests included: Balance between work and home Student needs being at the center of decisionmaking Growing professionally and being eec ve educators Balance between individual and collabora ve planning me

The Joint Work Group:

reviewed current staffing allocation formulas and contract provisions collected and reviewed master schedules from numerous MCPS elementary schools surveyed and analyzed current practices in MCPS elementary schools (seeAppendixA) gathered data from neighboring school districts (seeAppendixB) developed and prioritized options for increasing planning time within the student day

1 Meetings were held on November 8, November 28, December 18, January 9, January 31, February 28, May 15 and May 30.

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Report of the Joint Workgroup on Elementary Planning

S U RV E Y DATA
Survey responses were received from 58 MCPS elementary schools. The following data on total planning time within the student day in Grade 3 is illustrative of the data. The totals ranged from 260 minutes per week (4.3 hours) to 365 minutes per week (6.1 hours) for Grade 3 teams. These totals include 150 minutes per normal week available during recess. However that planning time is frequently unavailable on days when inclement weather necessitates indoor recess. The schools with schedules providing the most planning time within the student day were: Cannnon Road, Clarksburg, Cold Spring, Glen Haven, Georgian Forest, Kemp Mill, Lakewood, Maryvale, Wayside, Wheaton Woods and Woodeld. These schools u lized several strategies for increasing planning me, including: longer instruc onal blocks for art, music and physical educa on use of media as a special use of a STEM period as a special use of counseling as a special use of a computer lab as a special use of a rota ng enrichment block (including Junior Great Books)

The top third of responding schools (20) had schedules that provided an average of 338 minutes per week (5.6 hours) of planning me within the student day. Other crea ve strategies reported included: Use of supplemental Title 1 or Focus School funding Use of Junior Great Books & Enrichment periods as part of rota ng specials Using an A/B schedule for enrichment support Use of Paraeducators to escort students to and from specials, provide homeroom coverage and breakfast coverage Coverage during assemblies Use of IAF funds to pay for extra sub me to increase planning

Schools also reported on the use of Curriculum 2.0 substitute time to provide intermittent additional planning time within the student day. It should be noted that the data indicated that there was a high occurrence of specials teachers (art, music and physical education) having either a lot more planning time than grade level teachers or a lot less than grade level teachers. The reasons were not apparent but the Work Group indicated that it would be useful to examine the causes of the deviation.

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Report of the Joint Workgroup on Elementary Planning

It should also be noted that there were significant variations within schools between grade level teams due to use of shorter instructional units in art, music and physical education in early childhood grades.

As enumerated in the current GuidelinesforElementarySchoolArt,MusicandPhysicalEducation Schedules, the following are the recommended range of minutes of instruction per week:

Subject

PreK & HS
(1/2day)

Head Start
(allday)

Kindergarten

Grades 1 2

Grades 3 4

Grades 5 6

Art Music Physical Education

25 20 20

25 30 20 25 20 25

35 45 35 40 35 40

40 50 35 45 35 45

45 55 35 45 35 45

50 60 45 50 45 50

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Report of the Joint Workgroup on Elementary Planning

OPTIONS
Based on all of its work, Joint Work Group members developed the following list of options. They are listed in priority order, based on an energy vote activity whereby the participants ranked their top preferences. The number in parentheses indicates the results of the energy vote. a. (9) Sta for a STEM or other new, fully staed special b. (8) Extend on site teacher day c. (6) Prof Development days so dont need subs d. (5) Increase length of student day
Longer specials me Longer recess Possible oset by a weekly or monthly early release day

e. (5) Increase subs tute me for professional development f. g. i. j. l. (3) Increase alloca ons for Media Specialists to allow for xed schedules in addi on to exis ng MS responsibili es (3) Switch to day 15 schedule instead of MF (2) Enrichment rota ons (ex. jr. great books) (2) Make early release days into real days (1) Make specials an hour (other districts do it)

h. (3) Allocate chorus as part of music program

k. (2) Alternate sta mee ngs + planning m. (1) Using Paraeducators more strategically +increasing alloca ons to support n. (1) RePurpose Teleworking Days o. (1) Baseline alloca ons equitable across county p. More structured use of the 16hrs. of exible prof. me q. Use larger group ac vi es for mul ple classrooms
Assemblies For ac vi es

r. t. u.

Increase alloca ons of counselors to allow for regular direct instruc onal units Bonus specials for those who lose one a lot on Mondays Add work days to calendar conference day for ex.

s. Cut sta mee ngs

v. Extended planning blocks by having Paraeducators doing transi ons between backtoback specials w. Create day blocks of me (so teams can work together)

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Report of the Joint Workgroup on Elementary Planning

Joint Work Group Team Members

Linda Adams Lisa Adkins Elliot Alter Nancy Averill Stephanie Brant Ellen Crandall Stan Damas* Vicky Embrey Audra Fladung Ryan Forkert SupervisorofFineArts Firstgradeteacher Principal Counselor Principal Artteacher DirectorofAssociationRelations Generalmusicteacher Principal Principal MCPS Lakewood ES Beall ES Wayside ES Gaithersburg ES Cold Spring ES MCPS Jackson Road ES Stonegate ES Luxmanor ES Daly ES Wayside ES Burning Tree ES Little Bennett ES Kensington Parkwood ES Harmony Hills ES Wyngate ES Somerset ES MCEA

Georgene Fountain Generalmusicteacher YongMi Kim Mary Kunst Beth Mckay Candice Marshall Lauren Moskowitz Sarah Neubold Amy Shapiro Mary Pat Spon* Principal Fourthgradeteacher Mediaspecialist Firstgradeteacher PreKteacher Artteacher Firstgradeteacher UniServDirector Consultants Nicky Diamond Tom Israel * cochairs

ExecutiveAssistanttotheChiefOperatingOfficer MCPS ExecutiveDirector MCEA

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Report of the Joint Workgroup on Elementary Planning

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Appendix A Survey of MCPS Elementary Schools

WORKSHEET
School: ______________________________

Planning Time within the Student Day for C2.0

Please briefly answer the following questions: 1. Do you provide additional planning on other than a weekly basis? ___Yes ___No ___bi-weekly? ----monthly? ____quarterly? 2. If you provide additional planning time on a less than weekly basis, how do you do it? _____________________________________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________________________ 3. How are you creating time to bring groups together? ____Immediately before student day time? ____Adjacent to lunch/recess? ____ Immediately after student day time? ____Adjacent to other specials? 4. What creative ideas do you have for maximizing planning time for C2.0? ____________________________________________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Please provide information based on a fulltime, 1.0 allocation. Column A should equal the total of columns B G.

A In a normal week:
We need total weekly minutes inside the student day

E
Recess in this case represents 30 minutes in addition to the 30 minutes of duty-free lunch.

Total planning time within the student day

Minutes of instructional time per week

Other: Identify other weekly sources of planning time like Media, Science, Computer, etc. If you have more than 2 types, please indicate in the margin

Art
__ K 1 2 3 4 5 Art Music PE

Music

Physical Education

Recess

For Art, Music, and PE, simply state the usual weekly planning time within the student day.

PLEASE return to Stan Damas, Association Relations, CESC, Room 263 no later than May 6. 2012

Appendix B Data from Neighboring School Districts on Use of Specialists

WEEKLY INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (minutes)

School District

Art

Music

Physical Educa on

Media

Technology

Other

Total planning me per week inside the student day due to scheduling of instruc onal units by specialists 180 210 300

Fairfax Howard Anne Arundel Bal more County

60 60 60 50

60 60 60 50

60 90 60 50

60

60 2addi onal50 minuteblocks (varies)

250

Allegheny Charles

45 50

45 50

45 50

Grades12:30 Grades35:50 Health:45 Science:3060 1specialperday; 4specials rota ngona5 daycycle

135 Grades12:210295 Grades35:230315 250

Harford

50

50

50

50