Dr. Philip Griswold's article on substitute teacher availability and compensation in the Fall 2001 issue of The Journal of School Improvement caught my attention because it so clearly depicted one of the unquestioned realities of elementary and secondary education today: the absence of the teacher from the regular classroom. The statistics startled me when I read that 92% of Dr. Griswold's respondents had indicated that teachers in those schools had missed class for school improvement activities. In identifying the critical issues of this anomaly for a response, I thought again, as I frequently do, of the analogy of the glacier with respect to K-12 education practice in our region and country. The "education glacier" is of colossal size and significant "that's the way we've always done it" momentum that is very difficult to divert. The changing of the "glacier's" course is a daunting task. Nevertheless, the purpose of this article is to suggest a few changes that I hope will be worthy of the consideration of principals as they plot the course of the improvement efforts in their schools.

The Consequences of Disconnecting Teachers and Students

I think it would be fair to say that we, the K-12 educators, continue to mouth (and I hope truly believe) the words that teacher time with students in class is our "coin," our most valuable and irreplaceable resource. Likewise, we believe that it does detract from student learning and achievement when the classroom contact of students and teacher is disconnected because of school activities (many of our own creation), teacher meetings or workshops during the school day, pictures, picnics, activity trips, finger-printing, and other interruptions associated with the captive audience or the social agenda. When the teacher or student is gone, learning is diminished, and we seem to be allowing these occurrences to increase ever so insidiously! Dr. Griswold (2001) uses descriptors like "revert to a study hall" and "cover classes" (p. 36) to describe what actually happens when the teacher is absent. While we employ validly certificated substitute teachers, the end result of a day or two with a sub is often student learning that is sub par when compared with any day spent with the regular teacher. Oddly enough, the longer the regular teacher's absence, the more closely student learning approximates the original potential as the long term sub and her routine become the standard to which students adjust. But that is another thought. It is in the proliferation of the intermittent one or two day absences that learning is continually interrupted. I know from experience that it is not uncommon for some teachers, often the best educators in a school, to be absent from their classes as much as 10 to 20 days during a 180 day school year. Because they are so capable, they are asked to fill more roles and miss class more frequently. We know who suffers, don't we!?

In many states, my own included, the importance attached to school activities and sports, to which we often ascribe the potential for learning the "real world values and skills" that we find difficult to teach in the abstract of the classroom, becomes oppositional to improved school performance, when the extracurricular activities require loss of class time, both for students and teachers. Specifically, does a "handful" of daily absences accumulated for choral contests, golf tournaments, and track meets make a difference? Do the student non-participants in those activities whose teachers are absent from class suffer a loss? I certainly suggest that the answer to both questions is a resounding YES!

Why Use What Detracts from Student Learning?

With respect to school improvement, let's admit that the faculty can't take time away from students for even the best of educational reasons, including school improvement, without some affect. Neither we nor our students can replace that time by working evenings or weekends or doing extra assignments. And it can't be good educational practice (not to mention effective employment practice, in general) to schedule a bevy of early release or late start activities before or after a full, regular school day. Can it help learning to require teachers to give up their planning period regularly? And secondly, let's admit that in most places we are rather attached to the 9.5 - 10 month agrarian school year calendar. It's part of our "glacier." So, how is the school building leader, the principal, to give leadership to the improvement of her school without detracting from student learning? I think the answers reside in re-thinking a few of the issues that have the potential to provide greater satisfactions with the outcomes of the educational process for a broad swath of the participants in K-12 education.

Calendaring Options

First, let's look at school calendaring. If we were to consider a calendar that had students in classes say 14 of every 15 school days, with the 15th day scheduled as a school improvement/staff development day, students wouldn't miss as much instruction from their regular teachers. Teachers and administrators could sustain their school improvement work with a greater continuity of purpose and spend less time becoming re-oriented to the task. Families could find in the calendar numerous spaces for extended weekends, perhaps reducing the number of days that students might be absent for family events. Since some teacher workshop days are already present in the calendars of most districts, adding four or five more might likely extend a school term by no more than a week. Perhaps that time could be gained back by re-visiting the length of other school year breaks.

A second possibility is to re-structure school improvement time so that significant faculty work is scheduled for the summer. Yes, this would require the re-ordering of the notion of teaching as a profession that does take place though out the calendar year. Wouldn't school staff members perform curriculum and school improvement work with much more concentrated and effective results during a few weeks of continuous work in the summer as opposed to doing the same work added to the work of student instruction during the August - June term? Is it possible that longer teacher employment terms, combined with less frequent teacher absence and a concomitant increase in student performance, might be viewed by the public as good reasons to react favorably to increasing the salaries of educators? And isn't such salary enhancement a theme we hear trumpeted from the educator associations each time state legislators come into session or local contract negotiations begin? Furthermore, the money saved from reduced substitute costs (by not taking teachers out of the classroom on school days) might be contributed to the salary/benefits pot! What if such time re-ordering even served the purpose of keeping students and faculty members "fresher" with respect to their working relationships, thus reducing the use of leaves and absences of all kinds by both groups?

And finally, with respect to the re-structuring of time, some schools and systems continue to develop variations of the year-round school calendar. The reasons for looking at options are good ones. Gerald W. Bracey (2002) cites the work of Alexander, Entwhistle, and Olsen (2001) whose research notes differences in summer academic loss between students living in poverty and those of a higher SES. Extended school years also continue to offer families and educators significant options for use of time. In fact, faculty members could have much greater flexibility in making choices about their own professional development if the option for a non-teaching term were available. Some could conduct some of the "action research" so necessary in schools to look at the total school improvement picture beyond just standardized test scores.

The NCA Way

While we have created some excellent methods of school improvement with NCA CASI leading the way, we've yet to satisfactorily solve the time equation for our staffs and negate the effects of teacher absence on school achievement. Re-thinking the calendar may help us address those issues as well as the improving educator status and compensation potential.

References

Alexander, K., Entwhistle, D., & Olson L. (2001, Summer). A seasonal perspective. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis

Bracey, G. W. (2002, March). What students do in the summer. Phi Delta Kappan, 497-98.

Griswold, P. A. (2001). The substitute teacher; an irony of the school improvement process. Journal of School Improvement, 2(2), 33-37.