Quality Over Quantity

I prepared this information in support of House Bill 1346. HB 1346 shifts our instructional day requirement to hours. This bill creates flexibility for school districts to do some pretty innovative things. I believe that the amount of instructional time may not be as important as the quality of the instructional time.

How does North Dakota’s instructional time requirements compare to other states? 

Currently, North Dakota Century Code requires 1,050 instructional hours for high school and 962.5 instructional hours for elementary school. NDCC also includes a 175 day requirement for all school districts. The chart below compares North Dakota to our neighboring states. Rugby Public School District requires a longer school day than the state requirement. It should be mentioned that many school districts in the state of North Dakota require more instructional time than the state requirement. 

How does North Dakota’s instructional time requirements compare to international educational systems? 

The country of Finland’s educational system has long been admired internationally. Finland continually scores near the top of international educational assessments in math, reading, and science. Finland requires approximately 600 instructional hours for elementary and high school. Finland outperforms the United States with half of the amount of instructional hours. The top 36 international educational systems in the world require 800 hours on average for elementary school and approximately 700 hours for high school. The United States’ average is approximately 1080 instructional hours for both elementary and high school (Sahlberg, 2010, p. 91). 

Why do international educational systems spend less time in front of students? 

In general, lower teaching hours provide teachers more opportunities to engage in school improvement, curriculum planning, and personal professional development during their working hours. It is the belief that quality is greater than quantity in relation to time in front of kids. All professionals need time and opportunities to update, to train, to interact with other professionals, to hone their craft, to reflect on their work, to get better. Effective professional development is distributed over time and not jammed into a single day. Professionals need opportunities to: become aware of best practices, observe others modeling new or different practices, have opportunities to practice, receive feedback, reflect and interact with others. When teachers are able to meet regularly to reflect on practice, examine student work, agree on common outcomes, research best practice, observe others, share effective practices, everyone benefits. The traditional structure and length of the school day has not allowed for this type of practice. Sometimes the lumberjack must stop sawing to sharpen his blade to improve production. This is no different than the teaching profession, sometimes we need time away from teaching to improve teaching. 

Leading the world in the time we spend in front of students is not the answer, redirecting a portion of that time for personal professional development is. The world’s educational systems spend less time in front of students and use that time to improve their practice. 

Our board recently approved our instructional day waiver for our 2019-2020 school calendar. This calendar will have 10 professional development days and 36 (50 minute) late starts for teacher collaboration. HB 1346 would allow districts the flexibility to make structural changes as needed and districts would no longer have to submit a waiver.