AWSP Blog

Kimberley Astle, Associate Director of Elementary Science at OSPI, is currently collecting examples of elementary (K-5) instructional schedules at the classroom, school, and district level that include time allocated for science learning. The goal is to understand how teachers, schools, and districts are finding successful ways to organize instructional minutes so that elementary students are provided with the learning time they need for a quality science education.

If we truly want to put equity into action, then perhaps we should consider redefining time throughout the system. How do we define an instructional “period,” a school day, the week, a month, or heaven forbid, the entire school calendar? We love our 180-day calendar so much that we’ve allowed that alone to drive the entire system for decades (the calendar, funding, collective bargaining, etc.) and subsequently blind us to new ways of thinking and doing. It is deeply entrenched and built around the needs of the adults working in the system, not the families we are trying to serve.

During this “Stay Home, Stay Safe” period of time, we can all benefit from a little structure. At our recent spring AWSP board meeting, we discussed providing additional resources for families. Here is a resource the principals at the Washington Virtual Academy (WAVA) shared with us to help students in grades K-12 and their families create schedules to manage their time.

In an effort to provide all Bellingham School District high school students with opportunities for remediation, exploration, and acceleration within the school day, the district drastically changed the high school schedule for each comprehensive high school across the entire district. They even moved start times back based on current research. With students, teachers, and building- and district-level administrators all working together, they came up with a system they believe will provide a better experience for all their students.