Enhancing Student Engagement and Collaboration with Flexible Friday Approach
Empowering students through Flexible Fridays to foster academic support, teacher connection, parent involvement, and college readiness. Benefits include optimized instruction time, extended work opportunities, and flexibility for student and family activities without compromising learning.
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The objective of this meeting is To gather input and answer as many questions as possible as we move forward with ideas on how to best serve our students Provide a parent/public voice To be proactive in scheduling considerations
What this meeting is not A meeting to make a decision tonight A push for a four day week
Flexible Friday WHAT IS IT?
How do you achieve the 900 hour minimum with this schedule? 138.5 student contact days @ 6.5 hours are needed to satisfy the minimum of 900 hours. With our current approved calendar removing the 33 Fridays we would be at 138 days. (Fridays would offer an additional 132 hours of opportunity for students to meet with teachers at 4 hours/day X 33)
Do Fridays Count as student contact hours for students? No. Fridays would not count as student contact days.
Are students required to attend on Fridays? Elementary is required Jr /Sr High school are not required to attend under any circumstances. Attendance in a formal sense is not taken, but students sign in with teachers/front office to collect data. 6thgrade? The models researched all involve 7-12thgrade. This would certainly be a major discussion point.
Sowhat would happen Fridays? Academic support for ALL students Ability to connect with teachers Increase opportunity for parent/teacher relationships PSAT/SAT/AP tutorials College/career prep Clubs, activities, meetings Professional development opportunities in the afternoons for staff Collaboration/communication
What are the benefits Protection of instruction time during the week Extended work opportunities for students (work study/job shadowing) Support of PD for staff (not in-service days throughout the year) Students do not miss school when traveling for activities Families traveling outside of Valdez can extend weekends Families can schedule local appointments/activities with kids without pulling them from school
Do teachers have time to cover all of the material with a four day week? Based on models and experience of other districts, this was a shared concern. What ended up happening is a focus on what is necessary instruction and a collaborative effort to focus on standards. The result was ultimately more effective and efficient instruction. With the collaboration time available Friday afternoons, staff have reported an incredible increase in student engagement/productivity/as well as staff morale.
Does this impact college courses? Not at all
Does this impact Special Education Services? IEP s can (But not required) be modified to reflect cumulative time for services rather than days/week. If students/parents want their child to attend school on Fridays, that is available.
What about classified staff? Classified staff are part of the team. Fridays, just as with certified staff, are a work day and we would stand, Ready to serve If student needs are not required, professional development, collaboration, prep, etc is available.
Extra-Curriculars on Fridays? Class meetings, field trips, student travel (school activities), band/choir practice, science labs, open gym .
What have been the benefits in Cordova Academically? Fewer failure rates (which equates to less credit recovery needs) Increase in AP and dual-credit courses being taken (about 45% of HS students take multiple dual credit courses and about 60% take AP classes)
Can the students stay all day Friday? The thought right now is for school to be open to students until 12:30 on Fridays. This allows the afternoon for the much needed Professional Development opportunities and collaboration. Currently the opportunities given our schedule are so minimal that we cannot progress on building/district goals which require time.
REMINDER Nothing is set in stone and the purpose of these meetings is to a)increase engagement and b) hear what you like/dislike about this idea.
Questions asked at last meeting Do teachers only work 4 hours on Fridays? No. Full work day Would this do away with inservice days? Not entirely. Start of year and not for HHES What about students who are failing classes? Would they be required to attend? No. No student would be required to attend on Fridays How many schools across the state use modified/flexible schedule Two that I am aware of. Cordova and SISD What do classified staff do on Fridays? They work with students, professional development, training, prep, etc
More questions What about Food Service? Regular work day How will we know how many students are going to eat? There can be systems set in place and after a few weeks we can probably safely predict the number of students. Could students just show up for meals? yes Bus Service on Fridays? Same start time with a 12:30 departure
More questions How long has Cordova been doing this? 3 years Do Elementary students have the same rules if they miss Fridays Same attendance policies apply for HHES Could we switch back mid-year if it is not working? No. Once we commit to hours Vs. Days, the state approves the calendar for the year. How do we make up for lost instruction time? The M-Th schedule could be modified to maximize instruction time. If a student utilizes Friday for instruction, they could possibly be receiving more instruction time than currently.
More Questions Will teachers on Fridays get subs? No. This is a benefit in creating a much more collaborative approach to helping students. If the elementary needs subs, can secondary teachers come down? This would not be an expectation of teachers. When students show up, how do we keep accountability of that? Signing in and out of the building. Has there been issues of students hanging out where they are not supposed to? They are teenagers, so of course. Principals and staff would be expected to govern and correct this.
Still more Can I accompany my child on Fridays? Yes. In the same manner that you would request to accompany child now and through the proper channels. your If my child walks to school, is there a way to make sure they made it there? Outside of communication with your child, you can call the office to see if your child signed in. Is there statistics of this making a difference in academic performance? There are citations share at the end of this slide show. The research I have seen indicates no drastic change in performance. resources will be shared at the end of this presentation.
Continued Reasons to go back to a 5 day week? No cost benefit? Mostly in lower 48 where the impetus for this is cost savings. Is there a vision for how to train these teachers? It is a commitment and a little bit of a cultural change in how we deliver education, but our teachers are fully capable. This would be manged/guided by building administrators. Will students be fighting for teacher attention/help? The ability and freedom staff will have without being bound to a bell schedule would all but eliminate this concern.
Who makes the final decision on this? I am having these meetings to make sure if we move forward on this, we are moving forward with all of the information. If we do move forward, I would be expected to provide all of the information so that they can make very well-informed decisions.
Resources https://www.edweek.org/leadership/the-popularity-of-4-day-school-weeks- in- charts/2024/01#:~:text=Four%2Dday%20weeks%20have%20been,Press %20reported%20in%20September%202023%20. https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/rel/region/northwest https://www.nwea.org/blog/2023/what-the-research-tells-us-about-four-day- school-weeks/
