Does a School Field Trip Count as Instructional Time in Hawaii?
We never really thought about the importance of time to learn until it was taken away with student furloughs. Hawaii has spent the last two years discussing student instructional time. How many minutes should it be? Who has the authority to decide? What is considered instructional time?
While we were discussing it and setting our own policy, States around the country have also been setting policy, to make sure that their children鈥檚 educational time is not being cut during times of budget shortfalls. We will always be recovering from or anticipating a crisis: Tsunami, War, rising fuel costs, unrest in the Mid-East, stocks falling, Social Security/Pension shortfalls, political dissension. We cannot wait for perfect conditions to try to increase our children鈥檚 instructional time, that day may never come.
How many minutes per day? Across the country, much new legislation has been passed. When we began 32% of states offered 6 or more hours of education a day to secondary students, now it is 46%. Hawaii鈥檚 initial phase is an increase to 5 hours 30 minutes, which is very reasonable. And, should we not also, move in the direction of the other states, and begin to reach for 6 hours a day? We have the current legislation in place now, let鈥檚 not go backwards. There is a bill going through the legislature right now, to eliminate the goal of 6 hours.
Who has the authority to decide? Recently the Department of Education did an analysis of instruction being provided to Secondary School students, Two-Thirds of the schools were providing less than 5 hours of instruction per day. This is less than what children in elementary school currently have! Unfortunately, the Department was unable to implement changes in secondary schools to increase student instructional time across the state. Legislation appears to be the ONLY solution to increase instructional time.
What is considered instructional time? Can we count a field trip? Working in the lunchroom? Playing on a team? Homeroom? Study hall? A third grader is learning when they pass from one class to another: how to keep your hands to yourself, keep your voice at a respectable level, work as a team. But, a 10th grader is not learning by walking to his/her next class. These are all valid questions, and now is the time to ask them, and come up with answers.
Completely missing from our conversation these past two years is the social perspective: why is it important to have a longer school day? I鈥檝e heard in secondary schools they have as little passing time as possible, because just one extra minute between classes, is enough time for trouble to begin. What do we think teenagers do, when they get out of school at 1:30 in the afternoon?
The Department of Education states that the goal is to prepare students for college and a career. A common workday is 8 hours, for many it is longer. The instructional day is one way to prepare students for the transition to the 鈥渞eal world.鈥 Moving high schools students to a longer school day helps prepare them for the next phase of their life.
Common sense tells us time is needed to be taught, practice, ask questions, and test. Let鈥檚 all get behind our students and figure this out. Let鈥檚 continue to work towards giving Hawaii鈥檚 students the same educational time, as the students on the Mainland.
About the author: Melanie Bailey is a professional in the field of Human Resource Management. When student furloughs were announced in 2009, she began researching legislation and actual instructional time, at schools around the country. With her research she has been advocating to increase Hawaii’s instructional time for public school students.
