Time Spent Teaching Core Academic Subjects In Elementary Schools

This report describes the number of hours and the percentage of school time spent on core academic subjects during the elementary school week around the country. It addresses three central issues about using class time to teach core academic subjects. The first issue is the actual number of hours and the percentage of school time the nation's elementary school teachers spend on instruction in the core subject areas of English/reading/language arts, mathematics, social studies, and science. The second issue involves an analysis of how this time varies by characteristics of the local community, school, teacher, classroom, and students. Finally, trends over time are examined to see how the amount and percentage of time spent on the four core subjects has changed from 1987-88 to 1993-94.

Compares the number of hours & the percentage of school time spent on core academic subjects during the elementary school week in the U.S. It addresses three central issues. First: the actual number of hours & the percentage of school time the nation's elementary school teachers spend on instruction in the core subject areas of English, reading, & language arts; math; social studies; & science. Second: analyzes how this time varies by characteristics of the local community, school, teacher, classroom, & students. Finally, examines how the amount & percentage of time spent on the core subjects has changed from 1987-88 to 1993-94. Charts & tables.

This report presents national data on teachers and teaching from the Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) and other sources. Where data permit, the report compares findings from the early to mid-1990s with findings from the 1980s. The report addresses a wide range of topics related to teachers and teaching, including teachers' demographic characteristics and various characteristics of their schools and students, teachers' preparation and professional development experiences, teachers' workloads, teaching practices, compensation, perceptions of work environments and job satisfaction, and the supply and demand of teachers. Detailed tables, standard error tables, and technical notes are included in appendices. (Contains 108 references.) (ND)

This book takes readers on a tour of a day in the life of a public elementary school in an effort to give parents and other stakeholders a sense of the realities of the classroom. The tour reveals ten worrisome things about today’s schools and considers what to do about them. Dillon emphasizes the need for future schools to be places filled with adventure and high purpose, with classrooms small enough to waste only a minimum of time. They should be free from stifling levels of bureaucracy, supervised by rotating teacher administrators rather than career managers. The book asserts that schools should be staffed by scholarly and engaged teaching professionals dedicated to helping students live a healthy adult life in a democracy rather than imposing a one-size-fits-all, furiously assessed college prep curriculum on everyone. In all, Dillon argues, schools should be places with classrooms of narrow ability ranges dedicated to teaching a coherent curriculum, all in a context of full buy-in and support from students’ families. Let’s go inside today’s elementary schools.

Includes a section called Program and plans which describes the Center's activities for the current fiscal year and the projected activities for the succeeding fiscal year.