Children at the four elementary schools in this southeast Wyoming district sure had fun in the middle of the week.
Each Wednesday at midday, they were let out of class to play at school or head home, while their teachers met for staff development.
The locals call it Wacky Wednesday. Depending on whom you ask, it's either cutting-edge — a new report says the world's best students learn from teachers who spend a lot of time in training — or a waste of time.
Concern over the schedule came to a head recently when the Laramie County School District 2 board voted to get rid of Wacky Wednesday at the 840-student district.
"The community came in with a strong objection to the every Wednesday afternoon off because they felt like their kids were being cheated and were basically being baby-sat for that time — if they did stay at school," said school board chairwoman Esther Davison, who voted against the Wednesday schedule.
Judging from a new report by the National Staff Development Council, though, the district's elementary teachers have been out front in the United States with their in-school training. The Dallas-based council works to advance the professional development of teachers in the United States.
According to the report, American teachers spend about 80 percent of their time teaching and only about 20 percent on those other things that teachers do — planning lessons, talking to other teachers and improving their skills. Seldom do they engage in as much at-school training as the teachers in Laramie County 2.
In most European and Asian countries, meanwhile, teacher training is commonly part of the regular school week. Teachers in those countries typically spend less than half of their working time teaching, according to the council's report. Yet the students in many of those countries, who spend less time in class than American students, outscore their American counterparts in math and science, the report said.
In Finland, teachers spend about half of their time on things like curriculum development and group planning, the report said. Finnish students have performed tops in the world on both science and math tests.
American students came in 21st in science and 25th in math, according to the report, which drew from a number of studies over the past eight years or so.
Joellen Killion, the council's deputy executive director, said the big idea is that quality of classroom time — not quantity — is what counts.
"It's kind of common sense," Killion said. "If teachers are using practices that are antiquated, or teacher content knowledge is not up to do date, or teachers' ability to use effective instructional practices is less than we want it to be, it doesn't matter how much time kids are in that classroom."
Killion said an increasing number of U.S. schools are relying less on out-of-town conferences for staff development and more on frequent in-school training.
But in Pine Bluffs, losing a half-day of class time every week rankled parents — prompting a petition that drew more than 100 signatures. Those who signed included Vicky Steege, who's retired from a long career of teaching elementary school in the district.
"The kids need to be in school," Steege said. "If they needed to do the meetings, the teachers should be paid to go to the meetings after school, you know, not take it out of time for the kids."
Sue Stevens, principal of both Pine Bluffs Elementary School and Albin Elementary School in Laramie County 2, said routine, in-school training has given her teachers a huge boost.
"They take it straight back to the classroom, apply it and look and see how it impacts the work," she said. "It makes a difference."
Stevens credits the Wednesday training for the district's improved reading and math scores on Wyoming's statewide assessment test, although she acknowledges writing scores have remained flat.
Coaching teachers is the job of Craig Williams, a "master teacher" who doesn't have students of his own but experiments with different teaching techniques in classes around the district. He passes on the successful techniques to teachers.
"Any idea that I bring to them, I have used at least once, twice and sometimes three times in other classrooms," Williams said. "It's not just theory that I'm giving them. It's proven strategies that work."
Kristin Prager, a rookie fourth- and fifth-grade teacher at Pine Bluffs Elementary, said meeting with other teachers has helped her focus on where her students need to improve.
Superintendent Marjorie Simineo said the district might still find a way to salvage time for routine teacher development now that the school board nixed Wacky Wednesday.
"I think we will take away the good things that we learned," she said. "And that's all you can do."
Source: AP News
