Amid concerns about teacher burnout and students’ well-being, administrators at Kramer Middle School in Southeast embraced what has been described as a flexible scheduling model.
Every Monday morning, students leave their classrooms to either participate in a town hall, engage in friendly athletic competitions, explore hydroponics and gardening in collaboration with the University of the District of Columbia, or visit District museums and landmarks.
Later in the day, students either leave school early or participate in extracurricular activities.
Meanwhile, as Rian Reed, a schoolwide enrichment teacher at Kramer explained, general education and special education teachers focus all of their attention on collaboratively addressing attendance issues.
While it has yet to be seen how the new scheduling model has affected teacher retention, Reed said no teachers have left so far this school year.
“In addition to participating in the town hall sessions, teachers had to go to meetings and professional development,” Reed said, as she explained a previous scheduling model that required teachers to concurrently balance several obligations.
“The rush of trying to push everything into a Monday was overwhelming,” Reed said. “That’s why we shifted the model a little bit. It allows teachers more time to grade papers, do paperwork and plan lessons uninterrupted.”
EmpowerEd Discusses Flexible Scheduling
According to a survey conducted by local nonprofit EmpowerEd, 13% of District teachers work at a school that provides some degree of scheduling flexibility. In the interim, District public and public charter schools have explored midwinter break and the extension of holidays into four-day weekends as strategies in mitigating teacher and student burnout.
Leaders at EmpowerEd, which has been dedicated to tackling teacher retention, want to see what has been done in other workplaces replicated on school campuses. During a presentation in the latter part of February, EmpowerEd Executive Director Scott Goldstein called for a $10 million investment that would allow nearly 25 District schools to pilot flexible scheduling programs specific to needs of the school community.
Paul Kihn, D.C.’s deputy mayor of education and one of dozens who attended EmpowerEd’s presentation, didn’t specify whether D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) could fulfill EmpowerEd’s budgetary request. While he acknowledged flexible scheduling has been a part of the conversation for years, he, as well as Goldstein, highlighted possible hurdles, including how to ensure students are able to fulfill the academic requirements set by the Office of the State Superintendent of Education.
Another concern, as indicated in the D.C. chief financial officer’s revised revenue estimates, involves how to, or even whether to, pilot flexible scheduling programs with so many priorities on the table.
Goldstein, and others who spoke at the EmpowerEd event called flexible scheduling a much-needed investment for teachers, and ultimately students. On the morning of Feb. 28, he made his case by showing data that designated Black female teachers over the age of 30 as flexible scheduling’s primary proponents.
Among teachers who were surveyed, flexible scheduling ranked among the top three factors in their decision to stay in the teaching profession.
Respondents described flexible scheduling as a way of tackling burnout and addressing conflicts that arise between demands of the job and familial obligations. The type of flexible scheduling that appealed to teachers involved them choosing their work hours during the week, or leaving school earlier.
In another popular scenario, administrators dedicate one day out of the week to enrichment and collaboration between new and veteran teachers. During his presentation, Goldstein highlighted these options in addition to others including two half-days a month, later start times for high school students and the inclusion of out-of-school time programming and high-impact tutoring that would better allow for flexible scheduling.
HU Middle School PCS Responds to Teachers’ Demands
On Feb. 28, Kihn, along with Reed, Duke Ellington School of the Arts student April Kilpatrick, Howard University Middle School Public Charter School Executive Director Kathryn Procope, along with others, weighed in on the benefits of flexible scheduling.
Procope called flexible scheduling a matter of meeting teachers’ needs so that they would be better able to help students who are still transitioning back to in-person learning.
Upon Howard University Middle School’s full return to in-person learning during the 2022-2023 school year, the DC Public School Charter Board denied Procope’s appeal for one virtual learning day per week.
Procope recalled teachers, disappointed they would no longer enjoy the benefits of working from home, leaving the school soon after.
She said that inspired administrators to put in place a bevy of changes, including four-day holiday weekends and early dismissals on Wednesdays for teacher self-care and differentiated professional development.
For Procope, taking the lead on flexible scheduling required bold thinking and empathy toward teachers who are on the front lines.
“We had to think about the kinds of things that would support people’s lives and allow them to be effective educators,” Procope said. “We managed the 180 days and found things we could do within the system to give teachers some of their time and make sure they had control. In education, people feel like they don’t have control so we wanted to give that back to them.”