Time and Attention in Urban High Schools
Lessons for Urban School Systems
Stephen Frank, April 2010
There is no disputing that for high school students to be college and career ready, they need adequate time to learn and individualized attention to meet their academic goals, learning styles, and social needs. Through our work, we have studied many high-performing schools that are using every staff member, dollar, and minute in a way that is improving student learning. This report shares our analysis of the school-level resource use across six urban districts in the 2004-2006 school years.
ERS used its extensive resource database to generate the findings in this paper. Between SY04 and SY06, we worked closely with six urban districts to map how they were using their people, time, and money:
- Atlanta Public Schools (APS), 2005–06
- Chicago Public Schools (CPS), 2005–06
- District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), 2004–05
- Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), 2005–06
- Rochester City School District (RCSD), 2004–05
- St. Paul Public Schools (SPPS), 2005–06