In CT, high school instruction time varies by as much as an hour

The average high school teacher in Danbury spends roughly 182 minutes on instructional time, while a typical teacher in Stamford could be teaching in a classroom for 264 minutes daily by next year.

Data show the amount of time teachers in high schools across the state spend providing instruction varies greatly, due to different schedule structures, start and end times and class lengths. 

It’s a topic that has drawn controversy in Stamford recently, as high school teachers there have protested a proposal from central office administrators to have them teach six classes of 88 minutes each per semester, in an alternating schedule of three classes one day and three the next. Currently, teachers at all three high schools — Westhill, Stamford High and the Academy of Information Technology & Engineering — teach five classes per semester.

Kate Dias, president of the Connecticut Education Association, the state’s largest teacher union, said she believes the move to add more students and classes to teacher workloads in Stamford will only have a negative effect on instruction.

“The single greatest thing we can do to influence and improve student outcomes is to drive down student-to-teacher ratios,” she said.

An investigation by Hearst Connecticut Media did not find any school district in the surrounding area that requires high school teachers to be in classrooms for more than 264 minutes a day, as is being proposed in Stamford.

The average daily instructional time for a Norwalk high school teacher, for example, is 225 minutes, while in Bridgeport, the time per day is about 246 minutes. In smaller communities such as Shelton and Hamden, the daily instructional time is between 225 and 230 minutes.

Bridgeport offers an interesting comparison with Stamford, as the two cities are the largest in the state, and Bridgeport high school teachers already teach a sixth class. Most high school teachers across the state who work in a block schedule teach five classes. 

However, Bridgeport uses a block schedule known as the four-by-four model, where teachers teach three classes that meet every day for one semester, followed by three other classes in the second semester. While the class load closely resembles the Stamford proposal, the main difference is that Bridgeport teachers deal with a smaller contingent of students at any one time.

That makes a big difference, Dias said.

“Instruction is watered down with every additional student you add,” she said.

In Stamford, high school classes are capped at 30 students, meaning a teacher could conceivably have as many as 150 students at any one time currently, and as many as 180 under the proposal to add six classes.

That “180 is unheard of,” Dias said.

However, teachers are unlikely to hit that number of students, said Kathleen Steinberg, spokesperson for Stamford Public Schools.

According to data she provided, teachers at all three high schools are well below the 30 student per-class cap.

She said 56 of 307 high school educators in Stamford are currently teaching six classes, as teachers are offered the opportunity to teach an extra class because of educator vacancies. Of those 56 teachers, only nine exceed a caseload of 150 students and none have 180, Steinberg said.

Jeff Morrissey, president of the Bridgeport Education Association, said some teachers in the state’s biggest city love the current block schedule, while others would prefer shorter classes. Those who like the schedule, he said, often point out that it gives them more flexibility and time to perform tasks outside of classroom instruction.

That’s exactly what Stamford teachers are worried they will lose, as many have said going to a sixth class will impact how much time they can dedicate to lesson planning, grading, providing feedback and a host of other activities and tasks.

During a protest on Dec. 19 at Westhill, teachers held up a banner with the words “what we do outside of teaching time” written in big block letters to illustrate what tasks they would no longer be able to perform with more in-classroom time built into their schedules.

Around the words were responses explaining what sorts of jobs educators perform when not teaching in class: “college recommendations,” “help student apply for job,” “translate materials,” “find a copy machine that works (and) make copies” and “relieve co-worker so they can use restroom” among others.

Stamford district officials have stated that the move would make teaching time more equitable across the district, as elementary teachers spend roughly 45 to 50 more minutes providing instruction than their high school peers.

Dias said that’s an argument she’s never heard of in her career as an educator. For starters, she said, elementary teachers deal with a classroom of 30 students or less typically. 

“It’s a bad argument,” she said.

Dias and many Stamford teachers said they believe the move to add another class is being done for economic reasons, as the district is facing a fiscal cliff of roughly $9 million due to COVID-19 relief dollars that drying up at the end of this school year. Additionally, the district currently pays teachers 20 percent of their salary to teach a sixth class, which could be a thing of the past.

“In our eyes, they’re looking for teachers again to solve their problems,” said John Corcoran, president of the Stamford Education Association teachers union.

The SEA is currently engaged in negotiations with the district concerning the potential sixth class.

“The district’s proposal for high school teachers to teach six out of eight blocks rather than five out of eight blocks will be negotiated with the Stamford Education Association per its contract with the Stamford Board of Education,” Steinberg wrote in an emailed message. “Despite the SEA’s and CEA’s efforts to negotiate this matter in public, it will be decided at the bargaining table or through mediation and arbitration.”

Dias said she believes the measure will ultimately be withdrawn, but the district could still suffer from it.

“I’m confident we will beat this back, but the damage to the district will be done,” she said. “The word will be out that this is not a district that cares for the teachers or the students.”