Understanding the TIME Collaborative
One of the most valuable resources in education is time and how it is used. Next generation learning environments intentionally
use time to personalize learning, provide deeper interventions, and create learning opportunities beyond the classroom.
The TIME Collaborative is a partnership of the Ford Foundation and the National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL), the
Colorado Department of Education (CDE), and The Colorado Education Initiative (CEI) to help three Colorado districts and 12
schools, including Pioneer, rethink the role time plays in their learning environments.
These teams worked closely with NCTL, CEI, and CDE to design a school day and year that is personalized to the unique needs of
their students and community. The redesign process involved technical assistance and targeted coaching with each school team.
Plans focused on integrating NCTL’s Seven Essential Elements for more and better learning time with school and district priorities.
Why Expand Learning
When Nelson-Steinhoff and the Pioneer team first
joined the TIME Collaborative, they wanted to
really understand how they were spending their
time. A time audit conducted at the school in
2012-2013 demonstrated how fragmented the
school day had become. Students were frequently
in transitions — moving from one learning space or
moment to another — wasting precious learning
time. And learners who needed the most support
were often pulled out of core instruction for
intervention despite research showing that without
core instruction time, interventions are far less
successful. After securing a 45-minute school day
extension from the district, Pioneer began
developing a model that improved the cohesion of
students’ school day and created more learning
opportunities.
At the same time Pioneer was expanding its school
day, staff was also implementing a new
instructional method — a bilingual immersion
program that uses a more integrative,
multidisciplinary approach to bilingual literacy
through units of study. The staff spent a full year
researching and designing new instructional plans,
using Teaching for Biliteracy by Karen Beeman
and Cheryl Urow as a guide.
progression of bilingual learning
at pioneer
K
90% Spanish
10% English
1
90% Spanish
10% English
2
80% Spanish
20% English
3
70% Spanish
30% English
Introduce English in language arts
4
60% Spanish
40% English
5
50% Spanish
50% English
Introduce split instruction — English and Spanish —
in all subjects
2