Running head: LOSS INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Does Loss of Instructional Time Impact Student Achievement?

Joe A Montalvo
Concordia University
MED 5305

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

2

Chapter 1
Introduction
The study is an analysis of students who lose instructional time due to participation in
extra and co-curricular activities. In this study we will compare achievement of students in
extracurricular activities and a control group of students from the Science, Technology,
Engineering and Math Education (STEM) Academy to determine if they have comparable gains
when instruction is lost. The importance of this research will help educators examine the
importance in scheduling students in a secondary setting. A small population sample of
Memorial High School students were selected for this study. Some variables will include groups
of students from the (STEM) from the STEM academy, Non-STEM students, Athletes, and Nonathletes. A quantitative research approach will be implemented. Data will be gathered on
different variables mentioned above. This research will evaluate the impact of loss of instruction
with students in extra and co-curricular activities. Research has revealed that instructional time
does impact student success.
Levin (1984) reports that total instructional time in a given subject area positively correlates to
student achievement.
Problem statement
Recent graduation rates have dropped in Edgewood ISD. Many students are struggling
in the classroom and loss of instruction may be impacting many subgroups. The research will
explore if the loss of instructional time and extra and co-curricular activities impacts
performance on The State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness (STAAR), End Of
Courses (EOCs). The rationale proposed is that there is a direct correlation between loss of
instruction from students in extra and co-curricular activities and student achievement.

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

3

Purpose
The purpose of this study is to examine student instructional time and the relation to
student involvement in extra and co-curricular activities. Is there a direct link between
instruction time loss for STEM students and Non-STEM students, Athletes to Non-athletes? The
study addresses a sample of STEM students, a sample of students in extra-activities, and their
performance form their last years results in STAAR assessments in Math and English. A control
group of students will be analyzed consisting of students that are not involved in extra and cocurricular activities, nor STEM students.

Significance
The results of the data and surveys may provide insight about how instructional time is
scheduled for students to be successful and if the loss of instructional time does impact student
success. The data may reveal whether STEM students have an advantage over students in extracurricular activities because of the time lost in instruction during participation in sports. This
study is much needed to provide research in this issue to support student success.

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

4

Chapter 2: Literature Review

This study will research the impact of student time in instruction to reveal if it has any
significance in student success. The general consensus of educational researchers seems to be
that time is a potent lever for increasing students achievement. (Levin, 1984, p.2.) This
study will provide data of student instructional time to determine if student success is impacted.
The Time study will attempt to focus on: (1) quantity of time in school; (2) student
achievement (3) the impact of participation of extra-curricular activities and non-participation of
extra-curricular activities. Because of the potential scope of the study, I needed to set some
limits. My first task was to define the parameters of what quantity and quality of time in and out
of school would mean for our study and review the existing research base within these
parameters.
It is important to begin by defining and understanding what instructional time really
means and to identify the educational terminology used in the discussion of time. One type of
educational time is called allocated time. Allocated time refers to the total number of days or
hours students are required to attend school (Aronson, Zimmerman, Carlos 1999 p.7). Allocated
time can then be broken down into two subcategories of time, instructional time and noninstructional time. Instructional time is time spent in class, whether for core academic subjects
like math, science and language arts or for non-academic electives, such as drivers education
(p.7). On the other hand, non-instructional time is the portion of the day devoted to lunch and
recess, to passing between classes, to school assemblies and to other non-classroom activities
(p.7). Another type of educational time is engaged time in which students are participating in
learning activities, this is also called time-on-task (p.7). The last type of educational time is
called academic learning time when learning actually occurs (p.7). Researchers have defined

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

5

academic learning time as that precise period when an instructional activity is perfectly aligned
with a students readiness and learning occurs (p.7).
Most studies use these terms to define and measure the different time periods in a
students day and how this time relates to their achievement. Walberg (1988), in his synthesis
research on time and learning, re-emphasizes the importance of time on learning but argues that
simply increasing allocated time will not automatically lead to increased student achievement
(Nelson 1989 p.1). At my district, Edgewood ISD, student achievement has declined as the result
of lack of quality instruction time. Next school, our students will have to deal with a change in
instructional time since the school day will be changed from 8 periods to 7 periods in order to
lengthen the time in each class period. Research generally support the conclusion that increased
instructional time has modest positive effects on learning (Hossler 1988 p.4). Hossler states that
increasing instructional time does not guarantee an increase in engaged timetime spent
actively engaged in learning (p.4). If the quality of instructional time is more important than the
amount of time spent on instruction, will students who leave class early to participate in extracurricular activities produce lower achievement scores? Walberg states that student achievement
can be improved by designing lessons better suited to individual student learning differences and
by teaching small-group and individually managed study skills so that students can concentrate
more fully (Nelson, 1989, p.1).
In Edgewood ISD graduation rates have a significant impact on the districts rating. The
Academic Deans at both High Schools when developing schedules for the seniors consider the
time of instruction needed for students to be successful.

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

6

Research states that, Increasing graduation requirements during the 1980s signaled a
need for additional time to be devoted to academic subjects (Kane, 1994, p.16). In Edgewood
students select electives of their choice. Students in Edgewood have eight periods scheduled into
a school day and classes are 55 minutes long. Students can participate in athletics and extracurricular activities.
Research on the effects of participation in school-based athletic and extra-curricular
activities, exists but has limitations. Generally, studies have focused on one group (e.g., boys) and
one kind of activity (e.g., sports).Differences in impacts of participation according to race, SES,
or type :)f activity have not yet been well explained by the research (Adelman. Ed., 1995, p. 14).

Chapter 3: Proposal of Design

The methodology that I will use for this research will be a convergent parallel mixed
methods design. In this approach, a researcher collects both quantitative and qualitative data,
analyzes them separately, and then compares the results to see if the findings confirm or
disconfirm each other. The key assumption of this approach is that both qualitative and
quantitative data provide different types of information-often detailed views of participants
qualitatively and scores on instruments quantitatively and together, they yield results that should
be the same(Creswell 2014 pg.219).

The purpose of this form of research is that both

qualitative and quantitative research; provide a better understanding of a research problem.

Data Collection
The qualitative data that I will collect will be a small sample of students in 9th grade in
2015 -2016 involved in extracurricular and non-extracurricular students. The qualitative data

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

7

will help identify trends in the amount of instruction lost by students participating in
extracurricular activities as compared to students not participating in extracurricular activities for
the sample group. The data will be collected through the use of interviews with the Academic
Dean and campus reports. The interviews will help gain information about student schedules and
student involvement. Some of the limitations of interviews are that there might be some personal
opinions from the interviewees. Another limitation might be that the responses from the
interviewees might be biased as I work directly with these individuals at the campus level.
The data that I will collect from these groups will be STAAR assessments completed in
the eighth grade level and ninth grade level. This quantitative data will be important to collect in
order to determine if a correlation exists between scores attained and the amount of time spent on
participation and non-participation in extracurricular activities. Comparisons will also be made
between assessment scores in both eighth and ninth grades to determine a decrease or increase in
scores attained.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Interpretation
Data Analysis
Quantitative data will be collected from STAAR EOC assessments from 9th grade
students. Interviews with the Academic Dean will provide information from procedures, and
student-achievements. A survey questionnaire will be given to the Academic dean in an openended questions format to gain information to compare to the quantitative results.
Interpretation
Perform quantitative data collection and analysis then follow up with qualitative data
collection and analysis which will result in interpretation of all data collected.

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

8

Graduation Rate

From 2012 to 2014 there has been a steady increase of graduation rate district wide.

90.00%
88.00%
86.00%
84.00%
82.00%
80.00%
78.00%
76.00%
74.00%
72.00%
Memorial

Total number of students that are attending our High School

2012
2013
2014

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

9
5
4.5
4
3.5
3
9th graders

2.5

10th grade

12th grade

1.5
1
0.5
0
non-athlete

athlete

Validity
Some of the limitations of interviews are that there might be some personal opinions from
the interviewees. Another limitation might be that the responses from the interviewees might be
biased as I work directly with these individuals at the campus level. Researcher may be seen as
intrusive. Information gathered from the interviewer may be skewed by personal bias. The data
for the STAAR Accommodated math scores may not be available due to difficulties and scoring
from the Texas Education Agency (TEA).

Chapter 5 Conclusion
In conclusion the survey yielded valuable information in regards to students that lost
instruction because of extracurricular activities and the non-student participating with activities.
The study had several variables that were not expected such as students that withdrew, new
students that registered and students that dropped out of extra-curricular activities either because
of eligibility or no desire to continue with the sport. Teachers and students filled out their survey

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

10

questions and showed mixed results with their data. Teachers were extremely over reporting
tardys where data did not support the survey results. The survey questions may have been better
stated and provided a range for teachers to reflect an answer. The survey did provoke a
conversation and thought in loss time of instruction.

References
Adelman, E. (1996). The uses of Time for Teaching and Learning.
Aronson, J. (1995). Stop the Clock: Ending the Tyranny of Time in Education. Policy
Perspectives on Time and Learning.
Aronson, J., Zimmerman, J.; & Carlos, L. (1999). Improving Student Achievement by
Extending School: Is it Just a Matter of Time?
Creswell, J. (2014). Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods
Approaches. Los Angeles: Sage.
Hossler, C. (1988). The Relationship of Increased Instructional Time to Student Achievement.
Johnston, H.J. (2009). Time for Learning.
Kane, C. (1994). Prisoners of Time: Research. What We Know and What We Need to Know.

DOES LOSS OF INSTRUCTIONAL TIME IMPACT STUDENT LEARNING?

11

Kubitschek, W., Hallinan, M., Arnett, S., & Galipeau, K. High School Schedule Changes
and the Effect of Lost Instructional Time on Achievement.
Levin, H. M. (1998). Clocking Instruction: A Reform Whose time has come?
Nelson, S. (1990). Instructional Time as a Factor in increasing Student Achievement.
Walberg, H. (1988). Synthesis of Research on Time and Learning.