'Directed study': Quality learning or downtime in disguise?

The start of education reform more than a decade ago heralded the end of study hall, that free period students more often spent on card games than academics.

While many educators were glad to see it go, state requirements demanding students receive a certain amount of "structured learning time" has yielded a new educational loophole: the directed study.

For those unfamiliar with the difference, a study hall does not count as structured learning time, but directed study does.

Andover High School recently made headlines for failing to meet state requirements for structured learning after teacher cuts left some students scheduled for old-fashioned study halls -- a situation some districts get around by scheduling directed studies instead.

Overall, the state requires secondary students receive 990 hours of structured learning time and elementary students receive 900 such hours each year.

"The practice of calling something a directed study when it is actually an old-fashioned study hall is particularly widespread now," said Paul Reville, executive director of the Center for Education Research and Policy at Mass Inc., a bipartisan think tank.

Reville, former chairman of the now-defunct Massachusetts Commission on Time and Learning, said directed studies were a compromise to let schools count time for academic coaching. But in some schools, Reville said, directed studies are anything but.

"The interpretation as to what is directed study and what is not is subject to abuses," he said. "If we did a close examination, we would find this particular provision has taken us off track."

While some schools use directed studies to get students help from teachers, parents say others are toying with semantics.

"They are really just study halls," said Kate Cubeta of Arlington, whose seventh-grader has four directed studies a week at Ottoson Middle School as a result of district budget cuts. "There is a huge sense they are a great waste of time, and they are being baby-sat."

At Arlington High School, assistant principal Elinor Freedman, who has six fewer teachers and 30 fewer course offerings this year, said students, on average, now have five directed studies a week, up from two or three last year. Still, Freedman said students average 1,013 hours of structured learning, including directed studies. "All of our study halls are directed studies, in that we have a teacher in charge who is available to help students with their work," Freedman said.

The state Department of Education document on time and learning rules notes that "traditional [non-directed] study halls are not considered `directed study,' " but only vaguely defines a directed study as requiring "students be engaged in activities directly related to their program of studies, and a teacher must be available to assist students."

Some districts have chosen to abolish all study halls.

Ayer High School has no study periods; nor does Oakmont Regional High School in Ashburnham.

Holliston High principal Mary Canty schedules a 41-minute block for students to get help, make up tests they may have missed, or do club work. But the school doesn't call it a directed study or count it as learning time.

"Our kids are involved in so many activities; they are overscheduled," said Canty. "We built in the 41 minutes, not as time on learning, but as a time to get stuff done."

Some principals say students need downtime during the school day. If the schools don't schedule it, students "will create it," said Ipswich High principal Barry Cahill, who said the school's daily 48-minute directed study is "directed downtime, in effect."

Whether students need downtime during school is a legitimate issue. But the definitions are blurred when downtime also counts as academic time.

Revere High this year scheduled a 47-minute directed study for all students each day with a different subject teacher. Principal David Deruosi said teachers were initially unsure whether they were expected to teach, but said they now treat it as a time to help students confused by a lesson or to oversee work on assignments.

English teacher Fran Rega uses the period to catch up on work and recently reread parts of "Macbeth" with a small group that had struggled with certain passages in class. "They understand they have to be there, they have to be doing something academic, and English is the priority," said Rega.

Math teacher Katie Sinnott said the directed study means students with after-school jobs get some much-needed time to do schoolwork. "Most of them are using that third period," Sinnott said.

"We try very hard not to put large study halls together because we don't believe that is directed learning," said Auburn High School principal Jeffrey Theodoss. But, he said, "it happens." Budget cuts have left him with one period during which, on some days, he has two teachers for 90 students in a study. "What it really becomes is monitoring students doing their work," said Theodoss. "I don't think any principal in their right mind wants to get into a situation where you have 40 kids in a study hall." But, he said, "I'd ask DOE: `What are my options?' "

Education Department spokeswoman Heidi B. Perlman said the state "can't be the time and learning police" but expects districts to follow the law.

In Andover, principal Peter Anderson said budget cuts have made it impossible to provide a full course load to all students, leaving Andover High students with an average of 878 hours of structured learning time, far short of the state requirement. Without more money, Anderson said the district will fall short next year, too.

"I don't see how we can't help but be back in the same position again," said Anderson.

But Ellen Travers, who filed the complaint with DOE, calls the use of directed studies "semantics" and "dishonest."

Travers, a mother of two, said her son, a 10th-grader, was scheduled for 82-minute study halls each day during the second semester.

"Students recognize [high school] as an opportunity; they only have so much time to get their credentials together for college," she said. Making schools meet time and learning requirements, said Travers, "is the only hammer that we have" to ensure students get the education they are entitled to.

Paul Schlichtman, vice chairman of the Arlington School Committee and president of the Massachusetts Association of School Committees, said directed studies cloud the real issue of equity: All students are entitled to at least 990 hours of instruction a year. Falling below that level, said Schlichtman, "shouldn't be an option."

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