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NILES -- Niles McKinley High School students will begin their Fridays two hours late, at 9:30 a.m., for the 2019-20 school year in order to accommodate a two-hour weekly training period for teachers aimed at instruction techniques shown to help close gaps in adolescent literacy.
All of the high school teachers -- about 40 people -- will undergo the training, which Niles McKinley Principal Tracie Perry said will focus on intervention strategies to help students still struggling with reading.
The training is available through two grants totaling $900,000 to support literacy efforts in high schools, according to Perry. The funds are federal money distributed through the U.S. Department of Education by Striving Readers Literary Grants and are comprised of a three-year, $300,000 grant and a four-year, $600,000 grant.
A statement from the district said the delay is the most cost-effective way to train teachers without taking them out of classrooms or hiring substitute teachers.
"While we recognize taking students out of the classroom seems counterintuitive to raising achievement, research on school change indicates that ongoing, job-embedded professional development is key to improving student academic performance," the statement reads.
Busing will be adjusted for students in grades 9 to 12, and classes will operate on an adjusted 30-minute period schedule so teachers will see all of their students each Friday.
Ohio law requires students to be in school for 1,001 hours of instruction, but Niles McKinley students are present for 1,161. With the two-hour Friday adjustment, students will have 1,105 hours of instruction, according to the statement.
Last year, the training kicked off with a smaller group who worked closely with an international team on the Strategic Instruction Model.
"The first year we did it with a group of nine (teachers), and we got them trained initially in the strategies with the idea that they will kind of coach along the others in the process," Perry said.
Perry said so far, the school has received good feedback about the scheduled training from teachers and families of students.
"When else do you get $900,000 for instruction?" Perry said.