Minutes of Instruction at Elementary Schools
Highest percentage of elementary schools provided 120+ minutes of in
Highlights
struction in 2023-24.
- 47% of elementary schools rated as Excelling on Minutes of Instruction in 2023-24
- 34% of elementary schools rated as Excelling on Minutes of Instruction in 2019-20
In a separate analysis, Staffing is shown to be highly correlated with Minutes of Instruction
Elementary schools have made progress with providing two hours of arts instruction weekly to students, though it still remains the Access metric elementary schools struggle most with. While staffing is at the core of providing high-quality arts programming, there are still other barriers, such as scheduling, to ensuring all students have access to two hours of arts instruction per week.
Strategies
- Create a scheduling toolkit and repository of elementary school master schedules and exemplars, that can be shared with school administrators and Arts Liaisons, allowing the sharing of best practices in scheduling.
- Design and implement support grants or programs through the Creative Schools Fund to assist schools in meeting the district’s 120-minute weekly arts instruction benchmark. Grant eligibility and award tiers will be informed by the Opportunity Index to ensure that resources are directed toward schools with the greatest need.