For the nearly 100,000 Wake County Public School System students attending traditional calendar schools, August 26 will be something new and different. It will be their first early dismissal Wednesday.

Across the Wake County Public School System for the first time this school year, all schools are releasing students one hour early on Wednesdays to provide teachers time for professional learning team meetings. Teachers use this time to discuss the needs of individual students and ways to help those students succeed academically.

Early Dismissal Wednesday at East Cary MS

At East Cary Middle School today, WCPSS Chief Academic Officer Donna Hargens talked about the impact of professional learning teams for students. "Professiona learning teams are teams of teachers who look at data to see how they can best meet the needs of students," said Hargens. "The teachers share best practices and strategies and then they come back a week later to the team to see where they are. They are accountable to the team for helping indivdiual students make progress."

East Cary Middle School teachers were meeting in professional learning teams today, the seventh Wednesday of their school year.

English as a Second Language teacher Kelly Finley says early dismissal Wednesdays have allowed special teachers like her to be more involved in professional learning teams.

"We don't have the same planning periods as other teachers," said Finley. "It left special teachers at a point where they couldn't meet with other groups of teachers because it interfered with our teaching schedule. By having the Wednesdays, we can rotate through different professional learning teams. It gives us easier access to that open line of communication with classroom teachers."

Professional Learning Team History

When the Board of Education approved the 2009-10 bell schedule on March 31 of this year, the board acted on recommendations from a committee of administrators, teachers and parents who had been studying ways to provide teachers time to meet.

The momentum toward using Professional Learning Teams grew out of the High Five partnership of five school districts and five NC business corporations working to increase high school graduation rates. High Five brought in national education experts who provided training to teachers and administrators on using professional learning teams to strengthen instruction for students.

The five school districts in the High Five partnership were Wake, Durham, Orange, Chapel Hill/Carrboro and Johnston. The five NC business corporations were SAS, the News and Observer, Capitol Broadcasting, Progress Energy and Blue Cross Blue Shield. Together they invested $2.5 million in the five-year project that concluded in 2009. The Triangle Leadership Academy is continuing to lead the professional learning team discussion and training for area school systems.

Schools across the Wake County Public School System have been putting the professional learning teams into practice as they took part in the High Five backed training sessions over several years. Schools were implementing the change in teaching process from an individual teacher to a group of teachers addressing the academic needs of students.

Where do you find the time?

One of the struggles for schools in implementing professional learning teams was carving time out of the school day for teachers to meet. The school board addressed that issue by creating early dismissal Wednesdays showing the importance it placed on professional learning teams as a tool for improving instruction for students.

The new school schedule adds 10 minutes to the school day and provides one hour early dismissal on Wednesdays. On six of those Wednesdays, school will release 2.5 hours early.

This will provide time for teachers to meet for an hour on Wednesdays in professional learning teams. Schools will continue to use the six 2.5 hour sessions for schoolwide faculty professional development.

Driving the need for professional learning teams are the Board of Education goal for all students to graduate from high school; the need to provide time for collaboration; the need to increase student achievement; the opportunity to close academic achievement gaps among groups of students; the chance to provide job embedded professional development; and the need to provide equal opportunity for all teachers to participate in learning teams to help students achieve.