Today, a new movement designed to pour more time and resources into our nation’s schools is being launched by a broad and diverse coalition of leaders. Co-chaired by Chris Gabrieli of the National Center on Time & Learning and Luis A. Ubinos of the Ford Foundation, the Time to Succeed coalition is working to ensure that all children in our nation’s high-poverty communities have more and better learning time in school to prepare them for success. I am pleased to be one of 100 founding signatories of this coalition.

Twelve years ago, when my book Time to Teach, Time to Learn: Changing the Pace of School was first published, I proposed a host of possibilities for both extending the amount of time in the school day and for adjusting the pace of learning to better match the way children experience time at different developmental stages of childhood.

In 2007–8 I had the privilege of serving on Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick’s Education Readiness Subcommittee on Extended Learning Time. The subcommittee was chaired by Chris Gabrieli. His 2008 book, Time to Learn:  How a New School Schedule Is Making Smarter Kids, Happier Parents, and Safer Neighborhoods, documented efforts to create extended-learning time schools in Massachusetts and beyond.

From my vantage point as a developmental educator, I am particularly drawn to the coalition’s goal to ensure not just that children have more time in school, but that they have better time in school as well. This requires that we carefully and skillfully balance the emphasis on common core standards and assessment with a deeper understanding of how to better use time and instructional practices in ways that can truly meet the differentiated needs of students as they grow and develop.

We must resist a return to tracking and retention, already on the increase, for students who will succeed if given extra resources and extra time within the school day. The new paradigm suggested by timetosucceed.com can help all our children have a bright future.