Total direct instruction/teaching hours per year?

[Bang!Zoom!]

If you keep track...

 

How many direct instruction hours do you account or plan for per year?

[Whereneverever]

About 3 hours a day x 180 days= 540 hours

[GWOB]

The state of Nebraska requires 1032 hours of instruction for k-8 and 1072 hours for 9-12. I count every day spent teaching as a full 6 hours. No, it never takes us 6 hours to complete all of our work, but I count it anyway. If the ps can count half days as full days, so can I. If you, as a homeschooler, count every single hour of instruction required, you will be light years ahead.

[Whereneverever]

Is this for something official, or your own personal planning?

[Bang!Zoom!]

My own planning.

 

PS here is 180 days in session. That means nothing to me. Nothing.

 

The calendar here is 285 days in length, and only 180 are in session.

 

If I had to call it, actual instruction time per week (not just being there) is probably around 3.5 hours per day of actual teaching.

 

Half days count as full days? Really?

 

My face is on fire.

[Bang!Zoom!]

I really can't find any information on that question on PS in WA state.

 

I can only find the requirement that there is to be 180 days of instruction. I cannot find a requirement of hours.

 

The HS law here requires 1000 hours of instruction *annually* (which is equivalent to private school regulation).

 

I don't want to assume that direct hours of instruction in PS is the same as what is required for others.

[Dobela]

My own planning.

 

PS here is 180 days in session. That means nothing to me. Nothing.

 

The calendar here is 285 days in length, and only 180 are in session.

 

If I had to call it, actual instruction time per week (not just being there) is probably around 3.5 hours per day of actual teaching.

 

Half days count as full days? Really?

 

My face is on fire.

Here the school can count the day as a full day if the kids stay until 12:30 and teachers remain for inservice. The state board only allows this a limited number of times however. Otherwise anything less than a full day cuonts as a partial day.

[RahRah]

Our state requirement is 1,000 hours - but it isn't specified as "direct instruction," but rather "1,000 hours of instruction" and then detailed to include that 600 of the 1,000 hours must be in the core subjects (of that 400 must be in the homeschool location); the additional 400 hours are implied to be elective or core. The 400 and 600 core hour requirements are super easy to meet in a year....as is the additional 400 anything hours.

 

Our school district calendar has 178 days scheduled, with 5 of those designated as snow days (if they're not used as snow days, there are other days noted that will be off if snow days are not taken in the winter) - so that's really 173 days. If 1,000 is divided by 173, that means that the equivalent "instruction time" in PS is 6.5 hours a day. School is in session 7-hours a day, so it seems they consider 0.5-hour of that day as non-instruction time if we're looking at equivalents.

 

I don't even think the district would ever say they're giving direct instruction those 6.5-hours - they have set up the calendar with 6.5-hours of instruction a day, but there is no way it's all direct instruction.

 

All that said, I have no desire to short-change DS by trying to fudge hours, but at the same time understand and appreciate that what it takes for him to have an equivalent (better) of instruction time does not require 1,000 hours of direct instruction in a one-to-one setting.

 

We homeschool year-round using the July 1-June 30 calendar in the state regulation for hours calculation - so in the summer we'll easily clock at least 100 hours without any effort. From mid-August through whenever we finish up the year's work (which could be late April to mid-May) we'll likely exceed the 900 hours without much fuss - we'll go over the hour requirements.

 

I schedule our day with class hours - for example, math is 45-minutes, so 0.75-hour, if we finish up before that, it's 0.75-hour - if we run over because DS needs more time, it's 0.75-hour....I count an overtime the same to keep the hours *fair* for those times we don't use the full 45-minutes, as balance to the times we do run over the time period.

[Ellie]

I really can't find any information on that question on PS in WA state.

 

I can only find the requirement that there is to be 180 days of instruction. I cannot find a requirement of hours.

 

The HS law here requires 1000 hours of instruction *annually* (which is equivalent to private school regulation).

 

I don't want to assume that direct hours of instruction in PS is the same as what is required for others.

WA law is 180 days *or* 1000 hours annually. Furthermore, it says that "the nature and quantity of instruction and related education activities shall be liberally construed." And even further, you don't have to record those hours or prove anything to anyone. IMHO, it isn't worth spending time figuring it out. :-)