The five-day workweek has long been commonplace for many, and it has something in common with schools. However, creating a more flexible schedule that offers students time to explore learning opportunities outside of school or remote learning from home can yield a variety of benefits, including giving students and their families the power of flexibility in the educational space.
Dr. Betsy Fowler, director of schools at ASU Preparatory Academy in Tempe, Arizona, and recent tech & Learning Award winner Innovative Leader Award As chief academic officer at the recent Denver Regional Summit, she discusses her school's Family Choice Friday program, which allows her district to “go big.”
“ASU Prep is a large organization in the sense that we are more than just full-time schools,” says Fowler, adding that it offers a full digital program from kindergarten through 12th grade and a globally developed curriculum. “We have incredible resources to offer our students and families, so being pigeonholed into a traditional five-day week felt very antiquated to us. There is so much we can offer our students that is beyond our walls. So last year, we took on the challenge of creating a few sites to test Family Choice Friday. Now it is being rolled out network-wide so our campuses can offer more flexible and fluid learning environments for all of our students.”
What is Family Choice Friday?
Each Friday, ASU Prep students can choose to work from home or spend a half-day program directly on the institution’s campuses, where they participate in special programming. On-campus sessions include academic interventions, enrichment activities, college experiences and course support, and special field trips, all designed to complement and extend the standard curriculum.
Students also have a menu of options for other academic opportunities.
“One example is our partnership with ASU,” Fowler says. “Our students can come in on Fridays and learn from professors who are experts in their field. It’s not a formal learning experience. It’s like opening the door to learning that is possible. But if we were to stick to a traditional five-day school week, it would be nearly impossible for our students to have the time they need to be able to have this unique learning experience.”
Being able to work with professional experts can provide life-changing opportunities. It can help students learn more about topics that are interesting to them while also gaining real-world experience with how those topics are applied in a work environment. With the freedom of a full day to engage in this level of educational interactivity, students also find that they are not limited by time constraints that hold them back.
How important is the idea of choice in education?
As a student, what you can learn can seem very limited. Often times, choice is not a luxury afforded to students or parents when it comes to education.
“I think there’s a huge motivation that comes from giving more authority to our students and their families,” Fowler says. “We want to continue to be the guardians of high expectations. As a society, we’re so busy, and we shouldn’t underestimate getting enough rest and having those wellness parts of our lives. But we’re driving home the point that[students]have the most incredible opportunities to take advantage of something that wouldn’t normally be available to you if you were just going to traditional school.”
How can we ensure that students see the benefits of Family Choice Friday instead of thinking of it as just another day off?
“We’ve seen that (students) rise to the occasion when we give them the option to see things as they are,” Fowler says. “Our hope is that even if they take some opportunities to have a little more flexibility, which might mean just keeping well-being in mind, we know that every single one of our high school students will take these kinds of empowering moments to really invest in themselves with incredible opportunities.”
These types of educational opportunities provide students with invaluable moments in the early years of their lives: opportunities to build a resume, work with professionals, and discover their calling in life. Fowler has recognized how crucial this time is in a student’s life and has found a way to maximize its impact.
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