The principal hired five substitutes who spend one day every other week at the school. On that day, this team of substitutes releases five teachers at 9 a.m. to meet as a study group. Because the school has 10 study groups, the team returns the next day for a half-day to enable the other four study groups to meet. To supplement that approach, Murdock and Addison arrange assemblies and other types of schoolwide events so teachers in the same study groups are not supervising students at the same time. At Deepwood Elementary School in Round Rock, Texas, the principal limits faculty meetings to one Wednesday a month.
Study groups meet on the other three Wednesdays of the month.
At Elder Middle School in Sandersville, Georgia, teachers have a daily 90-minute planning period. Texas' Round Rock Independent School District permitted teachers at three schools using the study group design for professional development to earn compensatory time for after-school study groups. The teachers' weekly one-hour meetings provided as much time as they would have received in two full days of staff development time. High School is now figuring out how its 230 teachers can use the study group design as its professional development model. The school of over 3,000 students is going to address how a large school finds quality time for teachers to assume more individual responsibility for their own learning.