An Introduction to The Study Sites Time has long been a defining element of American education.
State laws determine when in an individual's life compulsory schooling begins and ends, for example.
To progress in school, children move through a sequence of grades that roughly corresponds to their ages. When they are not, they are considered to be either behind or ahead of schedule. These and many other time-based school practices represent the enduring and often unquestioned foundations of American education. This chapter introduces a group of schools that have broken with tradition in configuring time for teaching and learning. Case studies of these schools and the ways in which they have confronted old and new time barriers form the basis of this study of education reform efforts viewed through the lens of time.