Across the country, educators are working harder than ever—yet the results don’t always match the effort. We’ve defined what we want for our students through graduate and learner profiles. We can describe the kinds of learning experiences that will help students build those skills. But a few fundamental questions remain: Are we spending our time on the work that will accomplish those goals? Are we intentionally considering time as a variable in learning?

In education, it’s easy to confuse busyness with progress. Between endless meetings, constant emails, and the urgency of daily disruptions, it can feel like an achievement just to make it through the day. But if we were to pause and look honestly, would we be able to explain how today’s work moved us closer to a future where all students thrive?

Systems Get the Results They’re Designed For

W. Edwards Deming said it best: “Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.” If we’re grappling with teacher burnout, student disengagement, and inequities in outcomes, we have to ask—how might our own systems and routines be unintentionally contributing to these very problems? In high schools, especially, the way time is structured—through rigid schedules, siloed subjects, and credit-driven pacing—can reinforce the very outcomes we’re trying to change, making it hard to design the meaningful, connected learning experiences our graduate profiles call for.

Most sectors that have undergone transformation in recent decades—healthcare, technology, and transportation—have done so through intentional investment in research and development (R&D). They test, fail, revise, and iterate. Education, by contrast, rarely offers time or space to try new ideas, much less to refine them over time.

What would it look like to treat innovation not as an add-on but as a core function of schooling?

Time as a Variable for Learning

A growing number of schools and districts are asking this same question and taking bold steps toward realignment. They’re not just creating new schedules or electives; they’re creating new ways of thinking about time as a variable, learning, and teacher collaboration.

Collaborative Teaching and Planning. In one southwestern 3000+ student high school, leaders redesigned the daily schedule to prioritize both collaborative and individual teacher planning. Leaders recognized that a reimagined student experience—one built on interdisciplinary, personalized learning—requires time, and they made space for it during the school day.

Read the full article about reclaiming time in learning by Rachel Albright, Lacey Eckels, and Carmen Coleman at Getting Smart.