Duval County public school teachers should have more time to teach next year thanks to a massive reduction in the amount of paperwork and student-testing they’ll have to do.
The Duval County School Board and Duval Teachers United union announced Thursday they’ve agreed to cut the number of documents teachers have to fill out from 47 items to just 13.
Union President Terrie Brady says a recent poll found 95 percent of Duval County teachers take work home with them because they don’t have enough time at school to finish everything.
“That is a huge percentage of our workforce who does work off the clock, without pay, that gives up their time from their families and other responsibilities in their community to complete required tasks,” she said.
Under the same agreement, the number of tests given to students each year will also be cut from 23 to 10 at the elementary school level and from 29 to 12 at the secondary level.
These and a number of other changes meant to give teachers more time to prepare, collaborate and instruct will kick in this fall in the next school year.
