Virginia pilots full-time teacher program

The last day of school for most teachers in Fairfax County, Virginia, was June 17, but you wouldn't know it at George Marshall High School. One day this month, the hallway lights were dim and the parking lot nearly vacant, but an English teacher was advising an ambitious student in a bare classroom upstairs, and three social studies teachers were mulling over Harry Truman and test scores in the library.

The Falls Church area high school is part of an $8 million, three-year county pilot initiative to extend teacher contracts into summer and encourage teachers to take on greater responsibilities, inside and outside the classroom.

With intensifying demands from high-stakes tests and an increasingly diverse student population, Superintendent Jack D. Dale said, effective teaching requires more planning and collaboration. "Teaching is a full-time job," he said. Read the article in The Washington Post online.