PATERSON — School 10 — among the worst academically in New Jersey — will give its students half days on Fridays starting in September so its teachers can get extra training.

Cutting classroom time for children at the struggling school is designed to improve the lessons they get for the other four and a half days of the week, with “high-quality, data-driven instruction” generated during the two-hour Friday afternoon training sessions for educators, officials said.

“It’s very strategic, very purposeful,” said school board president Manny Martinez.

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Students would be dismissed at 1 p.m. on Fridays but would have the option to stick around and participate in after-school programs under the plan.

In each of the past two years, more than 90% of the students at School 10 failed state tests in math and language arts, according to the New Jersey Department of Education. Moreover, about 53.7% of the 479 children at School 10 were deemed chronically absent in 2022-23 because they missed class more than 10% of the time.

“I look at it this way. If we know the students are not getting it, then we have to do something different,” said school board member Della McCall. “Some people feel giving the teachers extra training is how we get there.

“I’m optimistic,” McCall added. “This superintendent is taking a different approach and not just putting a Band-Aid on it.”

Its poor track record has made School 10, located on Mercer Street in Paterson’s 4th Ward, the target of various intervention programs over the past decade, including an infusion of extra state education funding.

At present, the state has designated School 10 as one of those in need of “comprehensive” improvement, which are those in the lowest scoring 5% in New Jersey where problems have persisted for three or more years. In fact, School 10 is categorized as a “Comprehensive II” school because it couldn’t make improvements in its initial time as a “Comprehensive” school.

“It needs drastic change,” said Rosie Grant, executive director of the Paterson Education Fund advocacy group. “The professional development is needed if we want to see improved student outcomes.”

The president of Paterson’s teachers’ union, John McEntee Jr., said he would be sending Superintendent Laurie Newell a letter asking for details about the School 10 training plan.

The Board of Education voted to approve the early Friday dismissals at School 10 during its meeting on Wednesday night. But board members did not conduct any public discussion on the plan.

During the meeting, Newell talked about visiting School 10 this week to celebrate the retirement of a 50-year educator. But the superintendent did not mention the new intervention effort at the school. It was not immediately clear if the district is taking other steps to try to improve student performance at the school.

Martinez said the weekly training sessions will give School 10 educators an opportunity to make what he called “real-time” changes in the way they teach, geared to fix specific shortcoming in students’ academic skill.

In the past, teacher training was sporadic so that problems would persist for months before they were addressed, he said.

Martinez said the strategy of sending students home early some days so that teachers could get trained is a common tactic in education.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Class will end early at a Paterson school for teacher training