Many schools are looking at ways to boost students' academic progress, and test scores. An important impetus for the debate around extending school hours is the federal No Child Left Behind law.
The five-year-old law requires annual testing in reading and math for grades three through eight, and again in high school. All students are expected to be working on grade level by 2014.
Schools that fail to meet annual benchmarks are labeled as needing improvement and have to take steps to address the problem.
A CNN news article reports that Robin Harris, school principal at Fletcher-Maynard Academy, a combined public elementary and middle school in Cambridge, Mass., is experimenting with an extended, eight-hour school day.
The school, which serves mostly poor, minority students, is one of 10 in the state experimenting with a longer day as part of a $6.5 million program.
While Massachusetts is leading in putting in place the longer-day model, lawmakers in Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and Washington, D.C., also have debated whether to lengthen the school day or year.
In addition, individual districts such as Miami-Dade in Florida are experimenting with added hours in some schools.
The article further points out that on average, U.S. students go to school 6.5 hours a day, 180 days a year, fewer than in many other industrialized countries, according to a report by the Education Sector, a Washington-based think tank.
One model that traditional public schools are looking to is the Knowledge is Power Program, which oversees public charter schools nationwide.
Those schools typically serve low-income middle-school students, and their test scores show success. Students generally go from 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. during the week and for a few hours every other Saturday. They also go to school for several weeks in the summer.
That amounts to at least 50 percent more instructional time for students in such programs than in traditional public schools, according to the report.
Up against such a tough requirement, extending the day makes sense, Harris said. "If you want kids to read, and you want to teach them how to read, they have to have time reading," she said
U.S. Sen. Democrat Edward Kennedy, chairman of the Senate committee overseeing education, is considering allowing schools that fail to meet annual progress goals to extend their day as a possible solution.
The idea of extending the school day appears to be catching on. Lawmakers in Minnesota, New Mexico, New York and Washington, D.C., also have debated whether to lengthen the school day or year.
In addition, individual districts such as Miami-Dade in Florida are experimenting with added hours in some schools.
Again, we(educators) are doing the parents job by extending the school day. Before we know it students will be staying the night at school.
Posted by: Erica | March 01, 2009 at 08:43 AM