With test scores faltering in many school districts and Americanstudents lagging behind their counterparts in other countries around the world,education reform has become a hot topic of late. One of the ways many school districts are lookingto improve their grades and test scores is by lengthening the school day, withthe idea that more time at school means more time that teachers can work withand educate students.
While longer school days may work for some students and districts as awhole, research on the issue is divided. Some studies have found little to nobenefit to extending the school day, at least not without making serious otherchanges to the school’s curriculum as well. Others take a more positive view.We’ll leave it to you to make up your own mind whether lengthening the schoolday is a good move for America’s schools (it comes at a pretty hefty cost,too). No matter how you feel, make sure to check out these studies that willhelp you better understand the real-life impact extended school days may or maynot have on American education.
One of the studies that has helped to popularize the idea oflengthening the school day is this one, conducted by the Department ofEducation in Massachusetts. The study, conducted in 2006-2007, found thatincreasing the school day by 25% in 18 schools around the state caused testscores to rise by 4.7-10.8 percentage points. Other pilot programs conducted inregional schools, including one in New Hampshire, were found to improve notonly test scores but grades as well. Additional funding from state grants hashelped to offset the costs associated with the extra in-class time required bythese new plans, and with the success of these early programs, more schools areexpected to apply for the grants this year.
One of the reasons studies on extended schools days can be so confusingis that many come up with quite different results, making them hard toreconcile with one another. While Massachusetts may have had great success inextending the school day, other school districts and states haven’t found thesame to be true. An independent evaluation of DC-area schools found that, withthe exception of higher science scores for fifth graders, there were nostatistically significant differences between schools with expanded schedulesand those with conventional days. Fans of extended-program schools point out,however, that the extended day at these schools (only 30 minutes more) simplymay not be long enough to produce any real results.
When it comes to the school day, quality is much more important thanquantity. At least that’s what some researchers believe. Larry Cuban, a professor ofeducation at Stanford, argues in his book Hugging the Middle thattoo much attention is being focused on the length of the school day, when thereal issue is the quality of education students receive while they’re inschool, no matter how long they’re there. He showcases a range of studiesshowing that there’s little evidence to suggest that lengthening the school dayalone is enough to create a marked change in student performance. Schools useextending the school day as a way to avoid making real, sustained, difficultchanges in how schools are run.
Those who stand to benefit the most from extended school days may bestudents who are at-risk, low-achieving, or who come from low-income areas.Numerous programs like KIPP schools and the LA’s BEST program have helpedthousands of low-income students improve their grades, stay in school, and evengo on to college. The numbers don’t lie when it comes to these programs, but theyaren’t accurate representations of the average American school. When it comesto public schools in general, the results of studies are much less clear on thebenefits of an extended day, even for at-risk students. Researchresults have been mixed for both extended-day and after-schoolprograms, leading many to question if they are truly worth the cost.
More time in school may not make a bit of difference if students aren’tusing it effectively. One study found that students weren’t on task for amajority of the hours they were in school, citing problems that ranged frommotivation to poor delivery of instruction. These findings suggest that moneymay be better spent on improving curriculum, delivery, and teacher developmentrather than extending school days.
In 2010, a paper called "Extending the School Day or School Year:A Systematic Review of Research" reviewed a decade’s worth of studies onextended school days. It found a number of things, including that extending theschool day could help improve student outcomes, but only under certaincircumstances. Extending the school day alone doesn’t lead to an increase instudent achievement. The best and most reliable gains were achieved by schoolsthat didn’t just add extra time but that made plans detailing exactly how thatextra time was to be used. This may be part of what causes so much confusionbetween research that supports extended school days and that which doesn’t,reemphasizing the importance of the quality not the quantityof time spent at school as the deciding factor.
The Society for Research on Educational Effectiveness conducted a studyon the difference between extended school days in charter schools versus publicschools. While they didn’t find a major difference in how the extended dayprograms were working for students, what they did find was that schools thathad a shorter summer, using a year-round or extended school year program, hadbetter long-term outcomes for students than those that didn’t. Students in ayear-round program spend less time out of school on break and thus have lesstime to forget what they’ve learned, get in trouble, or otherwise set backtheir education. Students in these schools returned to school in the fall at ahigher level than their peers, showing that spreading vacation out through theyear may have just as big an impact as adding hours throughout.
Whether it’s after-school programs or extended days, for some students,simply having activities to keep them in school and out of trouble may beenough to improve their educational outcomes. Activities like marching band,drama, chess, and a variety of academic clubs may help motivate strugglingstudents get through the school day and increase their engagement in schoolactivities. Studies have shown that 8 million children ages 5 to 14 regularlyspend time without adult supervision, in some cases as much as 25 hours a week.This time is generally spent watching TV, playing video games, or using theInternet, not on school work or self-improvement. Additionally, studies haveshown that students without adult supervision are at a greater risk ofaccidental death, drug use, crime, and dropping out of school. Of course,critics argue that schools aren’t babysitters, and that parents should beresponsible for watching children at all times, not teachers.
Extended school days may have their benefits, but those are greatlyreduced when students are required to come to class earlier. Numerous studieshave shown that later school start times are directly correlated with lowertruancy, better student health, and decreased tardiness. Additionally, studentswere found to have an easier time staying awake in class and as a result gotbetter grades than students with earlier start times. Schools hoping to extendtheir days would be well advised to do so in the afternoon, not the morning, asany gains from additional hours in school may be negated by a group of tired,cranky students. Additionally, student safety may be an issue to consider aswell, as one study showed that students driving themselves to school had farfewer accidents when their start time was pushed back an hour.
While many educational reformers point to high-performing schoolsaround the world with extended hours as examples of what American schoolsshould be doing, it isn’t quite that simple. Many of these schools have quitedifferent curricula, methods, and expectations of students, not to mentiondifferences in culture and support from public programs. What’s more, many ofthe best schools in the world actually have shorterschool days thanthe U.S., suggesting that it’s not more time that students need in theclassroom but better instruction and more support from teachers. Take Finlandfor example, where education programs have been lauded worldwide. The averageFinnish student spends only 600 hours a year in school, which is just more thanhalf the average of 1,100 hours for U.S. students.
Contacts and sources:
Kaitlyn Cole
http://www.onlineuniversities.com/10-telling-studies-done-on-longer-school-days
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