The Case for a Longer School Year (and What Conservatives Can Do About It)

What I'm about to say may not make me popular with my kids, or those jokers who produce after-school cartoons, but I'm going to say it anyway -- America needs to rethink the amount of time our students spend in school.

More than half of the freshmen admitted to the California State University system in 2006 had to take remedial math or English courses. Most of them were among the top third of high school graduates in the state and had earned a B average or better in high school. Local trade union apprenticeship programs are also struggling to find qualified applicants. Jonathan Mitchell, training director at the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 490 in Concord, New Hampshire, says that last year about half of applicants failed a required entry test in math and reading.

There are many reasons why our students are unprepared, but one major one is simple: we don't spend enough time in school.

Right now, the American school calendar is essentially a hold-over from an agrarian-centered society in which students (and teachers) needed time off to do chores around the farm. Quaint perhaps, but now that we've moved into a high-tech global economy it's becoming clear that we are failing to give our kids the skills they need in a 180-day school year.

Simply put, students in other nations are working harder, working longer, and learning more than ours. On average, students in nations participating in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study spent 193 days annually in school, compared with only 180 in the U.S. Over 12 years, this deficit translates into a gap of nearly one full school year. If we want to have a prayer of keeping our kids at the top of the global food chain, something's got to give.

Now, this isn't an issue that most Americans want to talk about. We tend to think that American kids are more "well-rounded" than students in other countries, and that that's more important than test scores. But being well-rounded means more knowledgeable, not more socialized. We are kidding ourselves if we think our kids can compete with students in India and China for the jobs of the future on six-hour school days.

I know that some will question if it's the federal government's role to set the hours students spend in school. Let me be clear -- the president shouldn't be the one to set the school calendar, but they can promote policies that increase time for learning, so that we can give our kids the academic support they need.

When a president talks about an issue, and urges action from their state and local government colleagues, it doesn't necessarily result in a federal mandate, and we don't need to have knee-jerk reactions against an idea just because a president suggests it be given attention.

In fact, my model is really about the president encouraging other states to emulate and learn from states who have implemented these plans. Take Massachusetts. Two years ago, the state created a grant program that allows schools to add 300 hours to the school schedule in order to provide more time for academics, enrichment, and personalized attention.

The extra time seems to be working. A recent Herald News article proclaimed, "The state's experimental Extended Learning Time program is paying off immediate results in the form of Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam scores."

And at Clarence R. Edwards Middle School in Boston, the sixth-grade math scores jumped to the 68 percentile this year from last year's score of 48 percent after implementing the extended time plan. The seventh-grade math scores rose to 67 percent, compared with 46 percent last year; and the eighth grade math scores are 53 percent, as opposed to 45 percent last year.

National leaders -- including the presidential candidates -- should use their platform to call attention to successful state innovations like that. And they can commit to offering local schools the encouragement and support to expand learning time if they choose to do so, just as in Massachusetts.

And we don't even have to look at expanded time through a state government lens. Many charter schools across the country use their flexibility to provide more time for learning. At charter schools in the KIPP network, students begin each day at 7:30 a.m. and end at 5 p.m. Half-day classes are held on Saturdays, and students attend summer sessions spanning 2-4 weeks. All told, KIPP students get about 60 percent more class time than their peers, and KIPP schools are routinely recognized for their high performance.

It shouldn't be an issue of politics either. Americans have long been ready for movement around this issue. In polling conducted by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation prior to launching the ED in '08 campaign, both Republicans and Democrats showed significant support for expanded learning time.

In fact, when asked, "If there were a national education reform that gave students more individualized support in school, including more quality learning time by extending the actual amount of time spent in school, would you support it?" Seventy-eight percent of Republicans were in favor, only slightly behind Democrats at 83 percent. That's a pretty impressive majority.

While these changes must ultimately occur at the state and local level, we first need leaders that are willing to take action in reforming our schools, rather than continuing to watch American students stumble along in an antiquated system. The end goal, after all, is ensuring that our kids will have the skills they need to be competitive -- and I know that's something conservatives can get behind.

Comments

[swift_goat_pet_for_truth]

Conservatives can support the President's veto on Education.

Conservatives can support the President's request for money for more dead Americans and Iraqis.

Oh, wait...
You meant to say, "Do as I say, not as I do."

[swift_goat_pet_for_truth]

According to your Master, George W. Bush, schools should go the way of health care, the least education for the cheapest price.

[1will]

What the author left out is while children in other countries go to school all year they get more breaks. They may not get 2 1/2 months off over the summer but they get alot of weeks off throughout the year while our kids get about 10 days for Christmas and a few holidays here and there. Depending on the country it may not be alot of difference between the number of school hours.

[diamondprynzez]

Sorry, but categorically disagree with you. I'm a Junior at Berkeley, and I worked pretty damn hard to get here. A lot of the time, I found myself not getting the kind of education I needed. But you know what? I WANTED to nourish myself. I wanted to go to the bookstore and pick up something I wanted to about. But nope, didn't have time to do that with all the busy work I received. Seriously, it wasn't until college where I felt passion for learning.

First of all, loads of our teachers are highly underqualified to teach. How do I know? I've gone through the system myself. Maybe a BA degree doesn't cut it to teach a course of 18 year olds who are treated like babies. More time in school with underqualified buffoons? That's like getting a minor league coach to teach a MLB team. First find a way to attract better teachers. And once you get these better teachers, assess how our kids are doing then. If they're doing better, you'll know that it's because of the higher caliber teachers. If not, perhaps spending more time in class has merit.

But for most people, even myself, high school wasn't a learning experience; it was more of a social one. For most, it would be like prolonging a party. For others, it would be pure hell. What affect would this have on truancy rates?

Seriously. Learning should not be imposed. It should be guided, no doubt; but making students stay and take classes taught by amateurs for subjects they virtually have no interest in at all could only make the system worse.

[zannamar]

I graduated Highschool in 1987. I recently went back to college and I am taking classes to finish my AA degree. Okay, here's the problem--the Math requirement is a joke. Measurements and the metric system? Are you kidding me? I was taught this in elementary school and this is now taught in COLLEGE. I feel like I am wasting my money. No Child Left Behind is leaving our whole nation behind compared to the world. We went to School for 6 hours in Highschool. I did go to a small Highschool that was associated with a University. We had high quality teachers many with PhD's and small class sizes. We didn't study to take a test. We studied to prepare us to go to College. The Quality of Teachers and the Quiality of Education has really gone downhill if we are teaching College Students the Metric system.

[Romulus]

The kids don't spend enough time in school? They don't get enough homework? That's the problem?

Hmmm. Let's see. I went to school in the 50s and 60s. We spent 6 hours a day in school 9 months a year. I can't remember doing much homework in elementary school. In jr high and high school I might have averaged a hour or two a night. And yet that generation produced the highest SAT sccores ever in 1966.

I don't think time in class or more homework is the answer.

[jeskiley]

Don't forget to factor in that China and India have deeper roots as a culture, they are nourished by that, while many of us can't find a firm place to plant our own feet and identities. Also, China and India are motivated by different principles than we are, different visions for themselves. Once Americans agree that we have a country worth defending, and that education is an asset and a tool, we will fix the inside of the system and more efficiently produce a better product.

[lewzealand]

Yeah, just what I would have needed in School. Lets see 6 hours lost in class, 4-6 lost on homework and 8 hours on sleep that leaves 4-6 hours to eat, wash and get to places, never mind trying to relax and be a kid. And I use the term lost because most of my teachers couldn't have taught their way out of a paper bag. I think their idea of teaching was to burry us in homework. If you trade the volume of homework in for time in class maybe it'd work for some but actually being in school was too dangerous (due to my peers and teachers looking the other way) and I learned more on my own. As long as the teacher taught the text (some didn't) I did ok. I think my parents and a love of reading are the only things that got me through. Just look at teen suicide rates in those countries and tell me more time in school is good.
If you want to make a difference, get quality teachers and interested parents. Anything else is throwing away good money after bad.

[Kissydee]

I must agree with Barticus. Adding hours or days to a broken system will not fix it.

In Japan, students often take extra classes in the evening to keep up with their school classes during the day. Should we start doing this to our kids?

Perhaps we should just make the time they do spend in school more effective. Kids can use the break, and so do teachers. I for one, am planning to teach, in part because I love working with children, but also because it would give me some time to get a masters degree and travel. Given the low pay, many teachers work other jobs during the summer. We can't get teachers enough money now, I don't see how you could ask them to work more without a jump in pay.

[kasa5400]

"There are many reasons why our students are unprepared, but one major one is simple: we don't spend enough time in school."


Well if the kids did their homewok and not their parents, that would be a big start and add more study time to the day.

More time would be good but even better would be immediately ending the grade-inflation where they hand out an "A" because the student 'tried and did the best they could' instead of an 'A" fo actually mastering the material. And god forbid that someone would actually flunk the little darlings when they don't know the material they are suppposed to learn - can't have them failing you know as it might 'damage their self-esteem.'

[realitytrumpsbull]

The future of education is literally at your
fingertips. Yes, that computerer. Made IN China.
By people that don't mess around. While people
in the USA whine about not getting enough
vacation time or special benefits or preference
or whathaveyou, China works 3 shifts. They
study hard. Eventually, you do enough of that,
you run the planet. So, people promising you
government money for essentially sitting on
your ass and standing there with your hand out?
Don't vote em into office. Hold your breath
for THAT to happen...

[JustAnotherJoe]

Got money? Wait until the pols see the price tag. I agree that an extended school year makes sense academically. Makes no sense to have school buildings empty 2-3 months out of the year. Teachers aren't paid enough now, and yet they'll be working extra days. According to the American Federation of Teachers, the average teacher salary last year was about 44K. For a teacher working an average 185 day contract, that's roughly $238 dollars a day. For a 220 day contract, the average would bump up to 52K a year. Throw in the fact that most teachers also use the summer to work on degrees and obtain state mandated continuing ed hours, all largely out of their own pockets. Are those requirements going to go away? Politicians need to do more than pay lip service to this idea and actually come up with funding. If we can find the funds to occupy Iraq...you know the rest.

[Barticus]

A few more weeks in a broken educational system isn't going to do much good. We need make the schools into places of learning rather than places of confinement.