President Obama declared that, “challenges of a new century demand more time in a classroom”. American students are not competitive with students in other countries around the world when it comes to math, science, and languages.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan echoes, “Our school calendar is based upon the agrarian economy and not too many of our kids are working in the fields today”. Use to be that crops were harvested in the summer where every available person was needed to assist. Technology, corporate farming, and job opportunities in the cities no longer requires manual labor yet schools still close for more than three months in the summer time.
Students in most other countries spend 25% to 30% more time at school that American students. Yet summer school programs have expanded and so have after school programs in the USA. Taken those hours and formalize it will put the US school calendar on par with most. It will also serve a social need for children with working parents.
The US only requires 180 school days compared to most Asian school days of 190 to 201 days. A current three-year experiment with longer schools days in certain areas shows promising results in academic performance. A Brooking Institution study looked at math scores in countries that added math instruction time. Scores rose significantly, especially in countries that added minutes to the day rather than days to the year.
A group of 82 charter schools across the country that is known as KIPP go to school from 7:30 am to 5:00 pm daily; every other Saturday; and for three weeks in the summer. The program is rich with arts, music, and physical activity in addition to the core subjects. They outperform every public school district in which they operate at 8th grade level on state tests.
Almost 90% of all public schools receive funding for free and reduced lunches in the USA. That makes poor children almost totally dependent on their learning experience at school. A long summer break results in poorer performance when school starts as very little academic reinforcement takes place outside of the school.
No doubt that longer school days or school years will cost money. As is, most public school teachers are only paid for eight to nine months of the year. But if other countries can do it, so can we.
I think back to my schools years in South Africa. Our summer break was just over four weeks – the longest of four school holidays. We had a winter break of three weeks and two, one week ‘spring breaks’. School stared at 8:00 am and ended at 2:00 pm. On Tuesdays and Thursdays were compulsory sports practice till 4:30 pm. Those not participating in sport would spend time in a library or classroom. Wednesdays were interschool competitions, pending on the seasonal sports of the day. Friday was “early release day” at 2:00 pm – a regular school day. Saturdays were competition again and everyone was expected to attend and cheer for the school team. We did wear uniforms; we were physically punished; and had strict hair and jewelry rules. Teachers were paid year round and had to coach to get a job – irrespective of the area of specialty. Those who did not coach took responsibility for study hall during sports hours. It seemed to work well as more than 1 million products of the apartheid school system are now being productive and making their mark in countries around the world.
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