Thinking differently about time on task
More time on task — growing evidence, along with simple common sense, shows that the more hours students engage in learning, the more they can boost their academic achievement. That, along with increasing concerns about the learning reversals students suffer over the summer, is why more and more school districts are starting to think beyond the confines of the six-hour-a-day, 180-day-a-year box.
An analysis by Education Sector, which has been closely following the issue of Extended Learning Time, finds that more than 1,500 public schools have either extended their schedules or plan to do so next year. More than half of these schools are low-performers with federal improvement grants. The others, according to the National Center on Time and Learning, are a mix of charter schools supported by networks and traditional public schools, mostly supported by states or districts. The state of Massachusetts supports extended time in 19 schools in 9