The Educated Reporter: Measuring the Impact of More - and Better - Time For Learning

The Educated Reporter: Measuring the Impact of More - and Better - Time For Learning:

THE EDUCATED REPORTER

COMMENTARY ON EDUCATION COVERAGE, WRITING AND A FEW OTHER THINGS

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2013

Measuring the Impact of More - and Better - Time For Learning

This week we're catching up with sessions from EWA's National Seminar, held at Stanford University. Today's guest blogger is Debbie Cafazzo of the (Tacoma, Wash.) News-Tribune.  Stream any session from National Seminar in your browser, or subscribe via RSS or iTunes. 

Why do kids need more time for learning? Jennifer Davis of the National Center on Time & Learning puts it this way: 180 six-and-a-half hour days aren’t enough to get it all done. Closing the achievement gap, improving teacher quality, broadening curriculum to include arts, physical education, foreign language and robotics – all while meeting the needs of parents – requires more time.

The schedule that was put in place more than 100 years ago to serve farms and factories doesn’t meet the needs of working families today, Davis told reporters who attended the session on expanded-learning time at EWA’s National Seminar last May.

Students in low-income families with less access to enrichment opportunities need