Hillary Clinton Pushes for Extended Learning Time
By Anthony Cody.
Hillary Clinton gave some idea of where she would take education policy last night at a South Carolina town hall, where she spoke of extended learning time as a key education strategy.
She said this:
There’s a lot of research which shows that, for most middle-class or well-off kids, they get out of school in the spring or early summer … and then they do things over the summer that keep them learning, A lot of disadvantaged kids get out and they actually lose some of the learning that they’ve gained during the year. So I want very much to expand the school day and the school year, and provide more structure. Starting with kids who would be most benefited from it, but I am in favor of states looking at how they might do that for every student.
As an educator, I am skeptical about this idea. In my experience, the capacity to learn diminishes as the day wears on. My afternoon classes often got less accomplished than my morning classes. As students grow weary, learning diminishes. High quality summer programs that give low income students access to some of the great learning experiences wealthier students enjoy would be great – but I would argue for programs Hillary Clinton Pushes for Extended Learning Time - Living in Dialogue: