Longer School Days Are Coming to Select Massachusetts Schools

Will more time in school translate into greater student achievement?

Federal and state officials announced yesterday that Massachusetts, along with Connecticut, New York, Tennessee and Colorado, are participating in a pilot program to find out.

Csmonitor.com reported that the program will add at least 300 hours of learning time in some schools starting next fall. 

Fall River and Lawrence are the two Massachusetts towns included in the pilot project. Boston.com reports that this new program adds to an effort launched six years ago in Massachusetts to lengthen the school day in several school districts.

The pilot program reportedly will last three years and include almost 20,000 students in 40 schools with an eye to bringing in more schools if it is effective, particularly lower-performing schools in lower-income communities. Each school district gets to decide exactly how the school time will be increased: longer school days? More of them? Both?

Wilmington Superintendent of Schools Joanne Benton said there would need to be adjustments made if the pilot program turns into a more widespread requirement in the future.

"If the time is used correctly, if can benefit students," said Benton. "I think you would need to do targeted tutoring for some students and additional professional development for staff in order to help raise test scores in these school systems. Schools need to plan carefully how they will use the extra time."

The pilot is part of a project called the TIME (Time for Innovation Matters in Education) Collaborative, a partnership between the Ford Foundation and the National Center on Time & Learning (NCTL).

Benton said she does not believe this is something that could be successful in Wilmington because of the already busy slate that students have.

"This would not work in Wilmington based on all the after school programs our students participate in," said Benton. "I would rather see a change in the entire school year where there was a shorter break in the summer."

We asked readers on the Wilmington Patch Facebook page what they thought of the proposal, and the response was overwhelmingly against it out of the 33 comments we received.

"So adding an extra hour or so per day, in addition to still having homework and projects, plus sports and extracurricular activities and lets not forget family time," wrote Jennifer Stone Ciampa. "When do kids get to be kids? Bad idea."

Michele Broderick said she believes that if significant learning time is added, adustments must be made in other areas.

"If you extend the school day/year you need to cut out the homework and other required activities outside of school hours," said Broderick. "We all need downtime and many studies show that homework is counterproductive to learning anyway."

What do you think about this pilot project; do you think this is a constructive approach to improving student achievement? Let us know in the comments section below.