Posted on 03/26/2007 5:54:34 AM PDT by shrinkermd
...The idea of a longer day was first promoted in charter schools — public schools that are tax-supported but independently run. But the surge of interest has been spurred largely by the federal No Child Left Behind law, which requires annual testing of students, with increasingly dire consequences for schools that fall short each year, including possible closing.
Pressed by the demands of the law, school officials who support longer days say that much of the regular day must concentrate on test preparation. With extra hours, they say, they can devote more time to test readiness, if needed, and teach subjects that have increasingly been dropped from the curriculum, like history, art, drama.
“Whether it’s No Child Left Behind or local standards, when you start realizing that we’re really having a hard time raising kids to standards, you see you need more time,” said Christopher Gabrieli of Massachusetts 2020, a nonprofit education advocacy group that supports a longer school day. “As people are starting to really sweat, they’ve increasingly started to think really hard about ‘are we giving them enough time?’ ”
Still, some educators question whether keeping children in school longer will improve their performance. A recent report by the Education Sector, a centrist nonprofit research group, found that unless the time students are engaged in active learning — mastering academic subjects — is increased, adding hours alone may not do much.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
I feel sorry for the children. The material is dumbed down and boring. The teachers are all busy trying to be social engineers. Only in government is failure rewarded by more -- more time, more money, more responsibility.
Only a liberal could see the answer to a failing school system to be keeping the kids in the failing program longer. That'll just make them bigger failures. That's the ticket.
Comments, ladies?
and we all know that longer days is gonna mean more money for the teachers. That will be their next agenda.
After many studies, there is still no evidence that longer school days will lead to more student learning. But I guess it does sound good to those who don't know any better or who see this as a new babysitting resource.
The best answer [IMHO] is to bust up the teacher unions! Give back control to the parents & school boards who are elected to carry out the parents wishes!
>>I feel sorry for the children. The material is dumbed down and boring. The teachers are all busy trying to be social engineers. Only in government is failure rewarded by more -- more time, more money, more responsibility.<<
The poor kids. My family is not wealthy but I have a 13 year old brother and the neighborhood my folks live in averages $250,000 houses -plenty of tax base for good schools.
But his school is rated failing year after year and their solution is to provide free breakfasts for the kids on the theory that the schools are failing due to poor nutrition.
It never seems to occur to them that they need better teachers.
And many homeschoolers know you can study all the subjects, including things like history that apparently these schools are dropping (??!) and still not take more than half the day before high school.
Good lord, but I never know whether to laugh or cry at these antics.
Parental involvement. Literate parents that give a damn.
Longer school day means inner city schools will give free breakfast, lunch and supper?
Innner city schools are failing but is the answer longer days, more money or __________ ?
Books?
What are these people thinking? The ENTIRE SCHOOL YEAR year should be devoted to learning (preparing) for the test.
Instead they've been teaching the kids a bunch of global warming, Heather has two momies nonsense.
No wonder the 'educrates' are starting to sweat. They DAMN well should.
In Palm Beach county Florida, one of the three largest districts in the country, after 8 years of Jeb Bush we have no failing schools. All it took was setting standards and embarassing the hell out of those who didn't measure up until they owned the problem and fixed it.
Iz u all indoctrinated? Iz u all good little Nazis?
Homeschooling is an all day (every day) affair at our house. My wife and I share the load so my school day begins when I get home from work in the evening.
Books like these? No wonder the schools can't educate kids.
The Great American Textbook Scandal
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2000/1030/6612178a_print.html
bump!
See link posted by MetMom!
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