Longer School Days and Years Catching On in Public K-12

"A growing number of American schools are ditching the 19th century—when it comes to the school calendar that is.  Twice as many schools today have a longer school day or year than just two years ago and, for the first, more of them are traditional public schools than charter schools, according to a joint report released Thursday by the Boston-based National Center on Time and Learning (NCTL) and the Denver-based Education Commission of the States.

Of the 2,009 schools that had expanded learning time last year, 1,208—or 61 percent—were regular public schools. That's almost a total flip from 2012, when there were 1,079 schools with additional time and 56 percent of them were charters.

The number of students attending charter and non-charter extended learning time schools has also doubled during that period, from 520,000 to nearly 1.2 million. 

Jennifer Davis, president of NCTL, said the shift indicates that charter schools are fulfilling their mission as centers of innovation in education whose successes can be models for traditional public schools.

"Every high-performing charter school in America has more time," Davis told Education Week. "That's the only way they have been able to show that kind of educational gains for their students."

An interactive database developed by NCTL shows that schools in 44 states and the District of Columbia have added at least 30 minutes to their school day or 10 days to their academic year.  

Some have gone well beyond that. So far, 41 schools in five states increased the school year by..."

Read more @ Education Week
Related article | Longer School Year: Will It Help Or Hurt U.S. Students?