longer school days essay

10 Longer School Days Pros and Cons

In the United States, many children find themselves falling behind on their benchmarks that are needed for basic scholastic achievement. Once a child falls behind their grade level, it can be difficult for them to catch back up. This is especially true for difficult subjects, such as mathematics or reading.

One of the solutions to this issue is to extend the length of the school day. This extension may be as little as 30 minutes, but some districts have implemented up to 2 additional hours of schooling every day.

The primary benefit of a longer school day is that it provides students with more time for learning. Teachers can provide more 1-on-1 time with each student in their classroom, allowing for specific weaknesses to be personally addressed. Trouble areas for each student can have education plans implemented to correct them, even if an IEP isn’t mandated for that student. Even intensive tutoring could be implemented.

As for the disadvantage of a longer school day, quantity doesn’t necessarily equate to quality. The fact that students are falling behind on their scholastic benchmarks is evidence that the current teaching structure, curriculum, and/or environment isn’t working for that student. Instead of making a student endure an ineffective system for a longer period each day, a better solution would be to improve the quality contacts for those individual students.

Here are some additional pros and cons of a longer school day to consider and discuss as well.

What Are the Pros of a Longer School Day?

1. It matches the class schedule to a parent’s work schedule. In many US school districts, the first class begins 1-2 hours after most parents need to be at work. The final class ends 1-2 hours before the work day ends for most parents. By extending the length of the school day, parents can potentially save some money on child care because their schedules will better match. If nothing else, household transportation costs can be reduced by synching up the schedules.

2. It provides additional learning time for other subjects. In an era when school districts face tight budgets and limited resources, the creative subjects tend to be the first ones to go. Subjects like music, art, and physical education tend to be cut because they aren’t tested in a standardized way. By having longer school days, it would be possible to add these subjects back into local curriculums so that students can benefit from a well-rounded education.

3. It could reduce the amount of homework sent home. Many teachers send homework with their students at the end of the day or the week as a way to supplement the learning process. By extending the length of a school day, it would make it possible to reduce or eliminate the amount of homework that is sent to students. That lessens the burden on parents to be teachers at home, which can be difficult in an era when Common Core mathematics has proven to be difficult to understand.

4. Optional courses or recreational activities could be part of the school day. Although a longer school day means less free time, certain components of school could be included as part of the day so that the loss is tempered. Sports practices could be part of the final period of the day. Certain recreational activities, such as swimming, could be included as part of the curriculum. By surveying what students want to learn outside of school, a district can create a comprehensive plan that still encourages passions to be pursued while educational opportunities are extended.

5. It could create longer family weekends. Many employers offer their workers the option to work four 10-hour days instead of five 8-hour days, creating a three-day weekend for that employee. Schools which extend the length of their contact time could do the same thing. That means the potential of creating longer family weekends, when schedules can be synced up, and that increases parent-child contact time.

What Are the Cons of a Longer School Day?

1. It limits student activities outside of school. If children are spending more time in a classroom, then that means they’re spending less free time outside of it. A longer school day means less time for students to get involved in programs like 4-H, the Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts, or organized sports. Instead of pursuing something they are passionate about, like gymnastics or marital arts, students will be sitting at a table or desk, trying to retain information from textbooks while being told what they need to learn instead of learning what they’re passionate about.

2. It results in fatigue. Children who become tired are less likely to retain information provided to them. Fatigue in children can also create mood instabilities or enhance the symptoms of an attention deficit disorder diagnosis. It is not unusual for students to already experience this issue after lunch, so extending the school day would make it difficult for children to mentally prepare themselves for additional learning.

3. Scores don’t rise with longer school days. From data compiled in 2009 by the Seattle PI, students in the United States are already spending longer days in school compared to other nations. Compared to Singapore, US students are spending more than 200 additional hours in school each year. Even with these additional contact hours in place, student scores in the US have failed to rise to the levels seen in other nations.

4. It forces teachers to work longer hours too. Teachers are already putting in a full day of work. Most teachers arrive an hour before school starts and leave 1-2 hours after school ends. Many teachers grade papers at home and perform other duties outside of the “normal” work day. Extending their contact time with students will extend their day and could make many of them be less effective at what they do.

5. More funding is required to make longer hours happen. More contact hours for teachers means a higher salary needs to be paid. Another solution would be to hire additional teachers, but that would mean an added labor cost as well. That means higher property taxes and levies. It means private schools would raise their tuition rates. Considering the additional time doesn’t seem to improve scores, a focus on quality would be a better solution – especially if the funding requirements are difficult to meet.

The pros and cons of a longer school day will always be a controversial debate. More contact time can mean greater learning opportunities, but it could also create discipline issues for tired children without seeing any gains in scores. By focusing on quality first, then quantity, US children may have a better chance to reach their benchmarks and strive for future success.

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Arguments For and Against Longer School Years

This week, President Obama repeated his support for longer school years , pointing out that in many countries, kids attend school a full month longer than American kids. Of course, in some ways, it does not matter what the president thinks of this. School years are set on the state and local level. The federal government could provide some incentive funds for such an idea, but largely the issues of money and teacher union contracts affect the issue.

But, as you will see in some of the material to follow, there is far from conclusive proof that longer school years produce better students. No doubt, the studies say, some poorer performing students would benefit. But not all would. And a longer school day might produce even better results than a longer year would. Look at the information in the chart from this report by Edu in Review .

The 180-day calendar is shorter than that of other industrialized countries, and some schools even find ways to shave days even further . A story on the St. Louis Post-Dispatch’s website said:

“America’s traditional 180-day school year is more myth than reality in Illinois, as a jumble of state laws, rules and waivers allow districts to chip away instruction time, shorten school hours and cut the number of days students come to school.

“While Illinois requires 176 days of ‘actual pupil attendance’ already fewer than most states the vast majority of public school districts dip below that by one or two days and sometimes more, a Tribune analysis has found.

“Some 400,000 students in Chicago Public Schools attend school 170 days, with permission from state lawmakers. A similar waiver allows a suburban district to shave eight days off its calendar so teachers can work on improving student achievement when students aren’t there.

“What’s more, the Chicago Tribune found that in many districts, a day isn’t necessarily a day.

“Hundreds of districts send kids home early or have them come in late even as much as once a week to give teachers time to get training, meet with parents or collaborate. Districts can count these shortened days toward attendance requirements.”

Other voices on this topic

A fair number of studies question whether longer school years really would result in higher performance . The students who might benefit most are the students who have special needs or need remediation, two researchers found. Longer school years would cut down on how much students forget from the end of one school year to the start of the next.

Here is a briefing paper presented in 2009 [PDF] by the Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation at the University of Southern Maine. The key research points included the idea that extending the school day could be more beneficial than extending the school year :

• “The issue isn’t time per se, but how it is spent
• “The key to increasing achievement is not necessarily more time in school but maximizing the amount of academic learning time
• “Any addition to allocated time will only improve achievement to the extent it is used for instructional time, which must then be used for engaged time, which, in turn, must be used effectively enough to create academic learning time
• “Quality is the key to making time matter … Educators must — to the greatest extent possible — make every hour count
• “Improving the quality of instructional time is at least as important as increasing the quantity of time in school
• “Most calculations suggest that a 10 percent increase in time would require a 6 to 7 percent increase in cost but could save parents money in child care costs”

Similarly, a researcher in Germany found that a shorter time in school did not affect average students’  learning of material in the core academic subjects [PDF]. But a report by the Massachusetts Teachers Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and Massachusetts 2020 had good things to say about longer school years .

USA Today reinforced the fact that views on this topic are mixed :

” … in Miami-Dade County, Fla., a three-year program in 39 underperforming public schools that included an extended school day and a longer school year produced mixed academic results, according to a final evaluation released last month. Administrators and teachers experienced fatigue and burnout, and many students did not attend class in the beginning of the summer, the report said.

” ‘Principals and teachers also reported that proficient students felt stigmatized by the mandatory additional time, which was viewed as a punishment rather than enhancement,’ program evaluators wrote.

“Other report findings showed students scored lower on the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Tests in reading or math compared with other students in the county. So it is not enough to ask how many days a kid is in school. You also have to ask what they are doing while they are in class. Half of the teachers who were part of a test group to get 300 more hours of teaching time in a school year said there was adequate time to cover the curriculum.”

So it is not enough to ask how many days a kid is in school; you also have to look at what they are doing while they are in class.

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

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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 300 hours as part of an NCTL initiative called the TIME Collaborative (Time for Innovation Matters in Education), which you can read more about here .

The rapid pace of growth reflects a policy shift at all levels of government, said Davis.

The U.S. Department of Education recently changed the regulations for its School Improvement Grants —funds designated to turn around the lowest-performing, high-poverty schools through expanded learning time and other measures—by extending them from three to five years.

When the Senate committee on Health, Education, Pensions and Labor approved a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act earlier this week, in an action we wrote about here , members also agreed to let states use funds in an after-school grant program to expand learning time.

The most significant changes and incentives for extra time are occurring in the states. In the past two legislative sessions, lawmakers in all 50 states introduced hundreds of bills giving schools and districts the scheduling flexibility and funding to go long. More than 40 of them passed, including these:

• Florida allocated $75 million to add an extra hour of literacy instruction in the state’s 300 lowest-performing elementary schools.
• New York implemented a $24 million program to lengthen the school day by 300 hours a year in specific districts.
• Colorado established “innovation schools,” giving designated schools the flexibility to redesign the school day and schedule.

At the local level, the Boston teachers union, mayor, and school board reached agreement in late December to lengthen the school day by 40 minutes at 60 elementary schools. As Education Week reported here and here , the pact gives teachers an annual $4,500 stipend and an extra 75 minutes a week for collaboration, planning, and professional development.

As the graphic below from the report indicates, the majority of expanded time schools serve low-income, high needs students— 77 percent qualify for free and reduced-price lunch and 86 percent are students of color.

It’s a challenge for any school to fit in everything they have to teach given the new focus on collaborative and project-based learning and deeper problem-solving skills required to master the Common Core State Standards, said David Farbman, senior NCTL researcher and lead writer of the report. But it’s especially daunting for high-poverty schools.

“It has become clear that meeting the learning needs of many of our students—especially those from disadvantaged backgrounds—requires considerably more time than is available in the traditional calendar of 180 6.5-hour days,” write Farbman and his co-authors.

But the purpose of the additional time isn’t just to give low-income children more math and reading, said Davis, they also need opportunities to study art, music, science, robotics, and other activities that either aren’t available or affordable.

“What we’re doing,” she explained, “is trying to enable children living in poverty to have close to the same educational opportunities that people with resources, like I do, invest in our own kids’ education.”

But the report stresses that expanded learning time is one piece of a larger reform strategy that should include strong accountability measures, using data to improve instruction, and ensuring that teachers have strong collaboration and professional development time.

It also calls on the Department of Education to provide funding for technical assistance to help states, districts, and schools create a plan for implementing expanded learning time; and to gather more data on the impact of expanded learning time on students and to develop a better system for sharing that information.

“There isn’t enough of that in America,” said Davis.

A version of this news article first appeared in the Time and Learning blog.

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The Promise and Challenges of Extending Learning Time

With millions of students struggling academically and the U.S. Department of Education pushing the deadline for spending some federal pandemic-recovery funding into 2026, there’s both a need and an opportunity for local education leaders to increase learning time.

More time gives students more opportunities to learn and to develop bonds with teachers and peers, allows teachers more flexibility to meet individual students where they are, and can accelerate learning.

School reformers have supported the strategy for years. The landmark 1983 federal reform manifesto A Nation at Risk urged state and local policymakers to replace the then-traditional 6-hour school day and still-common 180-day school year with 7-hour days and school years as long as 220 days. President George H.W. Bush established a National Education Commission on Time and Learning in the 1990s that endorsed more learning time. And President Obama promoted the strategy a decade and a half later.

But increasing the time students spend learning presents significant challenges for educators and education policymakers. Which strategies produce the best results? Which are the most politically palatable? The most cost-effective? This report addresses these and other key questions.

Extended Learning Time Models

There are several ways education policymakers can increase learning time. The additional time can be voluntary or mandatory, occurring after school, during the summer, during school breaks or weekends. In some cases, it can involve changes to academic calendars.

Extended school year

Extended school year programs expand the number of days that students are in school beyond the 180 days typically mandated by states for public schools in the U.S. (Requirements range from 160 school days a year in Colorado to 186 days in Kansas).

There are two primary strategies for adding instructional days—lengthening the school year or adding “intersessions” during vacation breaks.

While the typical 180-day school year continues from August to June, extended-year programs often run for 200 or more days and students start the school year earlier or end the year later than their peers, resulting in a shorter summer break. This is not the same as year-round schooling, which is often used to address overcrowding. Under that model, students typically attend school for 180 days, but schools are open year-round and some students attend during the summer.

Massachusetts launched an Expanded Learning Time Initiative in 2005, establishing a    competitive grant program that resulted in participating schools across the state redesigning their school calendars to increase instructional time by at least 300 hours, a roughly 30 percent increase.

Many charter schools have embraced extended school calendars, in some cases providing up to 50 percent more learning time than traditional public schools. The KIPP charter school network, for example, serving 120,000 students in 275 schools nationwide, uses both longer school days and school years. Although specific schedules vary in KIPP schools, extended time was integrated into the KIPP model, with a typical day now spanning from 7:30 am to 4 pm or even later, and additional instruction offered on Saturdays and during the summer.

More recently, two schools in the Aldine Independent School District near Houston, Texas, extended their school years to 210 days during the 2021-22 school year to help students rebound from school closings during the early days of the pandemic. The experiment’s positive impact on student achievement prompted the district to add two more schools to the initiative in 2022-23.

Richmond Public Schools in Virginia launched a pilot program that extends the 2023-24 calendar to 200 days in two elementary schools to help address learning loss during the pandemic. Students at the schools returned at the end of July, a month ahead of Richmond’s other schools.

In contrast, the intersession model adds blocks of days throughout the school year when students can receive additional academic support, including during winter or spring breaks, or at the beginning or end of the school year. Some school districts mandate the sessions for struggling students; others offer them to every student.

The Dallas Independent School District introduced intersessions as part of a $100 million extended-school-year initiative starting in fall 2021. Forty-one schools added five voluntary intersessions of a week each to their school calendars, during which schools invited up to half of their students who could benefit most to participate in targeted enrichment and remediation. Only five schools chose the calendar that would extend the school year for all students.

The Los Angeles Unified School District took a similar, though less intensive approach in 2022-23, adding four “acceleration days” to provide students targeted academic support. The district added two voluntary days over both winter and spring breaks. Many elementary students received small group or one-on-one support focused on literacy and math, while middle and high school students often received tutoring or college and career advice. About 40,000 students participated in the winter session and 30,000 in the spring session; 80 percent of the participants were considered high-need students. The school district is continuing the acceleration days this school year.

Extended school day

Extending the school day typically entails adding 30 minutes to an hour to the traditional 6-to-7-hour schedule, providing students an extra 150 to 300 minutes of instruction per week, or an extra 14 to 28 days over the course of a 180-day school year, based on a 6.5-hour school day.

The extra time allows school districts to create a supplemental period for targeted support, such as tutoring or small-group study sessions. Atlanta Public Schools , for example, during the 2021-22 school year added 30 minutes to the elementary school day for a dedicated intervention block for small-group tutoring to address learning loss.

In 2012, Chicago Public Schools was the first large urban district to expand the length of its school day for all its schools, moving from a 5.75-hour day—well below the national average—to a 7-hour day for elementary students and a 7.5-hour day for high schools. Opposition to extending the school day without additional teacher compensation was a factor that led to a 2012 Chicago teacher strike.

Out-of-school time

Out-of-school programs, also called expanded learning opportunities, are school-based or community-based opportunities for additional learning and enrichment outside of regular school hours and the standard school curriculum. This includes afterschool and summer-learning programs, as well as tutoring, mentoring, or other enrichment activities.

Because these programs do not require calendar changes and are often optional opportunities, they are more prevalent than extended-day or extended-year initiatives. FutureEd analyzed the way 5,000 school districts educating 74 percent of the nation’s students planned to use their federal pandemic-response funding and found that more than 3,000 of the districts expected to provide after-school, extended-day, or summer programs.

Mobile County School District in Alabama, for example, has dedicated a significant portion of its federal pandemic funding to bolster afterschool and summer programs across its 92 schools. The afterschool program includes homework help and academic support, as well as art, music, STEM, and other enrichment. The four-week summer program includes instruction in math, science, English language arts, and reading, with specialized support for English language learners.

Research generally concludes that increased learning time improves student outcomes if educators use the additional time effectively.

A 2010 review by the American Education Research Association of 15 research studies between 1985 and 2009 found that extended school time can be effective, particularly for students of color and low-socioeconomic or low-achieving students—groups who typically have fewer opportunities for out-of-school learning and are most susceptible to summer learning loss. The researchers note that the quality of instruction, as well as the amount of time added, is a critical factor in seeing achievement gains.

Another review of 27 studies, conducted in 2012 by Child Trends, found mostly favorable relationships between extended-day programs and academic outcomes.

More recently, a 2017 study of a Boston Public Schools’ expanded-learning-time initiative that involved 31 schools adding at least 30 minutes of additional instruction a day between 2015 and 2017 found positive effects on students’ language and mathematics achievement. The results were especially strong in math and for Black and Hispanic students.

Similarly, researchers at the Center for Analysis of Longitudinal Data in Education Research in 2018 found significant positive effects on reading achievement under a Florida program requiring an hour of supplemental reading instruction daily through an extended- day program in the state’s 300 elementary schools with the lowest reading results.

A 2020 study by Beth E. Schueler from the University of Virginia’s Curry School of Education of “vacation academies” or “acceleration academies” implemented in low-performing Massachusetts middle schools found that attendance in the program increased the likelihood of students achieving math proficiency by 10 percentage points on state exams. Achievement in English and end-of-course grades also improved.

And a 2022 research review by Matthew Kraft and Sarah Novicoff found that extending students’ time in class could increase student achievement, if the increased time was used well.  “When used ineffectively, extended learning time will produce little benefits for students and can even be counterproductive if this additional time has detracted from more enriching activities,” the researchers cautioned. The study also found that districts that moved to four-day school weeks—a recent trend particularly for small or rural areas aiming to address staffing and funding challenges—yielded mostly negative results. Additionally, the researchers noted that the evidence for extending the school year rather than the school day appeared to be strongest.

Studies have shown that afterschool enrichment and other academic-oriented programs can help improve test scores, decrease the likelihood of course failure, and increase class attendance and graduation rates. Research indicates that such programs are most effective when they provide between 44 and 210 hours of instruction annually for reading and between 46 and 100 hours for math.

Summer programs, too, have improved academic outcomes, provided they give students sufficient high-quality academic instruction. A 2018 RAND study found that students who received at least 25 hours of math instruction and 34 hours of reading instruction during voluntary, district-run summer programs performed better on subsequent state tests than those who did not attend.

Extending learning time comes with significant challenges that educators and policymakers must navigate carefully.

Quality of extra time . Additional instructional time is likely to yield stronger results when it’s used to provide one-on-one or targeted small-group support, and when it’s closely aligned to a school’s curriculum and delivered by qualified educators.

A 2012 study by Abt Associates of Massachusetts’ Expanded Learning Time Initiative found that some schools saw substantial increases in the number of students scoring proficient, whereas others saw little change or even decreases after providing students in 26 schools with 300 additional hours annually. Importantly, the researchers didn’t measure the quality of instruction that students in the schools received.

Amount of extra time . Extending instructional time involves adding enough but not too much extra time. Small additions to the school day or school year might not make a difference, whereas too much could lead to student and teacher burnout. The 2012 study of the Massachusetts extended-time initiative found that significantly fewer students in the schools that adopted expanded learning times looked forward to and enjoyed their time in school and significantly more teachers reported fatigue.

Effective summer programs, the 2018 RAND study found, tend to run for five to six weeks and provide at least three hours of daily academic instruction. Afterschool programs are most effective when they provide between 44 to 210 hours for reading and 46 to 100 of additional instructional time for math, according to a report by the University of Pittsburgh’s Office of Child Development. When in a school calendar time is added can also make a difference in student engagement; students, for example, are often less motivated to stay in school into the summer after their peers in other schools have started summer vacations.

Student eligibility . Key questions for policymakers are whether to make extended time mandatory or voluntary and whether to open the programs to every student or target them to those most in need of academic support. Targeted programs are likely to be less costly since they serve fewer students. And focusing on the neediest students allows schools to narrow the programs’ instructional focus, rather than having to address the needs of students with a wide range of learning levels. School districts also need to ensure that students have the transportation they need to participate in the programs and that they attend.

Staffing . Extending school hours for students also extends the working hours for teachers and staff. Buy-in from teachers and staff, as a result, is a crucial ingredient of expanding learning time successfully. Efforts to extend the day and year are often met with significant pushback from teachers and their unions.

In Richmond, Virginia, Superintendent Jason Kamras proposed an ambitious plan to extend the school year for one-third of the district’s students, which the Richmond teacher union and several school board members rejected. In response, Kamras developed a voluntary pilot program, RPS200. Once interested schools’ applications received initial approval, they had to demonstrate support from a majority of parents and teachers, after which they were fully approved by the school board. Any teacher assigned to a school that ultimately adopted the RPS200 calendar was guaranteed placement at another school if they chose to transfer.

Arguing against a longer school year, Melvin Hostman, a member of the executive board of the Richmond teachers’ union, emphasized that teachers have struggled with low morale since returning to in-person teaching and insisted there were more pressing challenges, including late-arriving school buses, student absenteeism, and even a lack of toilet paper in schools, he told The New Yorker .

In Los Angeles, the United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing district teachers, blocked Superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s initial proposal to embed additional instructional days across the school year. In response, Carvalho clarified that teachers who agreed to work the additional days would be paid their usual daily rate and moved the days to the start of winter and spring breaks.

A 2013 report from the National Center on Time and Learning analyzed the costs associated with extended time at five different types of public schools in different parts of the country and found that teachers at the schools were paid an increased rate for additional hours worked under terms negotiated with local teacher unions.

External stakeholders . In addition to teachers and other school employees, a range of external interest groups often opposed mandatory extensions of the school day and school year, including the tourist industry and summer camp associations, whose members benefit from longer summer breaks.

But parents are the most important constituency likely to oppose extended time, particularly since the pandemic. A 2021 national survey by University of Southern California researchers found that only 23 percent of parents supported a longer school year and 19 percent supported longer school days to respond to pandemic learning loss. This reluctance could reflect the negative experiences many families had with school during the pandemic. It could also signal the disconnect between many parents’ positive perception of their children’s academic performance and students’ actual achievement levels.

In Richmond, Virginia, parents voiced opposition to Superintendent Kamras’ initial proposal, emphasizing that students needed a break after the stressors of the pandemic. And in Chicago, where longer days were introduced well before the pandemic, parents voiced concerns about adding additional time when the current system was already dysfunctional.

Communicating the educational and child-care benefits of longer school days and school years is critical to winning the support of parents and overcoming the opposition of the tourist industry and other outside political actors.

Cost . The 2013 National Center on Time and Learning report found that the cost of expanding learning time ranged from $290 per student for an additional 132 hours of instruction annually (equivalent to 20 days) to $1,695 per student for an additional 540 hours (equivalent to 83 days), a figure that seems conservative, given that annual per-pupil spending averages $13,200 nationally and 83 days constitutes nearly half a typical school year. The report found that transportation costs made up roughly 2 to 3 percent of the added costs.

The Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time initiative initially provided $1,300 per pupil to schools who received the grant (the state later added an $800 option for schools to apply for). A review of the program found that more than 70 percent of the $1,300 went toward instructional staff salaries, followed by 10 percent for support staff. Administrators, contractual services, supplies, and fringe benefits made up almost all the remaining 20 percent.

Los Angeles Unified’s acceleration days cost $611 per student per day for the first two days added, which is significantly higher than the state’s per-pupil funding of $132 per day for the entire 180-day school year—a high price tag considering that less than 10 percent of the district’s students actually showed up.

In Richmond, teachers in the two schools with extended school years receive $10,000 bonuses and principals receive $15,000 bonuses. Additionally, teachers moved to 11-month contracts. Richmond school officials have estimated the personnel costs for the extended year at the two schools to be $2.7 million , an almost 25 percent increase in the total budget for the two schools.

Teachers and other staff are often paid at higher-than-normal rates as a condition of working longer hours under local collective bargaining contracts, something that’s typically not the case at charter schools with longer school years.

Many school districts are currently using federal pandemic-response funds to cover the cost of extended learning time. Once the emergency money runs out, they will have to find alternative funds. Other potential federal funding sources include the U.S. Department of Education’s 21st Century Community Learning Center grants, which can be used to fund afterschool and summer learning activities.

Ultimately, meeting students’ academic needs post-pandemic demands schools provide as much high-quality instruction as possible. Expanding the school day, the school year and after-school and summer programs are all effective strategies to reach that goal, research suggests. But all have unique implementation challenges, and policymakers need to select the options that best suit their local political and policy landscapes. As always, they must then implement those options effectively if they hope to maximize the benefits of increasing instructional time.

Research Associate Kristian Thymianos contributed to this explainer.

Published: November 2, 2023

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Longer School Days Essay Example

“School days should be longer.” This is a common saying most likely said by parents. But shorter school days could also benefit parents and kids. Shorter school days give kids the opportunity to take up more extracurricular activities such as sports, and school clubs. And this also allows parents to spend more quality time with their kids. 

First of all, shortening the school days will give students extra time to finish their homework and give kids more time to do their work precisely. Some students stay up really late to finish their homework. And some people suffer from all the stress and anxiety because of homework assignments. So shortening the school days can give kids more time to thoroughly examine and turn in their assignments earlier.

Second of all, “ Life is short, so enjoy it while you can.” Everyone should be able to include their hobbies into their everyday lives. So if there were shorter school days, kids would be able to use that time to fulfill their interests. In this time students could also take up extracurricular activities, such as sports and participating in school clubs.

Third of all, shorter days of school could also give a parent and a child to spend more quality time with each other. Some students don't have a very close bond with their families so spending time with their families could build a stronger bond between them. It will also allow a parent to help their kids with homework and give their kid advice on how to improve their homework.

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In the U.S., 180 days of school is most common, but length of school day varies by state

School has started in most of the United States. On average, K-12 public schools will be in session close to 180 days this year, according to a Pew Research Center analysis of  data from the Education Commission of the States .

But as with many things involving public education, there is considerable state-by-state variation in how much schooling children will receive – and even how much time constitutes a day of school.

Every state sets rules for the minimum amount of time school must be in session. The minimum is usually some combination of days and hours per year and hours per day; state policies also establish how much, if any, non-instructional time – such as lunch, recess and class changes – can count toward those minimums. Individual districts set their own calendars based on those statewide rules, unless they obtain a waiver.

The most common way that states regulate instructional time is to set a minimum number of days for the school year; 38 states and the District of Columbia do so. The majority of those states (27 of 38), along with D.C., mandate 180 instructional days, making it the closest thing the country has to a national norm.

To better understand how school instructional time varies across the United States, Pew Research Center analyzed information on state laws and regulations compiled by the  Education Commission of the States , a nonprofit research organization that serves education policymakers throughout the country. We double-checked the ECS data against the relevant state statutes, rules and policies, updating it as necessary.

Many states’ rules differ depending on grade level, so we chose to look at annual and daily instructional time requirements for four specific grade levels: kindergarten (half-day and full-day, when appropriate), fourth grade, eighth grade and 11th grade. The idea was to get a sense for how instructional time at standard, five-day-a-week public schools compares at each of the major levels of K-12 education – kindergarten, elementary school, middle school and high school. That said, states vary considerably in how much, if any, non-instructional time (such as lunch, recess and class changes) can count toward those minimums.

Some states set separate requirements for how many days or hours districts must schedule versus how many they must operate . (The difference often reflects built-in days for teacher training, weather-related closures and the like.) In such cases, we used the minimum number of days or hours districts must schedule to meet their state’s calendar requirements.

While most of this analysis is based on 2023 data, we also examined similar data for five earlier years. The 2013 and 2014 compilations were also published by the Education Commission on the States. Data for 1989, 2000 and 2018 came from the  National Center for Education Statistics . While these earlier datasets provided some illuminating context, they proved too different from one another to permit direct year-over-year comparisons.

Which states require the fewest school days? The most?

Seven states set minimums less than 180 days, with Colorado having the lowest requirement at 160 days. Four states require more than 180 days, with Kansas as the leader. The Sunflower State mandates 186 days for kindergarten through 11th grade (and 181 days for 12th grade). Overall, the average requirement, among the states that have one, is 179 days.

A minimum school year of 180 days has been the norm for a long time. In August 1989, 33 states and D.C. had 180-day requirements, according to  a 1992 report from the National Center for Education Statistics . Only one state required more school days that year (Ohio, with 182), while 12 required fewer. The remaining states either had no minimum day requirement or set a range of 175 to 180 days.

How many hours in a school day – or a school year?

Besides setting a minimum number of days, states can regulate school time by mandating a certain number of hours or minutes per school year. Thirty-nine states have these types of laws or policies, according to the Education Commission of the States. (Some states, in fact, give districts the option of meeting either type of minimum – by days or time per year. Oklahoma, for instance, allows school districts to schedule 180 standard school days or spread out 1,080 hours over 165 days.)

In a majority of those states (26 of 39), annual time minimums vary by grade level. For example, South Dakota sets an annual minimum of 875 hours per year for fourth graders but requires 962.5 hours of school for eighth graders.

Across all states that specify annual time minimums, the average for fourth graders is 997.8 hours per school year. For 11th graders, the number of hours required in a school year ranges from 720 hours (including lunch) in Arizona to 1,260 in Texas (though that state expresses its requirements in minutes, not hours). The average requirement for 11th graders, among the 39 states that have one, is 1,034.8 hours per year.

Another option is to require a certain number of hours or minutes per school day, which 29 states and D.C. do. In 16 of those states, the requirements vary by grade level. In Pennsylvania, for example, the minimum length for a school day is 2.5 hours for kindergarten, 5 hours for first through eighth grades, and 5.5 hours for ninth through 12th grades.

For eighth graders, the school day can contain as few as 3 hours in Maryland and Missouri, or as many as 6.5 in Tennessee. New Hampshire and Oregon, intriguingly, set  maximums  for the length of the school day – in the case of eighth graders, 6 hours in New Hampshire and 8 hours in Oregon. And as with annual time requirements, states vary on how and whether to count lunch, recess and other non-classroom time.

Texas is unique in that it only sets a minimum number of  minutes  in the school year – 75,600, or 1,260 hours, including intermissions and recess – which districts are free to distribute as they choose. In the past, however, Texas mandated 7 hours per school day, including intermissions, recesses and other non-instructional time. If Texas school districts continue to follow that older convention, that would work out to a school year of … 180 days.

Minimum number of hours in a school year, 2023

Minimum number of hours in a school day, 2023.

About 1 in 4 U.S. teachers say their school went into a gun-related lockdown in the last school year

About half of americans say public k-12 education is going in the wrong direction, what public k-12 teachers want americans to know about teaching, what’s it like to be a teacher in america today, race and lgbtq issues in k-12 schools, most popular.

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The Argument Against Longer School Days Essay Example

Already stressed out about school? How would you feel if they added another hour and a half? It wouldn’t be a good idea would it? I personally do not think so! There's many reasons why I don't think it's a good idea. It could affect the students in different ways. Here's a few reasons I think make a good argument.

Mental health is a very important aspect in a person's life, especially a school student. It can affect how they perform in school, and out of school. If a student suffers from depression, anxiety, or any other mental/physical disabilities, it can be difficult to bring themselves to try in school. They may just not have the energy to try. They may not be able to comprehend everything going on so it stresses them out. Adding school time would only worsen this  issue. It would be concerning since a lot of students don’t reach out to others. This would cause their mental health to decline. A student would do better if they have a better mental stability. 

A student may have a difficult home life. They could possibly have a younger sibling that they need to care for since the parents aren't there. Their parents might need help with something. If they were kept longer in school it would distract from these things. This could cause students to stress more, relating back to my previous point, it could affect their mental health. IF a student becomes overwhelmed with worries or guilt, it could have a bad outcome. No one would ever want that to happen to someone they love. It could cause them to stay up more often to try to make up for when they felt as if they weren’t there for their family. Suicide awareness is a very important issue, stress and sadness are some of the reasons people commit. Longer school hours could worsen this issue yet again. 

If a student is old enough to have an income source of their own, staying more hours at school could take away from their job hours. School is just as important as a job, if not more, but if they are saving up to move out from a toxic household or saving up for a nice college, they're going to need the work hours. Money is important in the world we live in, I get told often “nothing comes for free, there's always a price” and I think that is a very important statement. They could be saving up for many different things, maybe a car to attend school without being dependent upon their guardians. They could be saving up to help parents with bills. It's very important to have some money, even if you're still under your parents roof. Most students who attend school and work either end up with weekend shifts, which can take away from family time, or night shifts, which can affect your sleep schedule. As I have stated many times before, sleep is very important for keeping up grades, and having a decent mood.

All of the reasons I have said are why I personally think we should not lengthen school days. By just adding such a small amount of school time can mess up someone's entire daily schedule. It's a very important thing, especially if their schedule is already tight and doesn't have room for being interrupted by something unnecessary. While I do see the benefits of adding more hours, there's more cons than pros.

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Essay on School Days

Students are often asked to write an essay on School Days in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on School Days

Importance of school days.

School days are the foundation of our life. They shape our character, habits, and knowledge. These days are filled with learning, fun, and friendships.

Learning and Knowledge

In school, we acquire knowledge about various subjects. We learn to read, write, and solve problems. It prepares us for future challenges.

Character and Habits

Schools also help in character building. They teach us discipline, punctuality, and responsibility. These habits stay with us forever.

Fun and Friendships

School days are full of joy. We make friends, participate in activities, and create unforgettable memories. These friendships often last a lifetime.

250 Words Essay on School Days

Introduction.

School days, often referred to as the ‘golden period’ of one’s life, are filled with learning, exploration, and the formation of lifelong friendships. This phase shapes our character, instills values, and prepares us for the challenges of the future.

Academic Learning

School is the platform where the foundations of academic knowledge are laid. Subjects like science, mathematics, literature, and social studies equip us with essential skills and knowledge. They foster critical thinking, creativity, and problem-solving abilities, which are integral to personal and professional success.

Extracurricular Activities

Beyond academics, schools offer a plethora of extracurricular activities. Sports, arts, debates, and clubs are not merely recreational; they serve as platforms for holistic development. They instill teamwork, leadership, discipline, and resilience, traits that are invaluable in the real world.

Social Skills and Friendships

School is the first social environment we encounter outside our family. Interactions with peers and teachers help develop communication skills, empathy, and respect for diversity. The friendships forged during school days often last a lifetime, providing emotional support and shared nostalgia.

In conclusion, school days are a blend of academic learning, extracurricular activities, and social interactions that shape our personality and worldview. They are a cherished chapter in our life’s book, filled with memories that we revisit with fondness and lessons that guide us throughout our journey.

500 Words Essay on School Days

The essence of school days.

The school days are often regarded as the most formative phase of an individual’s life. They represent a period of growth, exploration, and discovery, paving the way for the development of one’s personality, values, and beliefs. The essence of school days lies not only in academic learning but also in the acquisition of social skills, emotional intelligence, and ethical values.

Academic learning forms the backbone of school education. It equips students with knowledge in diverse fields such as science, mathematics, language, and social studies. The curriculum is carefully designed to stimulate intellectual curiosity, foster critical thinking, and encourage problem-solving abilities. However, the value of school education extends beyond mere academic proficiency.

The importance of extracurricular activities in a student’s life cannot be overstated. These activities offer a platform for students to explore their interests and talents outside the confines of classroom instruction. Whether it’s sports, music, drama, or debate, extracurricular activities provide students with opportunities to develop teamwork, leadership, and communication skills. They also instill a sense of responsibility, discipline, and resilience, shaping well-rounded individuals who can navigate the complexities of life.

Social Skills and Emotional Intelligence

Schools serve as a microcosm of society, exposing students to a diverse range of individuals. Interacting with peers and teachers allows students to develop essential social skills like empathy, respect for others, and conflict resolution. Moreover, school days are a time when students encounter a wide array of emotions. Dealing with success, failure, joy, and disappointment helps cultivate emotional intelligence, a critical aspect of personal growth and mental health.

Ethical Values

Schools play a pivotal role in inculcating ethical values in students. Values such as honesty, integrity, respect, and compassion are often embedded in school policies and practices. These values, once internalized, guide an individual’s actions and decisions throughout their life.

Challenges and Opportunities

While school days are filled with learning and growth, they also present challenges. Academic pressure, social dynamics, and personal issues can sometimes be overwhelming. However, these challenges offer opportunities for self-discovery and character development. The support and guidance provided by teachers and peers during these times often leave indelible marks on a student’s life.

In conclusion, school days are a critical phase in an individual’s life. They provide a foundation of knowledge, skills, and values that shape an individual’s future. While the journey may be filled with challenges, the lessons learned and the memories created during this period are invaluable. As we navigate through life, the echoes of our school days continue to influence our actions, decisions, and perspectives, underscoring their enduring impact.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

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• Essay on Importance of School
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Home — Essay Samples — Education — School — Persuasive Essay On Shorter School Days

Persuasive Essay on Shorter School Days

• Categories: School

About this sample

Words: 457 |

Published: Mar 13, 2024

Words: 457 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

References:

• National Education Association. (2019). The impact of longer school days on student well-being. Retrieved from https://www.nea.org/resource-library/impact-longer-school-days-student-well-being
• American Educational Research Association. (2018). The effects of longer school days on student performance. Retrieved from https://www.aera.net/Research/Research-News/The-Effects-of-Longer-School-Days-on-Student-Performance

Bibliography:

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A Classical & Christ-Centered Education

Classical Christian Education

Christ-centered.

In all its levels, programs, and teaching, Logos School seeks to: Teach all subjects as parts of an integrated whole with the Scriptures at the center (II Timothy 3:16-17); Provide a clear model of the biblical Christian life through our staff and board (Matthew 22:37-40); Encourage every student to begin and develop his relationship with God the Father through Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18-20, Matthew 19:13-15).

In all its levels, programs, and teaching, Logos School seeks to: Emphasize grammar, logic, and rhetoric in all subjects (see definitions below); Encourage every student to develop a love for learning and live up to his academic potential; Provide an orderly atmosphere conducive to the attainment of the above goals.

Grammar : The fundamental rules of each subject. Logic : The ordered relationship of particulars in each subject. Rhetoric : How the grammar and logic of each subject may be clearly expressed.

What Do We Mean by Classical?

In the 1940’s the British author, Dorothy Sayers, wrote an essay titled The Lost Tools of Learning . In it she not only calls for a return to the application of the seven liberal arts of ancient education, the first three being the “Trivium” – grammar, logic, rhetoric, she also combines three stages of children’s development to the Trivium. Specifically, she matches what she calls the “Poll-parrot” stage with grammar, “Pert” with logic, and “Poetic” with rhetoric (see The Lost Tools Chart ). At Logos, the founding board members were intrigued with this idea of applying a classical education in a Christian context. Doug Wilson, a founding board member explained the classical method further in his book, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning. Logos School has been committed to implementing this form of education since the school’s inception.