Longer School Day = More Learning? Not Necessarily

Researchers say teachers must be trained to use added time in the classroom effectively.

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Recently we talked about how some American schools have made changes in the traditional school year. Their goal is to improve student learning.

Some have extended the school year, or reorganized it to avoid a long summer break. Another choice is to extend the school day. A new report from the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at Indiana University examines research into how effective this is.

The traditional school day has not changed much in more than a century. Activities or special programs might mean a longer day. But younger children usually go to school from about nine o'clock in the morning until about three in the afternoon. Older ones are traditionally in school from about 7 a.m. until around 2 p.m.

Some high schools have changed to later start times because of findings that teenagers learn better that way. But the new report says results have been mixed. Teachers say students are more awake. But students say the changes interfere with after-school activities or jobs.

By 2001, almost one-third of all secondary schools had some form of block scheduling. The idea is to provide longer periods in the school day to teach basic subjects.

More class time should mean better results. This is the thinking, at least. Yet a 2001 study found that secondary schools with traditional schedules had higher test scores by comparison. Schools with block scheduling did have higher scores in science, though.

In any case, the study agreed with earlier findings that students feel better about their schools in systems with nontraditional scheduling.

So how useful is a longer school day? Not surprisingly, the policy experts at Indiana say it is what educators do with the extra time that has the largest effect on student learning. They note a criticism that education leaders often make scheduling changes without changing the learning environment of a school.

The experts say teachers must be trained to use the added time effectively. Professional development is needed. The report notes that simply adding time to a program that is not very good or very interesting will not increase student learning.

Community support is also valuable for any changes. And there is another consideration. Schools may need a lot of extra money to pay for an extended day.

Appalachian State in Public Eye After Win Over Michigan

Who would have thought it? Well, some might have. The Mountaineers from North Carolina were two-time national champions at their own division level.

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An exciting start to the college football season: A team that many people never heard of defeats one of the best in the country.

If you follow American sports, then you know we are talking about the Michigan-Appalachian State game. It happened on September 1st at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, in front of more than 100,000 people.

Appalachian State University is in Boone, North Carolina. Its team plays in a stadium that holds about 25,000 people.

The Mountaineers of Appalachian State and the Wolverines of the University of Michigan normally do not even play each other. Michigan is in the newly named Football Bowl Subdivision, the top level of college football. Appalachian State plays in the Football Championship Subdivision.

But they decided to meet for the first time. Michigan agreed to pay Appalachian State $400,000, win or lose.

Teams like Michigan need victories, even a victory over a lower division team, to get into big, nationally broadcast bowl games. These games are worth millions of dollars at the end of the season.

Fans expected an easy Michigan win. After all, in the preseason, sports experts had considered Michigan the 5th best college football team in the country.

But Appalachian State is a two-time national champion at its own division level. And its players wanted to show they could play well against a nationally ranked team. And they did.

The final score was Appalachian State 34, Michigan 32. The game quickly became known as one of the greatest upsets in college football history.

The win has brought national attention to Appalachian State. Local stores reported a huge increase in orders for college clothing and other items. And the university chancellor expects more students to seek admission next year.

The university has more than 13,000 undergraduates and 1,600 graduate students. It has four colleges and a school of music.

Last Saturday, at home, Appalachian State defeated another North Carolina school, Lenoir-Rhyne College, 48 to 7.

The Wolverines also played again at Michigan Stadium. And they lost for the fourth time in their last four games, this time to the University of Oregon. The score was 39 to 7.

Virginia Tech Report Criticizes Mental Health System, School Actions

An official committee presents its findings about the April killings of 32 people by a student.

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A committee gave its findings last week about the Virginia Tech shootings in April. The committee appointed by Virginia's governor and led by a retired state police official called for more than 70 changes. The goal is to prevent a similar tragedy in Virginia or anywhere else.

On April 16th Seung-Hui Cho, a student, killed 32 people and wounded 17 before killing himself. Among other things, the Virginia Tech Review Panel discussed his mental health history.

In 1999, he wrote in middle school about killing himself and others. This was after the Columbine High School shootings in Colorado. His teachers thought he should get treatment, which he did.

He also received services in high school. But school officials thought privacy laws prevented sharing this information with Virginia Tech.

There, he caused a number of troubling incidents. The report says the university in Blacksburg did not intervene effectively. It says no one knew all the information and no one put it all together.

The committee pointed to problems with Virginia's mental health system. It also found widespread misunderstanding about federal and state privacy laws.

In 2005, a court judged the young man a danger to himself and ordered him to get treatment. But he was not ordered into a hospital. Still, his name should have been added to federal and state lists of people barred from buying guns.

Virginia law did not make that clear. Governor Tim Kaine has moved to deal with this. But Virginia officials found that less than half the states report any mental health information to a federal database used for gun purchases.

At Virginia Tech, emergency services reacted quickly after two people were killed early that morning. But the report says police may have been too quick to decide that a possible suspect was probably no longer in the area. And top administrators are criticized for failing to send out a warning message about the shooting for almost two hours.

Minutes after that, the shootings began in Norris Hall. Still, the committee says quickly securing all buildings would not have been possible.

Some victims' families want the university president and police chief to resign or be dismissed. The governor rejected that idea.

Virginia Tech began a new school year August 20th, a day after a ceremony for a memorial to the 32 victims.

Note: Photo courtesy of the Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Debating Year-Round Education

Some families and businesses oppose programs that keep schools open all year. Second of two reports about school calendars in the US.

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Today we continue our discussion of school calendars in the United States.

Some people say the traditional calendar of 180 days no longer meets the needs of American society. They point out that students in most other industrial countries are in school more hours a day and more days a year.

Critics also say a long summer vacation causes students to forget much of what they learned.
Schools are under pressure to raise test scores. Some have changed their calendars to try to improve student performance. They have lengthened the school day or added days to the year or both.

This can be costly if schools need air conditioning on hot days and school employees need to be paid for the extra time.

Local businesses may object to a longer school year because students are unable to work as long at summer jobs.

Some schools have a year-round schedule. The school year is extended over twelve months. Instead of a long vacation, there are many short ones.

The National Association of Year-Round Education says almost 5% of public school students attend year-round schools. It says almost all of the states have some public schools that are open all year.

Some parts of the country had year-round programs in the 19th century, mostly for economic reasons. They felt it wasted money to use school buildings for only part of the year.

Year-round programs can also reduce crowding in schools. In one version, students attend school for nine weeks and then have three weeks off. The students are in groups that are not all in school at the same time.

Another year-round calendar has all students in school together for nine weeks and off for three. This is meant to provide the continuous learning that can be lost over a long break.
But year-round schooling has opponents. They say it can cause problems for families when they want to make summer plans. And they say it interferes with activities outside school -- including summer employment.

Some experts say no really good studies have been done to measure the effect of school calendars on performance. But some educators think year-round schooling especially helps students from poor families that lack educational support at home.