This Issue:

Table of Contents

Cover Story

Cover Story - Spanish Version

Mini-Lesson

Comprehension Quiz

Teacher's Guide and Worksheets

More Time for School

Spanish Translation

Brenda Iasevoli

IT'S 3:00 P.M. AT THE MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. School in Cambridge, Massachusetts. First graders are making English-muffin pizzas. Fifth graders are painting water lilies in the style of artist Claude Monet. The King students have been in school for seven hours. They still have one hour to go before dismissal.

"Why send kids home at two o'clock?" says Christopher Gabrielli of Massachusetts 2020, a group that helps create extended-day programs. "Kids need time to achieve skills in English and math, but art, music, drama and sports should also be a part of every kid's life. We could provide all of this if there's enough time."

The Need to Succeed

Teachers and students at the King school, which spans prekindergarten through eighth grade, spend two extra hours each day in school. King is one of 19 schools in Massachusetts that have added two hours to the usual six-hour school day. The state is the first in the United States to sponsor a plan to make the school day longer, dedicating $6.5 million to the effort.

Schools across the country are seeing the benefits of more schooltime. New Mexico is spending $2.3 million to add one hour per day for about 2,100 students who failed state achievement tests. In Miami, Florida, 39 schools that did not meet state standards added an hour to the day and five days to the school year.

Coming up with money to pay for teachers and cover other costs for the extra hours is not easy. Massachusetts senator Edward M. Kennedy wants the government to invest $50 million a year through 2012 to train 20,000 teachers to plan classes for the extra hours.

Simple Addition

The idea for extending the school day comes in the wake of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) law. It requires annual testing of students. There are tough consequences for schools that do not meet national goals. Failing schools can even be closed. In order to raise scores, teachers have focused more on the tested subjects: reading and math. Art, drama, physical education and even science have been dropped from many school schedules to make more time for reading and math instruction. "Before, I never saw science taught in this building," Carole Learned-Miller, King's principal, told TFK. "Now I see it all the time."

Time-pressed teachers find it difficult to get beyond the pencil-and-paper lessons and into the other experiences that help kids learn. But an extended day allows students to put ideas into practice. They learn math through cooking and science through gardening.

Before the longer day at King, "there just weren't enough hours in the day," says Denise Toomey. "Hands-on learning takes time." She teaches kindergartners who are learning English as a second language.

Fifth grader Aleysia Smith weighs the ups and downs. "Sometimes, at the end of the day, I feel tired and grumpy," she told TFK. "But I do learn more with extended day. I didn't use to like math at all, because I just didn't get it. But now my teacher has more time to help me. He doesn't just show me one way to do a problem. He shows me two or three ways. I'm starting to get it." Sounds like time well spent.

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