The following article, written by Daniel H. Robinson, University of Texas at Arlington originally appeared on The Conversation and is published here with permission:
Upon becoming mayor of Philadelphia, Cherelle Parker announced that she will establish a working group on full-day and year-round schooling – an idea she had supported while campaigning. The group will develop a strategy to keep Philadelphia public schools open for longer hours during the week, from 7:30 a.m. to 6 p.m., as well as over the summer, and to provide “meaningful, instructive out-of-school programming and job opportunities for students.”
Below, education expert Daniel H. Robinson answers five questions about year-round schooling in Philadelphia.
What do we know about the mayor’s plan?
Parker is proposing to keep Philadelphia public school buildings open longer hours and more days throughout the year. According to Superintendent Tony Watlington’s Accelerate Philly strategic plan, a year-round and extended-day school calendar will be piloted in up to 10 schools, with the goal of increasing student academic achievement. It does not state how many days or hours will be added to the 180 days Philadelphia currently requires.
This is different from what’s commonly known as year-round schooling, which doesn’t add extra school days but simply moves the existing days around so that there are multiple short breaks instead of a long summer break. For example, students might have 45 school days followed by 15 days of break, or 60 school days followed by 20 days of break.
The Philadelphia school district plan aligns with a recommendation made over 40 years ago, in 1983, in the Nation at Risk report commissioned by the Department of Education. The report suggested that the school year should be increased to 200 to 220 days.
How prevalent is year-round schooling?
The length of the school day and year varies around the world. Japan and Australia have school for almost the entire year, while the U.S. has school for only about nine months. In contrast, countries like Finland, Iceland and Ireland have shorter school days and years than the U.S. France has a longer school year but similar total hours per year as the U.S. French students get a two-hour lunch and do not attend school on Wednesdays.
In Philadelphia, some charter schools have added a summer extension program. But they still maintain traditional school hours during the school year.
Several states are participating in an initiative this year called the Time Collaborative. This three-year initiative involves 40 schools that will add 300 hours to their existing school calendar by having either longer days, longer school years or both.
Can the mayor legally do this?
The current minimum number of days that Pennsylvania schools are required to be open is 180 – similar to most other states. Districts can decide when they start and finish. The Philadelphia mayor can certainly extend the school day and the school hours since she appoints the school board members, who in turn control who is hired or fired as superintendent. And, most importantly, the new superintendent is supportive of the mayor’s plan.
A more important question is: Should the mayor do this?
Parker has said that she wants to catch kids up academically to grade level. Only about 15% of fourth graders in Philadelphia public schools score at or above the proficient level on standardized reading tests, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
But what are the additional costs? In addition to possible increased student and teacher fatigue and stress, the main cost is money. Keeping schools open and staffed longer requires more dollars.
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.
