First Name: Angela
Current Event Posting Number: 4
Topic: Education
Title of article: Why We Need a Longer School Day
Author: Eric Schwarz
Publication Name: The Huffington Post: The Blog
Date of Publication: May 11, 2012
Length of Article: 1,067 words, 2 pages
On May 10, 2012, the National Center on Time and Learning and the Ford Foundation announced the launch of the "Time to Succeed" Coalition, a group dedicated to more time in school. Eric Schwarz, founder of Citizen Schools, along with several others such as Dave Levin of KIPP and the American Federation of Teachers, added his name as a signatory. Why would he do such a thing? Because he believes that by elongating the length of school, students who are disadvantaged by poverty will be able to have access to quality educational opportunities that boost academic achievement to get them excited about learning. The reason Schwarz founded this nonprofit education organization was because he wanted to do more with the time that students didn't spend in school. The achievement gap between low and high-income students is 30 to 40% higher than it was a generation ago. Schwarz hopes to even out the playing field because students in middle and upper class families are getting extra tutoring, taking music lessons, attending science clubs, and students of lower class who are unable to afford these opportunities do not get the same experiences. As Carol Johnson, Superintendent of Boston Public Schools and cosignatory of "Time to Succeed" put its, she imagines that every student is running a race where high school graduation is the "finish line". This means that it is a fair race with "same running gear" and "enthusiastic supporters on the sidelines". But the truth is that some kids get a boost from the parents, or "fancy running shoes" (tutoring maybe, or study books) to get that extra push, leaving students who might need these things to catch up and finish on time.
Citizen Schools has built a partnership with schools in eight states to significantly increase learning by at least 30%. The last thing they want to do is make the additional time a mediocre extension of the learning day. Therefore, their "second shift" of trained educators and volunteers give additional academic support and engaging learning opportunities with professionals from a variety of fields. They have seen that learning time "done right" can erase and even reverse opportunities and achievement gaps. Many schools that have implemented this longer day, such as Clarence Edwards Middle School in boston, and Dever-McCormack School in Boston are already experiencing an elimination of the achievement gap for students in math and erased 80% of the state gap on literacy and science standardized tests.
Current Event Posting Number: 4
Topic: Education
Title of article: Why We Need a Longer School Day
Author: Eric Schwarz
Publication Name: The Huffington Post: The Blog
Date of Publication: May 11, 2012
Length of Article: 1,067 words, 2 pages
On May 10, 2012, the National Center on Time and Learning and the Ford Foundation announced the launch of the "Time to Succeed" Coalition, a group dedicated to more time in school. Eric Schwarz, founder of Citizen Schools, along with several others such as Dave Levin of KIPP and the American Federation of Teachers, added his name as a signatory. Why would he do such a thing? Because he believes that by elongating the length of school, students who are disadvantaged by poverty will be able to have access to quality educational opportunities that boost academic achievement to get them excited about learning. The reason Schwarz founded this nonprofit education organization was because he wanted to do more with the time that students didn't spend in school. The achievement gap between low and high-income students is 30 to 40% higher than it was a generation ago. Schwarz hopes to even out the playing field because students in middle and upper class families are getting extra tutoring, taking music lessons, attending science clubs, and students of lower class who are unable to afford these opportunities do not get the same experiences. As Carol Johnson, Superintendent of Boston Public Schools and cosignatory of "Time to Succeed" put its, she imagines that every student is running a race where high school graduation is the "finish line". This means that it is a fair race with "same running gear" and "enthusiastic supporters on the sidelines". But the truth is that some kids get a boost from the parents, or "fancy running shoes" (tutoring maybe, or study books) to get that extra push, leaving students who might need these things to catch up and finish on time.
Citizen Schools has built a partnership with schools in eight states to significantly increase learning by at least 30%. The last thing they want to do is make the additional time a mediocre extension of the learning day. Therefore, their "second shift" of trained educators and volunteers give additional academic support and engaging learning opportunities with professionals from a variety of fields. They have seen that learning time "done right" can erase and even reverse opportunities and achievement gaps. Many schools that have implemented this longer day, such as Clarence Edwards Middle School in boston, and Dever-McCormack School in Boston are already experiencing an elimination of the achievement gap for students in math and erased 80% of the state gap on literacy and science standardized tests.
I do not agree with the idea that making the school day longer is better. For one, the article states how it is better for impoverished students because it will get them excited about learning. This is not true because if you make the school days longer for them they are just going to get bored throughout the day and begin to stop paying attention. It will not get them excited about learning, and in fact, it will do the opposite and make these impoverished students dread school. Also if someone goes to a bad school, making the school day longer wont make them learn more because they are already in a bad school with bad teaching.
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