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Thursday, April 05, 2012

Ultralong school day for all -- it doesn't fit

Friday's print column

Chicago Public Schools officials insist that their ambitious — some might even say audacious — plan to lengthen the classroom day systemwide next year is not a “one-size-fits-all” mandate.

“Principals, teachers and parents will have an incredible amount of ownership over what their school day will look like,” said CPS spokeswoman Becky Carroll, responding to the familiar criticism. “Every school is coming up with and submitting their own plans about how best to use the extra time to meet their goals.” Because administrators in the central office “can’t know needs of every single school community in the district,” Carroll said.

Indeed they can’t.

Which is why at least four parent groups have mobilized to fight the plan to impose a seven-hour, 30-minute day in every elementary school. Instead, these groups propose a six-hour, 30-minute day — roughly the national average and 45 minutes longer than the current school day — with every school given the choice to add the extra hour if that’s what the local stakeholders want.

Screen shot 2012-04-05 at 11.25.49 PM
Becky Carroll
But that option isn’t on the table. “The flexibility lies in what to do with the day,” said Carroll, “not how long it’s going to be.”

That decision, in line with Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s campaign pledge to expand the school day, was made early last fall without consulting parents. Two of my children are in CPS high schools, which also will have longer days, and my first official notification of this was a set of invitations in early February to general meetings to discuss what should be done with the mandatory extra time.

I’m of a mixed mind about the idea. Though it makes a certain amount of common sense that more school means better schooling, research on the subject is uncompelling. “The strength of the effect of extending school time as well as the long-term and cumulative effects have yet to be determined,” concluded a 2010 overview of the last quarter-century of academic studies published by the American Educational Research Association. “Likewise, the optimal amount of additional time that balances costs and benefits needs to be further investigated.”

 To find this report and many other sources, see our webliography, Is more school better school?

But that same overview found that at-risk students — the children from low-income families who make up 87 percent of CPS’ clientele — are most likely to benefit from extra time in school. And those are the students whom the current system, with its unusually short five-hour, 45-minute days, has been failing. Maybe an unusually long school day will help them catch up.

Other student populations, however, will likely do just fine with an average length, six-hour, 30-minute school day — roughly the same day you find in many high-performing suburban districts and at the University of Chicago Laboratory Schools, where Emanuel sends his children.

“We know what’s best for our children,” said Laura Paris, a representative of the 19th Ward Parents during an appearance earlier this week before the Tribune editorial board. “We know what’s best for our schools.”

She has two children at high-performing Mount Greenwood Elementary School on the Far Southwest Side, and like other members of her group and their allies with Concerned Pioneer Parents for a Better School Day, Raise Your Hand and 6.5 to Thrive, she’s asking that CPS allow principals, teachers and local school councils to decide if they want their school day to be longer than six hours and 30 minutes.

These parents worry about burnout. They worry that, with after-school activities, their children will be overscheduled. They worry that a school system that’s already facing a deficit of more than $600 million will have to cut important corners or fail miserably as it tries to fill all that extra time with enriching activities at all those schools.

Becky Carroll said that budget talks are underway and she couldn’t specify what if any cuts will be necessary to fund the new schedule.

That schedule, no matter how many minor programming options it allows for and no matter how well intentioned it is and no matter how vehemently administrators protest, is a “one-size-fits-all” garment for a school system where the educational needs come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes.

Parents, who were shut out of the key decision here, deserve a greater voice and individual schools should be able to customize their schedules based on what’s best for their student populations, not for someone else’s sweeping reform agenda.



--I'm troubled as both an educator and a parent that I have zero say in the length of my district's school day. There is also the additional requirement to assign excessive homework, which can extend the school day even further. Is this piling on effective? Does the doubling up of math and reading programs promote success or burnout? The jury is still out, but as a participant in the field, I'm disturbed by regressions over advancements. Yet, I'll be judged on student success or failure in the future, regardless of my control over curriculum and length of school day.

Excellent column!


I agree completely with that point. I wonder whether local control over the school day would be permitted by the union contract. I'm not sure how CPS does its collective bargaining. Does the CPS contract allow individual schools to have different work hours?

This is ridiculous. Students can't handle a seven and a half hour day? Oh the horror. Burnout? From what, learning? Do we want our kids to be competitive or spend more time playing video games? Americans in general are so arrogant. We think we are better than everyone, smarter than everyone and know better than everyone. Polls show that Americans think they top other countries on everything from iq and wealth to how philanthropic we are. We are woefully behind on every critical level and are positioning the next generation of Americans to watch their peers in china and India pass them by. We need to get our heads out of the sand if we're going to help our kids succeed.

Actually enjoyable video games that would teach students the required subject matter would be a smart way to get students themselves to lobby for a longer school day.

Ms. Fox, Eric Zorn cited the data, which is not compelling. You have skipped the data and gone straight to your opinion, to which you are entitled, but a quick nod toward the facts would be nice.

No research shows more time alone improves student learning.

It is the quality of the academic, social and emotional supports that at-risk children need to improve outcomes which make a real difference. day. And that is very expensive to do well. That is why no other US city has mandated a 7.5 hour day on all its schools. Quality education doesn't come cheap, and children who are underprivileged need more.

That is also why Philadelphia, Boston, and Houston extended the school day at a few, targeted middle schools and high schools which were persistently low performing. They also provided generous funding for support services. Philadelphia spent $55 mln on 9 high schools. Boston spent between $800 and $1,300 per student, but the ongoing expense may force the city to reduce services. There is only so often a mayor can raise property taxes after all.

The proposed 7.5 hours is the LONGEST day in the nation by far. The embedded costs of operting the school facilities, police and park district staff make this an expensive plan even before CPS considers the appropriate interventions for struggling students. This is a radical change for 405,000 students and a major intrusion into family life.

CPS can't afford the day its has now; it's running a $600 million deficit. CPS needs to get real. The campaign is over.

--Use the extra time for music, art and, especially, PE -- classes you could provide almost daily with a longer day. It's not as if you need to spend the extra two hours on lectures (for those fearing "burnout").
It's amusing to me that so many people want to depend on research for answers. Don't you know your own children? Either you think they're capable of handling a longer day, or you don't. Why lean on a study by strangers focusing on children that aren't yours to form your opinion on what's best for your family?

ZORN REPLY -- Research is the check on your intuitions, which can mislead you. I'm all for it.

My husband, Dave Watkins, became Chief Financial Officer of CPS in November after a long career in the business sector, not education. His job is to find a way to balance the budget, while implementing (i.e.. paying for) new ways to improve the education of CPS students. Dave has been working twelve-hour days learning about CPS and education, and feels that Chicago is making decisions in the best interest of the students and their futures. A longer school day is possible and his job is to figure out how to make it financially feasible. Dave and his team are working hard each and every day to balance the new policies with financial accountability.

In the first place, it's indefensible that Chicago public schools have a shorter-than-average school day when our city's students are, by and large, not making the grade. While lengthening the school day is not the sum total of the solution, it's a start.

Doesn't every CPS have a playground? When I was in elementary school (when dinosaurs roamed the earth), we had daily recess. Every class could--and should--have time to run around the playground, whether it's organized physical education or open play.

And, yes, as another poster suggested, also use the extra time for music and art...or even a 20- to 30-minute period of "down time," during which the teacher plays music and the kids can put their head down on their desk and chill...or listen...or doodle...or use as a study hall.

Good grief--can't these teachers and administrators get creative with the time. Sheesh.

--- "Maybe an unusually long school day will help them catch up."

There are other things that have proven to work with at-risk children such as early childhood education and a well-rounded education that includes arts. While CPS would like to lengthen the day and 'maybe' come out with better results there is nothing in the plan to fund a full-day kindergarten for all CPS schools (many CPS schools only have 1/2 day kindergarten) or perhaps lengthen pre-school from it's current 2.5 hrs a day or even ensure pre-school is available at all CPS schools.

For many of us, it is not the 7.5hrs that is an issue. It is how that time is used. The fact that school systems with longer hours like Houston and Philadelphia do not have better results shows that time is not the only thing you can change. Can we make a better cake just by baking it for 105 minutes longer?

To knb123: No, not every CPS has a working playground or recess everyday.

--A "funny thing" happened on the way to top-down reform... the parents spoke. It appears that a workable solution involves all the stakeholders. Democracy is one of those curious things; it actually involves real people.

The shiny new mandate is light on parent participation. If this is true in heavily resourced communities, what does that say about under-resourced communities? That is without the 'bussed-in' opposition, courtesy of Mr. Emmanuel's political operative, Greg Goldner and his "astroturf" protest and $10,000,000.00 contract.

Parents deserve a voice, a true voice. The question is: Are you listening Mr. Mayor?

I don't understand why we can't teach out children between the hours of 8 and 3:30. A time frame most private schools use. Where is the extra cost? Teachers need to start working a normal 40-50 hour work week just like the general population. I know of no other profession that gets 10 weeks off in the summer. And 25 days of holiday during the school year. In Illinois, the average teacher makes $61,402. By the way, the average administrator makes $106,217.00! Illinois teachers work around 176 days, 300 minutes, or 5 hours, per day. On average, they make $348.88 per day, $1.16 per minute, or $69.60 per hour guaranteed. With a pension that they can collect starting at 55. If we in the CPS were having a graduation rate of 75% with a high rate of kids going to college or trade school I would be OK . But at present, we have a high drop out rate, low admission rate and a high unemployment rate among CPS students. If the teachers want to strike, let them and then fire the whole lot of them and start over.

It would be amazing if schools could use this extra time for things like art, music and library time. But, guess what? Those subjects require teachers, facilities and resources that many schools just don't have. There is potential here, but of course it was poorly planned and seems to demonstrate a complete lack of understanding of what CPS students really need.

--Let's be honest. CPS' "at-risk" students are driving the need for a longer school day, because the city wants to keep those students off the streets so they aren't getting into trouble. But you can't impose one school day for the at-risk students and another for everybody else because it just so happens that the at-risk students are overwhelmingly poor and black. It wouldn't look good to have separate policies for supposedly equal schools. So just as everybody has to live with a new curfew law, everybody in CPS has to suffer under a very long school day to satisfy the needs of the lowest performing tier.

Parents should do whatever they possibly can to influence how that new school day shapes up. Get involved. Volunteer. Organize trips, study time, extracurriculars, whatever. Make the most of it.

How does Emanual get away with his pontification on these issues when he did a virtual white-flight out of CPS? Early on when asked about his kids school choice he made a point to say "non of your business" to the reporter. The media should go after him much harder on this. Didn't he recently exhort Chicago families not to leave? How does he do this with a straight face?

To Frank M.- Teachers may not work "normal" hours like the rest of the world. We may only teach for 6 hours a day, but that does not take into account all the hours outside of the school day that we work. We need to plan lessons, grade papers, tutor students, go to conferences and continue our education. Most teachers at my school have gone back for their graduate degree, bilingual certifications and special education certifications. I don't see too many 40-50 hour a week employees doing all that in their spare time.


I have great respect for teachers. But you are completely misguided if you think most professionals are not also working many, many hours and weekends outside the traditional workday hours. Teachers sound ignorant and out of touch when they make this statement about working outside the normal workday. Majority of people I know are doing the same.

In addition many of us have gone back for graduate degrees. And this is just to stay competitive. There is no automatic pay scale bump for getting a graduate degree.

One of my sisters is an Asst principal/teacher at a NW side school. They are on track "E". which means that they get a week or 2 break a few times a year, and a couple off in the summer. Her parents do NOT want the excessively longer day. They are a higher performing day. Now, if they could have music & art teachers, gym teachers, etc, maybe 6 1/2 hours would be fine. There is a program that is in some NY schools that I can't remember the name of (it originated in Venezuela) that has kids learning instruments & practicing 2 HOURS past the normal school day. Every day. They LOVE it, and do it gladly. And guess what? Their test scores overall have improved dramatically. When Brizard first talked about an extra 1 1/2 hours per day, he said they could use it for 40 more minutes of reading, & 40 more of math, plus 10 minutes between. So you can see that they had no real plan, just that if more time was better, even more is much better. Where will they get the money for music, and art, etc teachers? Or to pay teachers for that extra 1 1/2 hours (since teachers will now have to find an EXTRA 1 1/2 hours to do the work that they do then (grading papers, lesson plans, meeting with parents, continuing education). By the way, EZ, way back when Emanuel hired Brizard you wrote about how the Rochester NY teachers felt about him? I can safely say that most teachers at CPS feel the same way, now. He's tone deaf - doesn't listen to actual educators or parents.

Zorn brings up a valid point, which is that research can be used to defend or deflate a position. It's true that the research does not reach an unequivocal conclusion on the effects of a longer school day on academic achievement. Instead, various studies suggest that more research should be done (Katall, 2010), that a longer school day can provide "soft" benefits as well as academic achievement (Mazzerella, 1984), that the biggest opponents to the idea are middle-class parents (Silva, 2007), that other interventions may have better ROI (Levin, 1984), and that a longer day is unlikely to have negative effects--above all, do no harm. (Karweit, 1985). But don't take my word for it - or Eric Zorn's either - read the studies yourself.

That said, as the CTU has pointed out, CPS is not forthcoming with its financial information - maybe they really will pull it out in the end and come up with ways to pay for each school to follow its draft plan (due to CPS in early May)? Maybe it will be a horrible failure and CPS will become like LAUSD, which reduced the number of minutes in the day and days in the calendar so it could balance its budget? In the absence of real information, Chicago's involved and vocal parents are reduced to conjecture that enrages everyone and solves nothing.

EZ: What do you think of the two schools your kids are at? Answer offline if you like, I'm just curious.

The parents at Mount Greenwood School are very involved in the school. We volunteer and hold fundraisers to buy copy paper for our teachers and other neccessities they may need for their classrooms. Our kids are involved in activities outside of school, such as sports and clubs. If we extend our school day to 7 hours 30 minutes, our children will not have time for other activities. Emanuel has made it clear that homework will not be reduced when the school day is increased. By the time our kids get home from school it will be close to 4 pm and they will still have an hour to two hours of homework on top of any extra curricular activities they may be involved with. My children have bed times, children need relaxation time and they definitely need thier sleep. And when are we supposed to eat dinner as a family?... I cook, I am not a drive through mom...when will there be time for that? We do not have a problem at our school with learning and or behavioral issues. We have dedicated teachers that come in before and stay after school to help those that need it...we have involved parents that sit down with their kids at homework time or are available to them if needed. We have parents that require thier kids to have good grades and excell! 7 hours 30 minutes is a work day...my kids will have plenty of time for that. Let's be reasonable. This should not be shoved down the throats fo the kids and parents that have proven that their school is successful the way it is. I am for the 6 hour 30 minute school day. I moved my children from the catholic school to Mt. Greenwood because of it's high academic standards. We went from a 6 hour 30 minute day to the 5 hour 45 minutes. I did think that was a short day, but my kids are succeding and we love our school. Let's look at each school individually and go from there.

Higher taxes solves everything. Chicago needs an income tax on everyone living and working in the City. that will end the CPS deficit , give teachers the raise they are looking for and even provide free meals for all students along with a clothing allowance.

Sharon Fox, as someone who is pretty knowledgeable on statistics, I can pretty much state that your comment about how we are woefully behind on almost everything is no more true than those who think we are way ahead on everything. Both statements represent opposite extremes of misinformation.

Valerie, do you honestly believe no other profession has to do any of those things? I am an IT professional and professional development is critical for us to stay competitive in the marketplace. I do not know a single successful professional in my field who does not study outside of work to stay current in the field. We have certifications to achieve and then have to maintain them with annual updates. Many have to pay for this out of their own pocket and I can tell you IT classes are not cheap. We need graduate degrees to place on our resumes too and like someone pointed out above they aren't a check mark on a union contract that gives an automatic increase in salary. We buy training and reference materials out of our pockets. We carry pagers and have webmail so our bosses can reach us at all hours of the day or night and we do it on top of a 8 hour day year round, no summers of for us. Moreover, the rest of the world has immeasurable child care struggles that are often not shared by teachers. If their kids are in their school district they simply come to their classroom before and after class and share rides home. That is a luxury many of us would love to have. In short, your woe is me attitude isn't all that woeful so if you are looking for sympathy you are barking up the wrong tree. I appreciate my kid's teachers and I do not begrudge them their lifestyle, it is one I myself could have chosen. However, the constant bleating how bad you have it is getting a little annoying.

I have three kids in a very high performing public school. We have close to 100% parent turn out for report card pickup, we have parents monitoring the playground, parents volunteering in the classrooms daily, and parents who dedicate themselves to countless hours of fundraising. Our fundraising helps pay for programs that CPS got rid of in most schools, such as art, music, foriegn language and PE. My kids have always attended 6.5 hours a day. In those six and a half hours there is time for all of their core classes, recess and lunch, and at least one "special" class everyday. We have a library, art room, music room, computer room, and a beautiful playground. I wish every student could walk into a school as well supported and maintained as our school, but that is not the case. CPS has failed schools all over this city but especially those in economically challenged neighborhoods. There are schools is this city where 100% of the student body get free breakfast and lunch everyday. Hungry children can't learn. There are schools with bathrooms and classrooms not in use because they are dangerous, children can't learn when they are not secure. There are schools without Librarys - really schools without books! To think that a blanket of time will solve these issues in ignorant. Teachers cannot do it all on their own. Many of our teachers are at school as late as 8pm, tutoring for free, homework help every afternoon, coaching, designing better teaching approaches to meet their students needs. Maybe CPS should be concentrating its efforts on offering all of its students access to the arts and books. Maybe it should be looking at the 10 schools in the city with a 6.5 hour day, and the top 10 elementary schools in the city and ask themselves why these schools are so successful and then work to recreate this model elsewhere.

My attitude is not "woe is me". I am just saying, don't think teachers have it easy just because we have 6 hour "work days", summer breaks and other holidays.

A less naive hypothesis is that Emanuel has written off the largely white parents who object to the one-size-fits-all solution and the dilution of selective enrollment schools. That way he can posture as the savior of poorer, needier minority constituents, who can serve as his power base for a run for higher office. He will have enough white voter support from the Latin/Lab School/mortgage banker/privatization types anyway.

Frank M.– As Valerie D. pointed out, teachers don't go home and watch TV all night after their jobs.

I know this because I work a 40-hour workweek and have an hour-long commute each way, but my husband works MUCH more than I do—not only on school nights, but also on the weekend. Planning, grading, extra-curricular activities, meetings... it's absolutely overwhelming. Teachers have it ROUGH. And many of them work second jobs.

Not one of you understands the real reason that Emanuel wants them in school for so much longer.

It's simple, if they're in school, they don't get shot!
The cops don't have to use so much of the force protecting them.
That's not the main reason, it's the only reason.

For Amy, I applaud your math skills but here are some facts.

The starting salaries for teachers are as follows:

Bachelor's degree, year 1: $40,405
Master's degree, year 1: $43, 204

Teachers only get a raise for 13 years and then they "cap out". No more raises unless they go back to school for classes which they need at least 15 hours to receive an increase.

Teachers are not "paid" in the summer "off", they stretch their paychecks for 12 months to receive their annual salary.

Teachers pay into a pension plan and it is matched like a 401K.

Teachers do not get their full pension at 55 unless they have worked 35 years for CPS. Every year below 35, they receive a portion of that pension.

Teachers do not pay into social security so for the ones near retirement, their pension is their only means of income.

Teachers are not against a longer school day, however, they should be compensated for the work they do, like every American expects and they should have input.

Teachers pay for benefits, they are not automatically given to them.

Some CPS teachers, Amy, work in tough conditions:
Buildings that are literally falling apart
No air conditioning, 3rd floors get hot in Spring and Fall
Heat that does not work properly.
Outdated books, outdated technology.
No supplies that means, paper (copying too), pencils, chalk, erasers, no supply cabinets at CPS schools. Teachers buy them.
Student's who can't afford their own school materials, teachers buy them.

Here's an open invitation to you Amy, spend a day in one of CPS's inner-city school's and see what the life of a teacher is like. It is much, much more than the 3R's. I doubt you'd last a day.

My uncle is a non-union painter and makes more per hour than most CPS teachers.

Anyone who thinks that Chicago teachers - with an average of 11 years of experience and a Master's degree - are overpaid as professionals needs to check the salaries of other professionals out there.

We are -- or at least we should hope to be -- competing with Microsoft, Google, law firms, p.r. firms, Monsanto and Motorola for professionals to teach math, computer science, English and biology. But our salaries certainly don't compete.

ZORN REPLY -- I don't know about that. Get ready for your salaries -- which are comparatively high for teachers, as I understand it -- to be a big issue in the battle for hearts and minds of the public when strike talk gets serious.

All of these supposed "professionals" who work all those extra hours are liars. I'll come right out and say it. The average worker WASTES between two and three hours a day, bringing their work day down to FIVE or SIX hours a day, less than (or the same as) the teacher's work day. A day, by the way, in which you are unable to waste time (or even use the bathroom or have a conversation with an adult)--it's non-stop, on your feet work...

Professionals have NO IDEA what real work is. I worked in the private sector for twenty years before I became a teacher when I was 37. I have NEVER worked more nor have I ever worked harder. The private sector is a JOKE compared to teaching in Chicago Public Schools. Sitting at the computer, surfing the web, taking a toilet break, taking a thirty or forty minute lunch (even if it is at your desk), taking a personal call, walking over to a buddy's desk for a quick conversation...

Professionals are the laziest bunch of workers I have ever seen.

What a Schmendrick you are!

--I think Schmendrick makes an excellent point. I wonder if any realize how during the workday, which can last up to 8 or 9 hours with after school meetings, tutoring, we educators must maintain a completely political and educational correct appearance/demeanor. You must also be able to control your reactions to student behavior/emergency situations which occur with greater frequency than ever realized by the media. It ain't beanbag.

All of the comments from the employees who work in the private sector about how many hours they work and "gosh darn it, those public school teachers oughta work the same amount of hours" miss the point. It's not about the TEACHERS; it's about the KIDS. CHILDREN are not miniature ADULTS. They do not have ADULT attention spans to work, work, work in the same way you do. If you doubt it, think back to that time you had an all day training session at work. Now imagine that you had to do that every day of the week for 8 months. Now imagine adding time onto that training session. Then imagine that you're 10. fin.

Elly123 go online and recheck your facts because they are wrong. As the sister if a cps teacher i can say that she works her butt off but She has a very generous package of salary and benefits. The starting salary of a cps teacher is closer to 54k not 40k as u noted. They also get those steps raises you talk about for 13 years and then get another three over the next 10 years or so. They've also gotten automatic raises every year - she's been given 4 percent ever year since she started in 2005 (not this year tho) plus the step raises. She also gets about two weeks vacation and holidays. And she gets most of the summer off. When she retires she'll a generous pension and healthcare package. She's making today close to 60k - that's about 15k more than she made just seven years ago. She deserves it all but she didn't make out too bad.

@amy: It is irrelevant as to when you receive your checks; the point is the annual compensation, which matches pretty nicely against other annual median incomes. As for social security, can I please get out of it and instead receive a guaranteed 75 percent of my salary, with a 3 percent raise per year, for life? In my district, most career teachers are retiring at age 58 with pensions of about 75 grand per year. That's about three times the SS level at least, and 7 years earlier, or more. It can easily equal $1 million in retirement.

@yellow dog: good luck to a teacher with a master's degree in "education" from a glorified diploma mill getting any interest from Microsoft or Google to hire them at any price. Only in the monopolized world of public education does this degree have any value.

This more about keeping kids off the street than it is education. Expensive babysitting brought to you by those who want to substitute for the parents.

Why is the Mayor pushing for something that we don't want. I wish he understood how we don't want this!!!!

We think he doesn't care about us, The kids! Think about the kids!

Eli Broad takes in the shorts. He can keep his money, and take Rahm out of his pocket.

These out of town clowns are pretending to know how to run our schools. We ought to take a stand against those who say they "stand for the children."
Mr. Emanuel is a big fake. Mr. Brizzard is is bigger fake.

Lets' be honest the Tea-Partyier are having a party without the middle class. They talk about teachrs while they stuff their faces with our taxes, They are concerned about themelevs only. Me me me me me. Its alwayds about temselves. THey shoul dbe ashamed about how greedy they are. They don't even liek brown people.
Why don't tey go to an island and see how it is. They will come back changed. Im sure.

My son came to me and said his teacher will be leaving. I think it has to do with how mean CPS is to the people who work for them. I met all of my son's teachers and they are wonderful.

If we have the money to give the busienss people who work for Sears and we cannot find money for our teachers what message are we saying?

I think we need to think about the children first, then the teachers, then the principals, and then the Mayor.

How does the city say F*** Off to both parents and students


@ Pina Ha. LOL.A good one. I hear those people are AUSL-Holes. They don't care about anyone except their own failing schools and fat pocketbooks.

All of the comments are very interesting on this subject. As a product of the CPS system, I do think that there should be a longer school day. However, I do agree with the sentiment that this day should be tailored to fit the school. For example, a school with low performing students should have more time added to the school day. A school with high achieving students should have a shorter one. Arts, music, and other entertainment options should be added to the schedule as well.

Teachers are already stressed with having to constantly withhold from taking bathroom breaks and standing, or talking, in front of a class all day. It's not easy being vigilant over more than 25 kids at a time for hours on end. Only the young ones will be able to extend their workday easily. And kids have their limits when it comes to sitting at a desk doing work. The nervous energy in them HAS to be drained away regularly. Hard physical exercise is the old school method but dancing might do just as well. I do know that if you don't find a way to handle these aspects of this proposal, you are going to court disaster.

About those teachers who have it easy: To only count class time when calculating work hours is almost as ridiculous as only counting court time for a lawyer or stage time for an actor. (Disclosure: I'm a litigator; my mom's a public high school teacher. I make much more and have much less job-related stress.)

Class time is just that time when teachers are on, when they're performing. You're not counting the preparation and follow-up -- course planning, creating assignments, preparing class materials, grading, record-keeping, conferences with students and parents, internal meetings, and so on. All of that is the sort of thing that takes up the entire day for most people who work in an office -- quality time between you and your phone and computer and colleagues, when you're not surfing the web, getting coffee, chatting up your co-workers, etc. Teachers don't have the luxury of working for weeks on a big presentation, report, or brief. They have to make their big presentation every school day, all school day, often to a resistant audience of undisciplined, values-challenged children (thanks, parents!) that increasingly demands personality and performance skills that, for most of us, go untested. If teachers billed their hours as lawyers do, the myth of the six-hour work day would vanish in a second.

Meanwhile, if they're good teachers, they care about all of the students they see each day (a big number), and take their responsibility to each of them seriously. So, in addition to the draining work of performing, they have the draining responsibility of caring, which leads to lots of extra-curricular expense of emotional energy for which they're hardly ever thanked. And that's on top of the community's increasingly hostile judgment that they're not worth what they make, that if kids aren't doing well it must be the teachers' fault, that, rather than experts or professionals, they're lazy parasites whose union is responsible for outrageous property taxes, that in order to save the nation, a lot of them must be fired as quickly as possible based mostly on crude and demonstrably flawed inferences from their students' test scores. And that's on top of the excessive proliferation of administrators (who also take taxpayer-funded salaries and for whom "administrator-accountability" is thankfully not yet a watchword), foundation-and-federally-funded fads, and other top-down-style dictates of the suspiciously teacher-free education "reform" movement that, for un-consulted workaday teachers, seem to bear little resemblance to the real world they face every day on the ground.

The management gurus talk about "buy-in" -- the art of getting all the "stakeholders," who often have conflicting interests, to go along with one positive plan. The rampant and reckless scapegoating of teachers, making the troops the enemy, is no way to achieve buy-in. The professional on the ground is hardly ever blamed. When crime is high at the local level, or a war is going badly, it's the politicians and maybe the brass who take the heat. (Today's soldiers can expect heartfelt though hollow thanks from a basically indifferent and uninvolved public.) When it comes to teachers, who also perform an important public service, the politicians and the brass somehow manage to deflect any blame onto the troops.

We all know what's wrong with education in this country. The bad education outcomes and test results that make the U.S. look lousy next to other nations and have everyone hot and bothered are basically due to our greater share of troubled communities, almost always poor, often inner-city. Take those uniquely American trouble spots out of the equation, and we do just fine. We can't just wish the problem away, though, and so we have to figure out a rational way to address it. Making students in communities where everything's basically okay spend a lot more time in school -- and spending more money to make that happen -- just seems stupid.

Hillary Clinton said it: it takes a village, and so it does, no joke. It also takes a village to "buy in," and that means focusing on those troubled communities and doing everything possible to turn them around for real. Is anyone going to even try to make that happen?

I wanted to wait to see how many ppl replied to EZ b4 I did. I'm a 19thWardParent. My one son goes to our neighborhood school in Beverly which has an IB Middle Years Program which is excellent. Normally the IB Mid Yr start in 6th grade but our teachers have expanded the platform to all grades. My other son started WY in 7th grade in their academic center program 2 years ago. Our neighborhood school is 5.75 hrs and my son is a straight A student who gets a recess everyday for 20 minutes.

The reason MANY CPS schools do not have recess is bc it's was too dangerous.~drive by shootings, gangs trying to recruit or just hanging out. Rahm doesn't remember that bc Rahm isn't from Chicago ~none of his ppl are~they are all from outside Chicago and do not have CPS teaching experience.

@Chicago Mama~when you use a study to make a point~try and READ it before hand . The findings were "The research evidence is therefore argued not to support increases in the school term as a means of increasing student achievement."~also this study was included in the study Zorn cited. Other research w/in the study in which Zorn cited said it "may benefit from extra time." But there needs to be more research on that. The case study you quote, which I have read, is for AT RISK children. Not all Chicago children are at-risk, that's why CPS shouldn't be a one-size-fits all. Also, the length of the day 'did no harm' but the effect wasn't there w/numbers, although it was FUNDED. Karweit had other studies after 1985~read them!

Rahm's plan is a budget fix (mass teacher layoffs/larger class sizes), crime fix , and all around babysittng fest. It's all abt privatization and the corporates getting richer. Right about here, I'd say "Just as Michell Rhee was the downfall for Fenty's reelection for Mayor in DC, Stand4Chicago will be Rahm's"...only Rahm isn't looking for a Mayoral reelection...he's on to bigger things in 2016.

Chicago is only a platform for him, he doesn't care abt the CPS kids. His whole tired "what abt the kids?" is just a facade...he doesn't even know any CPS kids. So Rahm thought he could 'dance' around some tired 'I'm doing this for the kids" and we'd all sit back...but one thing he didn't count on~the parents. Parent's who know their 14th Amendment Right , know their kids, neighborhoods, schools. And as Mr. Zorn so eloquently wrote "Parents...deserve a voice based on what’s best for their student populations, not for someone else’s sweeping reform agenda."

"...not for someone else's sweeping reform agenda"~classic~my favorite line!

Just wanted to clarify~when I wrote "may benefit from extra time." I was referring to extra time for at-risk children. And this study was for a limited amount of students~not district wide.

--The school day has been about 6.5 hours long for many years. Educators long ago discovered that most kids become too tired and turned off to learn efficiently when the school day goes significantly beyond 6.5 hours in length. With an hour or two of homework the kids are devoting up to 8 hours a day on schoolwork.

--There is nothing wrong with kids being tired at the end of a long school day. In fact, they SHOULD be tired. That means they worked and played hard enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour and get a good night's sleep.

That said, the homework load needs to be reduced. 7.5 hours is more than enough time for them to get done what needs to be done in school. No need to send more work home with them.

Perhaps we should keep the school day the same and insist on year round schedules. A longer school day is a defacto unfunded mandate that does not allow enough time for students to get the help they need. Lets get rid of the antiquated system and make year round schools the standard to better education.

With respect to longer days, two things are clear from years of studies. Longer days of ineffective schooling produce no benefits. The cost per student of extending the school day is $2,000 per hour per student based on a 180 day school year. If your going to spend $4,000 per student extending the school day by 2 hours, you had better make the extra time well worth it.

Funding an EY is just as problematic as funding an ED.

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