It is important that, as parents, we have a say in the important decisions made on our children's behalf. My son's school has added an extra hour onto each day without offering any real communication or input with and from parents. They also plan to add four weeks of half days on to the end of the school year. Here are a few pros when adding an extra hour: more time for learning, time for other subjects. Some of the Cons: Quality vs. Quantity...time spent poorly, less time for outside interests, removes more time to play and enjoy youth without rules, structure, etc, costs a lot of money, does not address real problems such as not being able to focus due to hunger or emotional or physical abuse or lack of parenting, and a con can even be poor teacher performance. Adding extra time will not be effective if the same things are taught in the same way for a longer time period...especially if the above mentioned issues are not addressed as well (see Washington Posts article, www.washingtonpost/blogs/answer-sheet/post/what-new-research-on-extended-school-day-says/2012/04/18/glQAnmV3RT_blog.html). Since there has been no real communication at all about what will be done differently I can only assume the extra time will not be spent successfully. I believe if they want to see real change in higher test scores they will need to address the bigger problems that start at the root, language barriers, home life, parental involvement and better communication and structure within the school itself.
