A new day for learning: it's time to look at changing the length and scope of the school day to help kids succeed.

• Author: Stedron, Jennifer

Sonia arrives home from school Friday at 6:30 p.m. It's been a productive day for this 16 year old. Since 7 a.m. she's completed her regular schedule of courses at the high school, as well as met her third grade "reading buddy" for their weekly tutoring appointment, put in internship hours at a local construction firm, and finished her homework (engineering problems from the same finn). Although it's officially the weekend, Saturday morning finds Sonia and her classmates taking in an architecture exhibit at the museum. And in the afternoon, she parks herself in front of the local library's computer to send instant messages to her Argentinean pen pal. For Sonia, school life and outside life blend together.

Looking at school hours differently is imperative to achieving high learning goals for all students, according to the report "A New Day for Learning: Why and Why Now?" Conducted by the national Time, Learning and Afterschool Task Force, sponsored by the C.S. Mott Foundation, the report suggests the time is ripe to shatter the "chalk and talk," 8 a.m. to 3 p.m., September to June concept of school, and stretch and reshape learning time in order to improve student achievement. Despite valiant efforts by state education systems to prepare all students equally well for the 21 st century, many, especially poor minority students, struggle to stay in school, let alone meet state standards. Standards that some say ignore a host of equally necessary skills such as leadership, creativity and civic engagement.

When you include summer, nearly 80 percent of students' waking hours occur outside the traditional school day. The report suggests that if states want to win big gains in education they need to commit to a complete restructuring of learning time--expanding education hours and incorporating enrichment and community-based opportunities so that students have many ways to learn and engage in broadening experiences.

"Tell me why we're still teaching on the same old calendar?" asks Massachusetts Representative Patricia Haddad about whether the day we have now works for a kid. "If we're really teaching to the whole child and taking them from point A to point B, it doesn't necessarily happen in that artificial time frame we've created."

Three examples that expand the traditional time frame--summer learning, out-of-school hours, and a longer school day--illustrate the rewards of such efforts.

SUMMER LEARNING

Summertime, and the living is ... too easy? While most kids from all backgrounds learn at about the same rate during the regular school year, disadvantaged students tend to fall behind during the summer because of a lack of learning opportunities in the home and community. By fifth grade, this summer slippage accounts for approximately two full years' deficit in reading comprehension levels. "Early differences in summer learning have reverberations throughout kids' educational development. They account in part for later educational outcomes such as high school completion and whether kids end up going to college," says Ron Fairchild, executive director of the Johns Hopkins University Center for Summer Learning.

Why then wait until kids are failing classes to give them summer learning opportunities? Reducing the gaps in achievement before kids start school is...