Many New Jersey Parents Say No To Longer School Day

Governor Chris Christie, in between shutting down the traffic to the George Washington Bridge and extorting real estate development projects in Hoboken, decided he would add extra time and days to schools.

The Star-Ledger reports many parents around the state aren't so into that idea:

As they waited outside the Orange Avenue School one day last week for the dismissal bell to ring, a few dozen Cranford parents debated the merits of Gov. Chris Christie’s call for New Jersey students to spend more time in school.

"They’re in class enough," Scott Laniewski said.

"And the little ones need time to play," added Michelle Howlett, a former special education teacher. "They need downtime."

Standing near a swing set a few yards away, Barry O’Donovan disagreed. "I think they should have a longer year. They don’t go to school enough," he said. "And they’ll learn more."

The discussions are happening at schools and playgrounds around the state, as parents, educators and students discuss the benefits and drawbacks of more school time. Some parents welcome the idea, while others complain that summer vacation is too short already. Jersey’s July temperatures are too hot for school, said some. Others said the kids need time to relax.

"By the end of the day she’s tired," Marisol Quintero of Elizabeth said about her daughter in kindergarten.

...

Charles Sampson, superintendent of the Freehold Regional High School District, said Christie’s proposal will result in local districts taking a close look at how they use their time. But he said the first step is to understand the goal.

"What are we looking to improve? If it is to improve academic achievement on standardized tests, that is a more specific conversation than providing extended opportunities for children," he said. "You’re going to have very different reactions across the state, at the local level, and across households."

The goal is control and compliance- to socialize children to expect to be at work for 10+ hours a day, 50 weeks a year when they grow up, working whatever drudge jobs are still left in 15+ years and not complain or rebel against the system.

This jive about making children "competitive" in an increasingly globalized economy is horse bleep.

The economy is increasingly competitive because multi-national corporations use every piece of leverage they have to exploit workers, tax breaks, etc. to make as much money as they can.

The problem is not that children are not growing up knowing enough to do the work companies need them to do.

The problem is the companies don't actually want to pay people (except for the braintrust at the company, of course) and they'll do anything to outsource, automate, exploit or otherwise cut their labor costs.

That is not something that is going to be solved by adding time and days to school - unless by "solve" you mean socializing children to grow up expecting to be exploited and screwed in their work lives.

Bill Thompson Calls For Longer School Day And School Year

His proposals for education, laid out in a speech at NYU, are here.

Here is what he said about the school day and year:

Support Longer School Hours and School Years. It means more time for teacher collaboration. More time to challenge students with new subjects. And more time to identify and help kids – at a young age – who are struggling.

What is unclear - is this for every school and every teacher?

Is this like when Bloomberg and Randi added the extra 20 minutes, then the extra 10 minutes in two consecutive contracts, where everybody had to do the time?

Or is this more like the Cuomo proposal, where certain schools would get the resources to have longer school days and school years but these would not be mandated?

I sat through a Danielson meeting today in which every one of my colleagues looked totally burnt.

The students are burnt too from all the Common Core.

Neither students nor teachers are going to want to do more time.

Not the way things are now with it being all Common Core all the time...

Instead Of Extending The School Day, Why Not Lower Class Size?

I bet you could get much better results if you took the 20 middle schools the city is going extend the school day at and instead lowered class size to the low 20's or high teens.

In fact, I know you could get better results.

But for some reason, education reformers refuse to sell class size reforms and instead go with the extended school day and extended school year reforms.

Even though lowering class size is a proven reform and extending the school day is not.

My brain tells me that education reformers don't really care about improving performance so much, or helping kids, because if they did, they would choose the reform proven to work over the one that sometimes does and sometimes doesn't.

My brain also tells me that there is another agenda behind the extended school day and extended school year movement:

They want to socialize the kids to expect longer work days with no vacation, garbage pay and, as the Daily News put the extra work the middle school kids will be doing as part of the extended school day program, "toil" when they become working adults in our neo-feudal economy.

UFT Signs Off On Extended School Day Until 6 PM

Here:

Thousands of middle school kids will be toiling in classrooms as late as 6 p.m. as of this fall as part of the city’s effort to extend the school day.

Twenty middle schools will add an extra 2.5 hours of daily instruction for 2,000 sixth-graders under a program announced by city officials Monday.

“Often students who lose their way in school start to fall off track in the middle grades. It’s where the achievement gap really seems to grow,” said City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, who announced the program Monday along with Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott.

Extending the school day has long been a goal of education reformers, and dozens of city schools have longer days through flexible budgeting or partnerships with nonprofits.

But the latest plan is the city’s first organized push to try the strategy for struggling middle schools.

New York is also one of the first major cities to pilot a longer-day program focused on improving reading skills, following efforts focused on math in Houston and Denver.

... 

The longer school day will include sixth-graders for three years at 20 schools where students struggle with reading.

The schools, which have not yet been selected, will adapt different schedules based on their needs, using a mix of outside tutors and classroom teachers who volunteer for the extra hours. The teachers union has signed off on the program.

The $6.2-million-a-year program will be funded with $3.5 million from the private Robin Hood Foundation, with the city picking up the rest of the bill.

Officials predicted parents and even students would welcome the longer day, but some kids were skeptical.“When school is out, most kids just want to leave,” said Lauren Santos, 14, an eighth-grader at Lower Manhattan Community Middle School.

Okay, few things to look at here.

First, notice the words used to describe the extended day program:

"Kids will be toiling in classrooms as late as 6 PM..."

"An extra 2.5 hours of instruction..."

"Extending the school day has long been a goal of education reformers..."

Just from the language, you can see what kind of program this is - test prep.

The Daily News reports that "officials predicted students would welcome the longer school day," but with many students in public schools already spending 7 hours of continuous test prep, it's difficult to see how they're going to "welcome" the additional 2.5 hours of "toil."

Next, notice how the UFT has "signed off" on the program.  

The UFT could point out that many children are already suffering through 7 hours of daily test prep and the additional 2.5 hours, if added, ought to contain something other than skills and drills and test prep.

But you'll never see the UFT leadership stand up for something that is right when they can instead give in to political expediency and sign off on an education reform that the corporate education reformers are licking their lips at getting  - a 9.5 hour school day.

Perhaps this program will see some test score gains and therefore will be hailed as some success that should be emulated all over the city.

Or perhaps it won't.

Either way, it's just another sign of the dehumanization of the system that education reform and education reformers continue to bring us.

9.5 hours of test prep a day.

What kind of adults will those middle schools churn out?

Oh, and one final point:

That Quinn is the politician championing this program tells you much about the kind of mayor she would be.

With the UFT working with her to extend the school day to 9.5 hours of nothing but test prep, you also have a glimpse of how the UFT would work with Quinn.

Quinn, Walcott Announce 2 Hour Longer School Days In 20 Middle Schools

Getting them ready for the 10-12 hour work day they'll have to put in, slaving at Walmart:

School days will get more than two hours longer for 2,000 New York City sixth-graders next fall. The nation's largest city is joining a roster of school systems experimenting with having students spend more time in class.

City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and Schools Chancellor Dennis Walcott announced the plan Monday.

It will involve about 2,000 students in 20 schools, not yet chosen.

Pupils will get 2½ extra hours a day of reading tutoring and other educational activities, run by a nonprofit group.

The City Council and private foundations are paying for the extra instruction. It's part of a $4.6 million effort to improve middle school reading.

Notice what they're going to spend the time on - reading, tutoring, and other educational activities.

In other words, test prep-related activities.

Drills and skills.

How about saving the regular school day for the drills and skills and putting in some fun activities after school?

How about some games or physical activities?

How about art or music?

How about some social-emotional learning?

How about anything other than test prep?

If you want the kids to read, forcing them to read complex text and do other Common Core and test prep-related activities for 10 hours a day isn't going to do it.

But I didn't fall off a turnip truck.

Quinn and Walcott don't care if the kids like reading.

They want the kids to learn how to obey rules and deal with drudgery, so they can be ready to be good Americans when they grow up.

Shut up and do your test!

Shut up and do your work!

Work longer and harder for less and less every year!

That's the agenda here.