The NCLB’s requirement that states provide supplementary educational services to low-performing schools and low-income students has spurred the necessity for more time as these services are typically provided either outside of the school day or during the day where students must miss other instructional class time. The addition of high-quality teaching time benefits certain groups more than others, such as low-income students who have limited opportunities for learning opportunities outside of school. The achievement gap between students of higher and lower socioeconomic statuses is widening as the traditional American school calendar continues the standard 180 days a year, 6.5 hours per day schedule, with an extended summer break. By extending the school day and lessening the duration of breaks, the advantage that higher socioeconomic status students have over lower socioeconomic students lessens because both groups are in school more, lessening the impact of additional educational opportunities some students may gain.
It's not necessarily the amount of time that matters so much as how that time is spent. Extending the school day by two hours but working in no more instructional or remediation time will have little to no impact on student achievement. However, the key to increasing student achievement seems to be maximizing the amount of academic time already provided rather than creating more time. There have been four different types of time identified in schools; allocated school time, allocated class time, instructional time and academic learning time. Allocated school and class time is the amount of time spent in class, instructional time is the time students spend in lectures or lessons, and academic learning time is the time students spend engaged in the material -- but these times are not weighed the same when it comes to the relationship between time and student achievement.
In the number of studies conducted on the relationship between time and learning, there have been strong indications that the amount of academic learning time, or engaged time, is positively linked to increased student achievement. It's essential that extended time proposals focus on providing the right kind of time, not just more time. Analyzing current studies on the relationship between time and learning, researchers from Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory Kathleen Cotton found there was no relationship between allocated time and increased student achievement; only increased academic learning time led to improvements in student achievement.
American students attend school for approximately 180 days a year, but the world’s average is 200 days per year. American students also receive 10 percent fewer instructional hours per year than students in other developed countries. While more time is not a silver bullet, extended school days offer students and staff the opportunity to increase quality instructional time and provide tutoring and other remediation programs to increase academic achievement, especially for low-performing or low-income students.