Categories: News

Quote of the Day

Education Sector has a new study out, written by Senior Analyst Elena Silver, that analyzes the impact of adding extended learning time (ELT) to persistently failing schools, specifically those eligible for  School Improvement Grants. The results are mixed for a variety of reasons, including that “demanding that teachers work more hours in such an environment threatens to repel rather than attract the very educators these schools need.”

ELT does work effectively in some schools but only if the extra time is used to “improve teacher effectiveness and student engagement.” And

Teachers, in turn, are attracted to these schools because they see a strategy for great education that depends on and supports them as professionals. But these schools didn’t get that way by adding minutes or hours or even days. Good schools are made by strong networks that support and demand great leaders, who create and cultivate effective teams of teachers, who really know what and how to teach students. To suggest that our nation’s worst schools will be transformed, and that student outcomes will improve because of more time is not any different than suggesting that they will transformed by more money. Both are necessary and both boast plenty of persuasive adages about why more is better. But both are overly simplistic treatments to the very complex problem of improving education.

Laura Waters

View Comments

Recent Posts

BREAKING: Statement from JerseyCAN on State’s Long-Delayed Release of Student Test Results

This is a statement by Paula White, Executive Director of JerseyCAN, on the New Jersey…

2 years ago

NJEA: Murphy’s Elimination of Teacher Performance Test Is a Major Win for Students and Educators

This is a press release. Earlier today, Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill to eliminate…

2 years ago

Murphy Signs Bill Eliminating EdTPA Test for Teacher Certification

Today Gov. Phil Murphy signed Senate Bill 896, which prohibits the New Jersey Department of…

2 years ago

LILLEY: Blue States Had More School Closures and More Learning Loss — Just Like NJ under Gov. Murphy

The 74 conducted a study of the relative learning loss in Democratic (Blue) and Republican (Red) states and…

2 years ago

One of Newark Superintendent’s New High Schools Tolerates Racism Against Black Students

In October 2020 Newark Superintendent Roger Leon announced with great fanfare the opening of district’s…

2 years ago