Five States Expand School Hours

That sound you hear is the collective groan of 20,000 public students who will spend more time in school in 2013. Schools in five states—Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New York, and Tennessee—are taking part in a three-year pilot program designed to make public schools more competitive internationally. Forty schools will either make the school day longer or add days to the end of the year to give students access to an expanded curriculum. Federal, state, and district funds will cover the cost of the increased hours along with funding from the Ford Foundation and the National Center on Time & Learning.