A few more days might help if for no other reason that so many days of school are currently spent on various manditory testing. If a true difference was to be made then something like "year-round" schooling is a better answer. Alas, that would cost more money and Rockwood residents already voiced their opinion regarding that.

As a retired teacher, I would, in general, support a longer school year simply because the longer you work at anything the better you get. At this time, when the focus is on high stakes testing scores and most of the time spent in school emphasizes the scores on the tests instead of the individual needs of the student, even the best schools (including the where I taught) would only be able to use the time to focus more on high stakes testing. A sad commentary.

Furthermore, paying for longer school years would be up to individual states and communities, many of whom are having difficulty paying for the needs of their schools and students now.

Doubtfull, my children come home at least one day a week and say there was literally no lesson plan because of a half day Thursday or collaboration we'd or perhaps there is a holiday on Friday so the school is closed Thursday and Friday and Monday thru we'd they watched movies that may or may not have had little to no educational value.

The administrators spend all thier time keeping thier jobs in this politically correct and litigious society whereas the teachers are then not empowered to teach for fear of reprisal from throwing of the curve or lowering the state accreditation score or some other funding based nonsense. So our children go to school to learn arithmatic. And grammer, that's about it.

The rest( history, science, and all the good juicy fun stuff that is deemed too controversial ) is the responsibility of the parents, who, more often than not, are too exhausted to do much more than make a meal that somewhat borders on nutrition....

This is a problem, parents, legislators, etc, that you can not expect to go away by creating more standardized testing and throwing money at it,

As a long-term substitute for the past five years It is not about the number of days but the quality of the lessons. One of the problems I have encountered is that once the children calm down, roll is taken and other administrative task are complete the teachers only have about 35 minutes of actual teaching time. This short amount of time gives little opportunity to go in-depth on any subject matter.

I believe that the solution is three fold. 1. Parents need to teach their children appropriate behavior in a learning environment. 2. School Districts need to reduce and simplify administrative duties of teachers. 3. We should extend each period by 25 minutes.

With these three solutions in place, teachers could then spend over 60 minutes on real teaching. Oh yea, high/middle Schools should not be allowed to start before 9am many of my teenage students are zombies 1st and second hours because they start at 7am.

I agree with Matt. When I home schooled my daughter, we could get through the entire day in a matter of a few hours with homework completed. We would take the rest of the day to do a "field trip" to the art museum or zoo or to piano lessons (her music class) or dance/gymnastics (her P.E. class.) As a former public school teacher, I could see the value in no disruptive students and no administrative duties. As a parent, when she was in public school, I was amazed at the number of times my daughter would tell me they had cake to celebrate students' birthdays or they would watch a movie (unrelated to curriculum.) Yet the kids were burdened with HOURS of homework and it was expected that parents would be helping them. So I'm not sure what the results would be with extra days, but I do feel that kids deserve to have their summers. Many take summer enrichment classes or participate in sports, and they often travel, which is also a great education. I remember my teachers telling my parents how great it was that we traveled a lot (we moved across the country twice) because we learned so much. And it's true. If we keep them in a classroom all the time, they will never have a chance to get out and see the world or participate in summer sports. We used to get out by Memorial Day and start after Labor Day. (Great for the economy -- lots of vacations.)

There isn't an easy answer to the question of year-round school. On one hand, year-round-school could boost the academic achievement of students who lose out creatively with the high-stakes-testing. One the other hand, year-round-school could deter broader creative learning that comes from travel, enrichment activities, and summer employment. I have had my children in private school (while living in another state), homeschooled them, and now, enrolled in public school. Private school was not year round, however, was longer than public school with week long breaks at winter and spring holidays. We did not have the numerous "enrichment or staff improvement" days that are scattered throughout the public school calendar. I homeschooled, very similar to what Karen described, with the majority of the learning happening in uninterrupted mornings. The bottom line has to be the children and what is best for them. There can be positive solutions that acknowledge the necessity of measurement and the necessity of giving room for children to develop critical thinking and creative skills so important for their future outside the K-12 environment.

you bet your Bippy!!

Labor Day to Memorial Day schedules were set due to youth being a part of a farm economy and they were needed at home. This is no longer the case.
Many valid points have been made above like 7 am not productive for teenagers, but just because students say they've done nothing all day doesn't mean nothing was presented to them.
More testing and more money does not, in itself, provide better prepared students. However, we are giving our students less hours of education than competing countries.
I also would support an all-year schedule with multiple long breaks throughout the year. 3 months off is much too long for continuity. Then too much time has to be wasted reintroducing material to get them back to speed.
More days, shorter summers and the ability to schedule longer time blocks for in depth learning and projects, along with adjusting teens' too early start times are excellent places to start.

Parkway already extended their school day. I don't think having more school days would help. Towards the end of the year, it seems like the children are watching a lot of movies and having extra recesses. One teacher(not at the same school) told me the teachers need that time to get grades in. So, I see no benefit in more days. If the schools would cut out the extra recesses & movies, more learning might take place.

The only proven thing that improves learning is student/teacher ratio. End of story.

When we put a man on the moon we had summer vacations. The problem will not be solved by more "days" at school.

When I was a teacher, I rarely got through my entire lesson plan in my larger classes, but I always got through it in my smaller classes, and often had time to enrich their experiences. Student/teacher ratio is so important. Behavior improves -- there are fewer disruptions. Teachers can actually teach instead of simply managing behavior. This would be a much better approach than additional classroom hours. Moreover, we have an obesity crisis that will not be addressed with longer times sitting at a desk. Our entire community gathers in a cooperative activity every summer to present water ski shows. Parents volunteer as boat drivers, rope handlers, dock assistants and coaches. Young people gather and teach the youngest ones to ski. Teamwork and cooperation are vital when one knot in a rope of a line of 20+ skiers can bring down an entire line. Young bodies get strength and agility training. After the Fourth of July shows, competitions are held throughout the country, with the final one concluding the weekend before school starts. What a great way to develop healthy minds and bodies and build community! Also, see http://www.greatschools.org/parenting/4335-Spark-exercise-and-the-brain.gs

My son watched the movie "Cheaper by the Dozen" while in school - during class.

He gets perfect scores on his math homework even though some of his answers are incorrect.

The students get sent home early one day out of every month.

He has history and math on alternating days (not every day.)

His history teacher hands out worksheets which list questions regarding the material covered by the worksheets.... instead of having the students write out complete sentences to answer those questions - she simply has them highlight the answers on the worksheet. No writing is involved. Highlighting should be the first step when answering the questions, not the only step.

So, I'm thinking the answer is not adding more days onto the school year. I'm thinking the schools need to get back to basics.

Or maybe we should hire some consultants. :sarcasm:

He's a 6th grader in the Rockwood school district.

No,they are just kids. They spend most of their young life in school. Let them be kids and enjoy the little time that they get off. I will be upset if my children have to go more days then they already go. We enjoy our family time together when they are off. They have their entire lives to learn.

Really!!!!! 6 extra days. Is that the factor between smart and not smart! I don't think that it will make a difference at all.

One of the best school systems in the world is in Finland, based on test scores, graduation data, college graduation, etc. Here are some of the keys to this, and how they've been so successful. 1. The school system is 100% state funded. 2. All teachers in Finland must have a masters degree, which is fully subsidized. 3. Teachers are selected from the top 10% of graduates (In 2010, 6,600 applicants vied for 660 primary school training slots). 4. high school teachers with 15 years of experience make 102 percent of what other college graduates make (in the US it's 67%) 5. Teachers are given the same status as doctors and lawyers

So in the US, there are many people who think that teachers should not be compensated well, that their retirement system is far too generous, and that anyone can teach. We do not value or honor the profession of teaching like we do that of doctors or lawyers, and consequently our best and brightest do not go into teaching but instead other fields where they are paid more. If we truly valued education, we would value teachers, because there is also research that shows that a top quality teacher can have a value-added effect of 50 percentage points over a mediocre teacher. Regardless of how we evaluate teachers, if we are not starting with the cream of the crop in terms of the top high school and college graduates, than even our best teachers are not our top graduates and other countries will continue to outperform us

CreveCoeurDad---if you notice, one of the reasons Finland's schools do so well is that culturally they value teachers and give them the same status as doctors and lawyers. So, you are correct, one reason why they perform well is that their families value teachers. And only taking the Finnish teachers and putting them in St. Louis schools misses the point---that the whole system in Finland is used to promote education, and it's not just the teachers or just the families but all of the pieces. Finnish teachers are the higher achieving graduates, who then are paid well enough to want to go into teaching, a career that they will be greatly respected for, and families know the importance of teachers and therefore support them and provide home supports for the students. Some American teachers, in contrast, are not the highest achieving students who will be paid 1/3 the salary of a doctor, will be told that they don't really work because they have summers off, will be told that their retirement system is a joke, and have public funding of schools frequently challenged, and also have parents who don't believe their child would ever misbehave or not study so the problem must be the teacher, and on and on and on. You cannot take one piece of a puzzle and try to put it into another puzzle to complete it, you must have the whole thing

Not neccesarily, The key issue, can the district afford it? Are teachers in favor of it? Will the children have a the tools needed? Bottom line...more does not always mean better!!