Longer school days at DCPS?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:"DCPS also is at the bottom or damn near the bottom in effectively educating its students. Is there a correlation?"


It's the poverty stupid.

Look at the test scores for the white (read:rich) kids. They do just fine with the present school day.

Until the poverty gets addressed, the DCPS schools will continue to fail.

My goodness, how could you be so stupid. It's not that simple or as stupid as you explain. Or and by the way, the rich kids actually have longer school days. Their parents have the money to send them to enrichment programs such as kumon, etc. Or they have tutors. So in essence, the rich kids have longer school days, stupid.

[Anonymous]

Our kids DCPS elementary school went from 8:45 to 3:15. Their private school goes from 8 am to 3:45.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Funny, I think we can't sit by and let the poverty go unaddressed.

But it's easier to fire teachers, so I suppose we should stick with that?

Who said that firing teachers is a solution - we are talking about extending the school day by 30 freakin' minutes.

And when you solve the poverty problem - write back let us know okay.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:30 extra minutes? 8:30 to 3:30. Before I moved here from the midwest, I had no idea schools didn't start at 8 o'clock like they did at almost every school where I grew up.

FWIW, many privates around here start at 8 or 8:30 and have 7 hour days. My DCs are already in school for an hour when their friends at DCPS start school. The extra time does allow them for a break during the day in order to return to the class refreshed and ready to learn.

I loved recess as a kid - feel so bad that so many kids are no longer able to have that experience.

[Anonymous]

I'm a teacher in another district but most kids are done 30 minutes to an hour before school ends. Extending the school day won't help b/c the kids are already mentally checked out by then. I'm all for getting rid of some of these random days off school.

[Anonymous]

Teachers have kids too. We have to get home to our kids. Extending the day will not help us be parents.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers have kids too. We have to get home to our kids. Extending the day will not help us be parents.

This reasoning sounds perfectly teacher-centric.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Its only 30 more minutes.

We don't need longer days so much as more days. Countries that routinely outscore the US on worldwide comparisons (like South Korea and Singapore) in subjects like Math and Science have over 220 days. We only have 180. That's a full extra month off, which really slows down the beginning of the school year. The days could stay where they are in terms of length (kids do need after school time for play, exercise, extra curriculars, after all), we just need more of them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers have kids too. We have to get home to our kids. Extending the day will not help us be parents.

my kids are in school at a DC private from 8:15-3 PM everyday. nearly all of their teachers have kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Teachers have kids too. We have to get home to our kids. Extending the day will not help us be parents.

Er... sorry? Doctors, lawyers, financial analysts, marketers, salespeople, programmers, and executives all have kids we have to get home to. Extending our day doesn't help us be better parents, but we just suck that up. I can't imagine what makes you think you should a different set of rules, princess.