Watch: Former, current Chicago mayors clash on longer school day debate

While former Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley has thrown some veiled criticism at successor Rahm Emanuel in the past, the man who led the city for 22 years is coming down hard on the new mayor’s longer school day initiative, the Huffington Post reports.

“At first I thought [a longer school day] was [the answer], but I don’t think so,” former Mayor Daley said in an interview Monday night on ABC Chicago. “To me, to take a fourth-grader or a sixth-grader or a high school student, and say you’re going to stay more than six hours — we need quality instructions.”

Expanding time spent in the classroom has been one of Emanuel’s major initiatives since taking office nearly a year ago, along with hacking away at the city’s budget…Read More

Chicago Public School system announces guidelines for longer school days

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Public School system has issued guidelines that detail what the longer school days are to consist of. The plan includes mandatory recess for all elementary schools, as well as an additional 54 minutes of instructional classroom time for elementary students and 46 minutes of instructional time for high school students. WGN News added most grade schools will devote two hours to reading and writing, 60 to 80 minutes on math, 40 to 60 minutes on science and 30 to 40 minutes on social studies…

Click here for the full story

…Read More