Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eSchool News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Will longer school year help or hurt U.S. students?

The National Center on Time & Learning has estimated that about 1,000 districts have adopted longer school days or years.

Students might get their wish of more holiday time from school off under proposals catching on around the country to lengthen the school year calendar. But there’s a catch: a much shorter summer vacation.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan, a chief proponent of the longer school year, says American students have fallen behind the world academically.

“Whether educators have more time to enrich instruction or students have more time to learn how to play an instrument and write computer code, adding meaningful in-school hours is a critical investment that better prepares children to be successful in the 21st century,” he said in December when five states announced they would add at least 300 hours to the school year calendar in some schools beginning this year.…Read More

Obama calls for more STEM teachers, longer school year

Obama: “Strengthening STEM education is vital to preparing our students" for the 21st-century economy. (AP photo)
Obama: “Strengthening STEM education is vital to preparing our students" for the 21st-century economy. (AP photo)

Barely into the new school year, President Barack Obama issued a tough-love message to students and teachers on Sept. 27: Their year in the classroom should be longer, and poorly performing teachers should get out. Separately, the president also announced a goal of recruiting 10,000 teachers over the next two years in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM).

American students are falling behind some of their foreign counterparts, especially in math and science, and that’s got to change, Obama said. Seeking to revive a sense of urgency that education reform might have lost amid the recession’s focus on the economy, Obama declared that the future of the country is at stake.

“Whether jobs are created here, high-end jobs that support families and support the future of the American people, is going to depend on whether or not we can do something about these schools,” the president said in an interview on NBC’s “Today” show.…Read More