Rahm is Right—A Longer School Day Will Increase Student Achievement

Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel has offered bonus pay to teachers that waive union contract rules and keep children in school longer each day. See the New York Times article here. A teachers’ union rep calls the mayor a “Republican” and opposes his education policy. The union is misguided, and Chicago students, on the low end of instructional time compared to other urban schools, can only benefit from increased instructional time. How do I know? Just compare a wealthy school district (my kids’ district) and a middle-class district (where I teach), located  about 20 miles from each other.

My children attend a wealthy high school district that tests very high compared to other California schools. I teach at a district that is not as generously supported by taxpayers and private donors, and my district’s API (state test) scores are not as high. This situation is no surprise to anyone who has examined the strong correlation between average family income and standardized test scores. The richer the school district, the higher the test scores.

Do rich parents genetically produce smarter children? Do they buy more books for their kids along with the sports cars? Or do smart people become rich and procreate, cloning kids just like them?

Perhaps the causal link between wealth and API scores may lie elsewhere—in instructional time.

Wealthier families support their local public schools through property taxes and donations to school foundations. That money, in turn, supports additional instructional time for the students, especially the lower level students, and those students increase their achievement. In turn, API scores dramatically increase. Middle- and lower-middle class families raise much less money through property taxes and direct donations. These districts can’t afford increased instructional time. The state of California does not even out the funding discrepancies by contributing more money to the poorer districts.

My kids’ high school exemplifies the disparity between richer and poorer districts. My own children must attend after-school tutoring if they fail an exam. They must attend a homework club if they didn’t prepare well the night before or didn’t turn in an important assignment. These kids would encounter no consequences (besides a poor grade) in a poorer high school (i.e., the high school where I teach) and no chance to relearn the material. Additionally, my children's teachers are contracted to work a lot more than I am: ten hours more per week. That adds up to 400 more hours of lesson planning and evaluating the efficacy of instruction. When my children need extra time with a teacher they get it, and teachers accomplish more in preparing and evaluating their practice. API scores skyrocket as a result. Rahm is right.