Extended+School+Days

  I think that we should have extended school days. A typical extended day school week for Brentwood School District would be school Monday through Thursday from 8 A.M. until 4:30 P.M., and then there would be no school on Fridays. Many schools already have extended school days and they like it. It would be an excellent way to involve each student so they can grow in school standards and social standards.

There are many reasons why we should have extended school days. First, there would be more time to work on extra programs like learning careers and guitar class. For example, DC Prep in Washington D.C. has extended school days, and they like it because it gives chances to kids who want to learn things like drama and art. Many people say that learning extra curricular activities, like debating and gardening, will do more after high school and college.

Second, if you spend a longer time in school and take extra time on basics, then you will be capable of having higher test scores. For example, a research group called the Education Sector found out that if you have more class time it could improve test scores. In addition, most surveys say that schools that have extended school days are typically low-income schools but their test scores are a success. Also, since we would have time to extend the basics, there would be a lot of higher PSSA scores, which shows how smart kids really are.

If kids knew that if they missed school they would have more work to make up they would probably come to school, which relieves some pressure off of the teachers. In addition, I interviewed a few students about this topic. “Yes, I would come to school more often, as long as we would have Fridays off. I would hate to make up all that work,” replied Gregory Casey. “Yeah, I would come to school more often because we would have Fridays off. It’s not like it would take up your time, we would have to make up stuff and you’d just be sitting at home playing video games or something,” replied Matthew Benedik. “Extended school days would be good because my dad doesn’t get home ‘till 4:30, and that’s when we would get out. We would also have to make up all that work,” Added Andrew Gross.

Another good reason for extended school days is the great deal of savings it would give to the budget for the school district. It would reduce the heating and cooling costs for the school by eliminating a day, and would also eliminate a cafeteria meal that would need to be provided to the students. There are also many other savings that the district could have from not having school on Fridays.

In conclusion, having extended school days is a good idea for our school. We would be able to focus on basics more, while at the same time we could focus some of other important things like music, art, drama, computers, and other extra curricular activities during school. Also, more schools have extended school days have liked it, and the kids would come to school more often. I personally think that we should have extended school days in the Brentwood School District. Here are some other web sites that have more information on extended school days, and how some people like them.
 * [|Kennedy to promote extended school days]
 * [|More Schools Turn To Extended Days]
 * [|After School Alliance]

 -Eliza Schaap