New York City public school students are not performing well academically and need more hours of instruction. Current New York State law requires a minimum of 5 hours of instruction per day for grades K-6 and 5.5 hours for grades 7-12. A pilot program will extend the school day for 20 underperforming NYC schools starting in fall 2013 and evaluate the results after 3 years. Research shows that longer school hours and academic calendars can improve student performance based on examples in Washington D.C., Massachusetts, and Chicago. Three options to increase instructional time are considered: extending the school day, extending the academic calendar, or adding Saturday classes.

1. INCREASING STUDY HOURS IN NEW
YORK CITY’S PUBLIC SCHOOLS FOR
STUDENTS IN K-12
29984, Legislative Policy Analyst

2. ACTION FORCING EVENT
New York City’s public school students not
doing well; need more hours of instruction

3. NYS AVERAGES ON MATH, CRITICAL READING AND
WRITING VS. NATIONAL AVERAGE
Categories 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006
Source: http://www.hflcsd.org/district.cfm?subpage=616770

4. Current Laws in NYS Regarding
School Hours
Daily Sessions of:
O Half kindergarten shall be minimum 2 ½ hours
O Full Kindergarten shall be and grades 1 through 6 minimum 5 hours
O Grades 7 through 12 shall be minimum of 5 ½ hours
Source: www.nysed.gov – Section 175.5 Length of School Day

5. Pilot Program in NYC
O Longer hours
• 20 underperforming schools
• Starting Fall 2013
O Evaluation After 3 years

6. Literature Review
Longer Hours Needed States with longer hours
National Center on Time and
Learning (Paulson, 2012)
Washington D.C (Turque,
2010)
Scholars believe students
forget during long summer
breaks (Cooper, 2003).
Massachusetts – Inproved in
grades since program was
introduced (Mass2020.org)
Chicago (Spielman et al,
2012).

7. Stakeholders
 NYC Chancellor – Dennis Walcott
 Parent Teachers Association (PTA)
 Richard Iannuzzi – NYSUT (Advocacy Group)
 Governor Andrew Cuomo
 Commissioner John B. King Jr.

8. Option 1
Extended School Day
Additional hours from Monday through Friday which
will lengthen the school day

9. Option 2
Extended Calendar
Extension of the number of weeks students attend
school from Monday through Fridays

10. Option 3
Saturday Classes
One additional school day to the week. Students will
attend school from Monday through Saturdays

11. OPTION ANALYSIS
 Extended school day
Strong Administrative and political feasibility
 Extended academic calendar
Additional budget required
Highly effective
 Saturday Classes
Effective
Administratively feasible

12. Pros Cons
Keep student academically
involved for more weeks
Additional budget
Students and staff can still
attend school Mon – Fri at
the same time as they are
used to
Shorter breaks for staff and
children
Highly effective May encounter initial
objection from advocacy
groups