Inquirer Editorial: School days are too short

The Cherry Hill Board of Education and its teachers agreed to a new contract this week that extends the school day for middle and high school students.

To better understand why, simply do the math.

Beginning in September, the school day will begin 30 minutes earlier for secondary students. Elementary teachers will also report a half-hour earlier to prepare before their students arrive.

The additional time adds up. Thirty minutes more every day for 180 days is the equivalent of about 14 days in additional classroom or preparation time.

That's needed in Cherry Hill, which currently lags the state average in instructional time. Its students are being shortchanged, spending about 24 minutes less in school every day than students in other New Jersey districts.

It was good to see the Cherry Hill Education Association, which often is at odds with the school board on labor matters, ratify the schedule change by an overwhelming margin. It helped that the teachers also received a good financial deal in a tough economy. The new two-year pact provides for average raises of 3.36 percent this year, and another 2.93 percent next year.

Now that they have a longer school day, Cherry Hill teachers must make the most of the additional instructional time.

Extending the school day falls in line with reforms pushed by President Obama and Education Secretary Arne Duncan to raise the bar on student achievement. They have also called for a longer school year, even if it means shorter breaks for the holidays and other time off.

School systems across America still cling to 19th-century agrarian calendars that were designed to give students several months off to work on family farms. But those days are long gone.

Research shows that youngsters, especially those already struggling academically, fall further behind during the long summer recess and have trouble retaining what they learned during the previous school year.

Philadelphia and other academically struggling districts in the region would do well to follow Cherry Hill's lead in extending the school day to give students more time in the classroom.

Former Superintendent Arlene Ackerman extended the school day by an hour four days a week at the Promise Academies, the city's lowest-performing schools. The academic results at those schools have been promising, but budget cuts forced the district to reduce the longer days to three a week and delay expanding the approach to more city schools.

It's not surprising that some Cherry Hill parents and students are unhappy about what the earlier hours will do to their schedules. High school will run from 7:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., and middle school from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m.

The district could have tacked the additional half-hour onto the end of the school day. But that's when students participate in extracurricular activities.

The earlier start times make sense, but adjustments should be made if necessary so active teens get enough sleep to ensure their minds and bodies are ready to learn when the school bell rings.