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Today’s economy is knowledge based and there is stiff competition in the global arena. If our students have to be well prepared to face the future challenges, it is important to equip them with enough skills by focusing on true education reform.

High quality K-12 education is in fact absolutely vital to ensure survival of our democracy.  A recent study report released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development shows that American teens are ranked average in science and reading and below average in math as compared to countries such as Australia, Japan and South Korea that are definitely outperforming us. 

This issue has to be addressed at the earliest. Maybe it is a good idea to learn from innovative initiatives such as the one incorporated by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The Expanded Learning Time or ELT initiative is geared towards offering a well rounded education for students and this program is already in effect in 20 schools.

According to this program, school day timings are extended from six to eight hours. For faculty professional development, education enrichment opportunities and core academics, additional time is allotted.

Non-ELT students in science, math and English language arts are being outperformed by students who are a part of this program. It is program very evident that this program is working very effectively. The significant results seen by those who initially adopted this program should convince other schools to adapt a similar program.

The six hour school day is an outdated model with a fundamental deficiency. Today, most students are from families where both parents work which is why an extended school time was proposed by our President in 2009. He said that we cannot work on a system any longer that worked for students of the olden days when American was a farmer’s nation.

Today it is not possible to cover enough curriculums with the 180 day school year that works on six hours a day. This is especially important when you look at the school time in other countries around the world. As compared to the PISA countries like Japan and South Korea that are high ranking, American students spend significantly lesser time in school.

The only possible solution here could be to extend the number of working hours per day in schools which in turn will create enough teaching opportunities and also enough time to strengthen focus on science, math and English composition. Results of this system have been seen both in Massachusetts as well as in charter schools around the country.

When kids are out of school many of them tend to be unsupervised and this leads to juvenile delinquency. It is imperative for America to bring into place a first class education system if we have to keep up to global competition and for this it is necessary to extend school hours.  This must be done as early as possible to ensure good results in a few years time.