Against a Longer School Year

“Added instructional time benefits learning, though there is disagreement on how much. Obama’s rationale was that several countries that outstrip the United States in academic achievement often have school years of 195 days or a little more. But schools in those countries do many things differently. Is it the extra 15 days of instruction that make the biggest difference, or other factors—better use of classroom time, more refined teaching techniques, more involved parents and disciplined students? The Obama administration has a tendency to pop up with new approaches to public education whether or not the reasoning and research behind them is solid.”