The Massachusetts Expanded Learning Time (ELT) initiative was launched in 2005, and it provides grants to selected schools across multiple districts to increase instructional time by at least 300 hours per academic year. Participating schools receive an additional $1,300 per student to lengthen the day and/or year. Schools are expected to use the…

The educational achievement and attainment of young people in the United States has been a long-standing issue of concern. While analyses of long-term trend data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) show that students in the United States have made gains in reading and mathematics over the past few decades, a sizeable…

Charter schools affiliated with the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) are emblematic of the No Excuses approach to public education. These schools feature a long school day, an extended school year, selective teacher hiring, strict behavior norms and a focus on traditional reading and math skills. We use applicant lotteries to evaluate the impact…

2010 was a pioneering year for Massachusetts public schools. State leaders recognized that while the Commonwealth leads the nation in student achievement on national measures such as NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress), more needed to be done to close the persistent achievement gaps between our wealthy and poor students. Combining a…

In this article, Ardice Hartry, Robert Fitzgerald, and Kristie Porter present results from their implementation study of a structured reading program for fourth, fifth, and sixth graders in an afterschool setting. As the authors explain, schools and districts often view an extended school day as a promising way to address the literacy needs of…

Underserved youths are affected by a variety of circumstances such as poverty, poor nutrition, and low physical activity levels. While many extended-day physical activity programs exist, few focus on the importance of health and wellness. The purpose of this article is to describe the development of an extended-day program for underserved youths…

Massachusetts is heralded nationally for being the first in the nation to enact a state policy to redesign and expand the learning day for all students to advance academic achievement, broaden enrichment opportunities, and improve instruction. The Expanded Learning Time (ELT) Initiative has gained momentum over the past several years due to the…

This study was designed to examine the effects of a whole school reform, the Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP), specifically designed to raise academic achievement of at-risk urban middle school students by establishing an extended school day and year, a rigorous curriculum, after-school access to teachers, and increased family-school connections.…

The All Day Kindergarten Program was instituted in the Columbus Public Schools in January, 1972, for the purpose of providing a full day of instruction for underachieving kindergarten pupils. The 1982-83 program goal was that the average language/reading growth of pupils in program attendance for at least 80 percent of the instructional period…

The purpose of the 1991-92 Columbus (Ohio) Public Schools Full Day Kindergarten program was to improve the level of achievement of first-grade pupils by providing an additional half-day of kindergarten experience for 952 pupils in selected schools. This extra time allowed the students to participate in activities that were designed to enhance…

Math and reading achievement scores were compared for extended day (ED) and non-extended day (NED) children in grades 1-3 of the Phillips Extended Day Magnet Program. In the before school (7:00-8:15 a.m.) and after school (2:45-6:00 p.m.) hours, ED children participated in an enrichment and remediation program in the core areas of math/science,…

To determine 1999 Magna Award winners, judges looked for successful programs that were developed or actively supported by school boards, essential in promoting the district's mission and advancing student learning, bold and creative, and capable of being replicated. The grand prize winner was Hartford (Connecticut) Public Schools' extended-day…

The major purpose of this study was to present some findings relative to the benefits and the effectiveness of total learning in a full-day-kindergarten program as compared to the traditional half-day kindergarten program. To do this the Evansville-Vanderburgh School Corporation of Indiana, implemented and conducted a full-day kindergarten pilot…

After-school programs have grown rapidly in recent years, spurred by rising employment rates of mothers, pressure to increase academic achievement, and concerns about risks to children who are unsupervised during after-school hours. The percentage of public schools offering "extended day" programs (which include before- and after-school programs)…

This study examined the impact of the Lighthouse program, a school-based, after-school remediation program in the Chicago Public Schools, on student academic achievement. The Lighthouse program included an extra hour of instructional time and an hour of recreational time. Between the two activities, students received a healthy late afternoon meal.…