Originally posted by Lokrian


Hopefully Cyrinne will chime in here sooner or later. She seems to be the teaching expert.
Thank you! I wish I was a policy expert, but I'm really not. All I can ever comment on is my own experience as a teacher, and the research that I've read. I'm flattered you want to hear my opinions though!

From what the article states, test scores in the counties that implemented this policy improved. There are certainly financial benefits. And a half day each week without students would give teachers time for uninterrupted planning with their teams. So there are certainly several plusses. I worry about how young children would handle such a long day. My first graders already seem tuckered out by 2:30, and they still have an hour to go. Some research on the performance in those last hours would probably help systems make informed decisions from an educational perspective as well as a financial one.

As for my opinion on testing an accountabily, I am now beginning the second month of school. I have not been able to hold even one session of small group instruction because I am so busy with testing. The pendulum has swung so very far towards testing/accountabily/performance that there is no time to teach. It is a sad situation for our students, and I hope very dearly that some kind of balance is struck soon.