On charter time

Scot Lehigh

A longer school day transforms low-income kids into high achievers

September 28, 2011|By Scot Lehigh, Globe Columnist

THE STORYLINE from the latest MCAS results is disappointing: Overall, our schools are only making slow progress narrowing the gap between low-income and middle-class kids.

But the charter school folks have reason to be happy. Once again, some terrific charters have had some eye-catching success at boosting their students to proficient or above on the statewide test.

The Edward W. Brooke Charter School, a Dorchester K-8 whose student body is 98 percent black or Hispanic and 78 percent low-income, was was tied for tops in the state at that task on fifth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade English, and led in eighth-grade math.

Excel Academy, an East Boston middle school whose studentry is 73 percent Latino and 75 percent low-income, led the state in seventh-grade math and tied for first in eighth-grade English.

Boston Preparatory, a Hyde Park sixth-to-12th-grade charter whose kids are 91 percent black and Hispanic and 73 percent low-income, was tied for first in 10th-grade math.

All told, 15 charters tied for first or led the pack in different subjects at various grade levels.

That success should spotlight a crucial education issue: the need for a longer school day.

At Edward Brooke, the day runs from 7:45 a.m. to 4 p.m. At Boston Prep, school starts at 7:45 and ends at 4:15, with a half-day Saturday session for kids who need it. At Excel, the day runs from 8 a.m. to 3:40, with three hours on Saturday to provide extra help. (At all three schools, one day each week is shorter.) Each also features a longer year.

In other words, charters are succeeding in part because they are providing low-income kids the extra learning time and academic support that suburban kids get through tutoring or at home.

But despite the obvious importance of a longer day, the regular schools are hardly rushing to adopt one. Not in Boston, anyway.

Three-quarters of Boston Public Schools students are in schools with the shorter traditional day - six hours in the lower grades, 6.5 hours in grades 9 to 12 - according to a new report by the Boston Municipal Research Bureau.

Ask Deputy Superintendent Michael Goar why the district hasn’t embraced the longer-day lesson of charters, and he insists it has, noting that the two in-district charters the BPS just opened and its 11 turnaround schools all have longer days.

That’s true - but the reason is instructive: Last year’s education reform act gave the BPS enhanced authority to lengthen the day without first securing agreement from the Boston Teachers Union.

However, the district can’t do the same in the traditional schools - and after a year and a half of contract negotiations, management and the union don’t even appear to be close on a plan to extend the day.