The bell rings at 3:20 p.m. at Marie Murphy School in Wilmette, sounding the end of a seven-hour and 20-minute day for middle-schoolers, one of the longest in the state.
Several miles south in Chicago, public elementary school students get out after just five hours and 30 minutes, the shortest day in Illinois.
By the end of a typical school year, that daily disparity would give the Murphy students the equivalent of 48 more school days, nearly 10 extra weeks.
A Tribune analysis of nearly 900 school districts in Illinois found dramatic differences in the length of the school day, with disadvantaged students who need the most academic help often getting the least time in school.
The amount of time a student spends in school has become a central part of education reform efforts elsewhere in the nation. But in Illinois, the striking variation from district to district has gone mostly unnoticed by parents, politicians and even administrators, and its effects on education have gone unassessed.
In the state’s high school districts, where the comparison is most direct, a pattern emerges: Poor-performing districts tend to have shorter school days. Those also are the districts with higher-than-average concentrations of poor and minority students. Wealthier districts with better test scores tend to have longer school days.
It is more difficult to compare the state’s grade schools, because the data is less consistent than high school information. But a Tribune analysis of the 32 districts with elementary schools declared failing under the new federal education law showed that virtually all had shorter-than-average school days, as well as high poverty rates and minority populations.
Chicago public elementary schools have the shortest school day in Illinois, education records show, even as the district struggles to rescue the largest number of failing schools in the state. Chicago also has the shortest elementary school day of the 10 largest school districts in the nation, the Tribune found.
Though researchers say a longer school day does not guarantee better test scores, most believe that more quality classroom time improves achievement. And state statistics indicate schools with longer overall school days almost invariably offer more instructional time.
“All research points to the fact that children who are not achieving need more time on task,” said Sandra Kase, a school superintendent in New York, which recently added up to an hour to school days at low-performing schools. “It is not rocket science.”
The Tribune reviewed more than 1,000 pages of documents and interviewed more than 100 educators here and around the country about school hours.
Administrators–most of whom expressed surprise at the findings–said the differences in hours stem from the wealth of the district, union contracts, a minimum of state oversight and local history.
The result, most agreed, was inequality in education.
“There is something grossly wrong with this picture,” said Elizabeth Reynolds, new superintendent of Maywood-Melrose Park-Broadview District 89, whose test scores are among the lowest in the state. “A district in [educational] deficit needs more instructional time than a district that’s not in deficit.”
District 89, behind only Chicago in the number of failing schools, also had the shortest school day after Chicago last year, five hours and 45 minutes. As a result of a new teacher contract, 30 minutes of instruction was added this fall.
A matter of funding
After hearing of the Tribune’s findings, Chicago Public Schools chief Arne Duncan and Chicago Teachers Union president Deborah Lynch said they expect to discuss adding more time to the 5 1/2-hour school day, which dates back more than three decades. Chicago’s teacher contract expires in June.
If disparities exist, “it’s certainly an issue that should be considered,” Lynch said.
Duncan said a longer school day should be on the table, even if it means going to state lawmakers for help in paying teacher salary increases.
“This is the kind of issue that I would love to go hand in hand with Debbie [Lynch] to Springfield to push,” Duncan said.
At least one Chicago principal has tried to take the matter into his own hands. For five years, Gary Moriello, principal of Gladstone Elementary School on the Near West Side, has scraped together discretionary funds and federal grants to pay teachers more, so that he could add an extra hour to his students’ day.
“Our kids get the short end of the stick and they’re the neediest kids,” said Moriello, whose students are overwhelmingly poor.
Moriello credits the added hour for a dramatic rise in his students’ scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills, though they still trail students citywide.
Chicago school officials point out that 183,000 children, roughly 42 percent of the district’s students, take part in after-school programs that include at least four hours of academics a week. Duncan also stressed the system has seen gains in test scores in recent years, despite the short school day.
Across the country, time is becoming more critical as school districts face increasing pressure to raise standardized test scores.
Under the new No Child Left Behind Act, schools can be sanctioned for failing to show annual progress in test scores, and children must be given the option of transferring out of schools that consistently fall short.
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To help address that, New York City schools added 20 minutes to the school day, boosting time in school this fall to six hours and 40 minutes. Since 1999, the school system also has added 40 extra minutes to the school day of 46 low-performing schools, adding time for instruction as well as teacher development. The district has already seen achievement gains at those schools, said Kase, the superintendent overseeing the extended-time schools.
Children in Houston and Detroit go to school at least seven hours; Miami elementary students get six hours and 30 minutes of school every day, and Philadelphia’s children get a minimum of six hours and 54 minutes.
In Illinois, each district reports its own start and finish times to the state, as well as a separate total of instructional minutes per day. Though the totals generally reflect a normal day for the majority of students, the Tribune’s survey showed some inconsistencies in reporting, especially in counting instructional minutes.
In elementary districts, for instance, some reported the overall length of an 8th grader’s day, while others tried to average across schools and grade levels. Some districts included homerooms and study halls in their instructional minutes, while others did not.
The average overall day for students in elementary school districts last school year was six hours and 37 minutes, according to 2001-02 state figures.
The home of Marie Murphy Elementary School, tiny Avoca District 37 in Wilmette, and Selmaville School District in Downstate Marion County reported the longest elementary school day in the state, seven hours and 20 minutes.
In all, 57 elementary districts reported school days of seven or more hours. Twenty-two of those districts were in the Chicago suburbs, including Winnetka District 36, Butler District 53 in Oak Brook, Lake Forest District 67, Rondout District 72 and Fox River Grove District 3.
Minorities suffer most
By contrast, the average school day for elementary districts with failing schools and for failing elementary schools in K-12 districts was six hours and 15 minutes–22 minutes less than the statewide average. Nearly 80 percent of the children in the failing schools are black or Hispanic, and about 66 percent are low-income.
The relationship between time and achievement is complex. Other factors may have a powerful influence over achievement, as well–some experts believe low test scores may have more to do with student poverty than a short school day, for example.
Researchers generally agree, however, that more quality academic time has a positive influence on student achievement, particularly for disadvantaged students.
The Tribune found that longer overall days often mean more time in several categories: instruction time in core classes; enrichment courses such as music, art and foreign language; physical education; lunch and recess.
A study released this month by scholars at Columbia University and the University of Maryland found that white students were significantly more likely to have a longer elementary school day with more enrichment opportunities than black students.
“Our data illustrate the racial and economic inequality in America’s schools: Poorer minority children do not have the same opportunities as richer white students,” the researchers wrote.
A landmark 1994 study by the National Education Commission on Time and Learning concluded that American students would need more academic time to meet world-class standards. The commission recommended that schools provide at least 5 1/2 hours of instruction in the core academic areas of English, language arts, math, science, civics, history, geography, the arts and foreign languages.
Illinois law mandates five hours of “instructional” time each day. Districts have wide discretion to build their total school day around that minimum.
Chicago’s short school day has roots back to 1969, when concerns arose about student safety and behavior, according to a study by the Consortium on Chicago School Research.
In order to minimize the chances for trouble during the school day, many schools prohibited students from walking home for lunch, and shortened the lunch period to 20 minutes. They also ended recess. That time was shaved off the end of the school day, creating the five-hour, 30-minute day.
“Very quickly, then, a schedule intended as a safety measure for schools in the most troubled neighborhoods of the city evolved into a CPS standard,” noted the researchers.
Study finds problems
With all the normal interruptions in the school day and other factors, the consortium concluded in late 1998 that Chicago grade school students weren’t even getting the 300 minutes of instruction time required by state law. They suggested the school day last between six hours and six hours and 40 minutes, to ensure the instructional time requirement could be met.
The study came out just after a new teacher contract was negotiated in 1998. Former schools chief Paul Vallas recalls some discussion of lengthening the school day at the time, but the district opted instead for less-costly after-school and summer-school programs that target students who need the most help.
“When you have limited resources, you have to target your money,” Vallas said. “I’d love to lengthen the school day. I’d love to have world peace too. The question, is, what can you afford?”
Students in Chicago’s high schools typically go six hours and 14 minutes, also low compared with other high schools around the state. The average for Chicago and the 101 high school districts last year was six hours and 55 minutes.
In Evanston Township District 202, the high school day is seven hours and 30 minutes, enough time for students to take advantage of a wide selection of courses, including seven languages: French, German, Hebrew, Japanese, Latin, Spanish and American Sign Language.
Students at Adlai E. Stevenson High School in Lake County go seven hours and 25 minutes, allowing time for mentoring programs and required study halls that help 9th graders adapt to the rigors of high school life. In addition, students have an array of fine arts and music programs, foreign language offerings and other opportunities, Supt. Timothy Kanold said.
Better test scores may result
Evanston and Stevenson students were among the top performers on the Prairie State Achievement Exams given to 11th graders last year.
Overall, the 20 highest-performing high school districts in the state had an average score of 165 on the math, reading, writing, science and social science PSAE tests, and an average school day of seven hours and eight minutes.
In contrast, the 20 lowest-performing high school districts in the state had a PSAE score of 151, and an average school day of six hours and 40 minutes. The lowest-performing districts also had significantly higher concentrations of low-income students than the high school districts as a whole.
Not everybody agrees that longer is better. West Chicago’s high school district 94 in DuPage County cut its school day to seven hours and 10 minutes this year, 20 minutes shorter than last year.
Supt. LeRoy Rieck said students complained about the long day, which conflicted with athletic schedules at other schools. Now, teachers use the 20 minutes cut from the student day for planning and development, Rieck said.
The shortest high school day last year, six hours, was in Thornton Township District 205 in southern Cook County, where nearly 4 of 10 students live in poverty.
School board member Sharon G. Voliva, a former board president who negotiated the last teacher contact, said she worries that lengthening the school day might lead to higher dropout rates. The students in her district have to work to help support their families, she said, and even now, some students are slow to report back to school because they don’t want to give up their summer jobs.
“Even if we made the school year longer,” Voliva said, “would kids stay for it?”
– – –
Coming up short
Chicago elementary students spend at least a half hour less in school than students in the nation’s largest districts.
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TIME SPENT IN SCHOOL
(For elementary school students)
CITY/DISTRICT LENGTH OF DAY
Detroit 7:00
Houston 7:00
Philadelphia 6:54
New York 6:40
Miami-Dade 6:30
Los Angeles 6:28
Las Vegas 6:11
Honolulu 6:06*
Broward County (Fla.) 6:00
Chicago 5:30
*The school day in Hawaii is 6:15 four days a week, 5:30 one day.
Source: Tribune survey of the districts
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Poorer districts often have shorter school days
Six high school districts in the Chicago area have at least one in three students who are considered low-income. Of those districts, only two have a school day that is as long or longer than the state average.
STUDENT INCOME LEVELS VS. LENGTH OF SCHOOL DAY, PSAE TEST SCORES (**)
(Data is for high-school only districts. High schools that are part of a K-12 unit district are not included here.)
KEY: (*) District in which one in three students are low-income
(**) The Prairie State Achievement Examination is for 11th graders and covers five topics: math, reading, writing, science and social science.
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COOK COUNTY
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HIGH SCHOOL LOW-INCOME LENGTH OF PSAE SCORE
DISTRICT RATIO DAY
STATE AVERAGE
(For high school districts, Chicago) 6:55 157.9
Evanston Twp. Dist. 202 24.1 7:30 162.5
Homewood Flossmoor Dist. 233 5.5 7:30 163.0
Township Dist. 214 (Arlington Heights) 9.1 7:20 162.9
* Community Dist. 218 (Oak Lawn) 38.7 7:15 151.0
Niles Twp. Community Dist. 219 13.0 7:15 162.3
Northfield Twp. Dist. 225 6.9 7:15 168.4
Township Dist. 211 (Palatine) 6.1 7:15 161.9
Lyons Twp. Dist. 204 5.7 7:10 163.9
New Trier Twp. Dist. 203 0.4 7:10 171.9
Proviso Twp. Dist. 209 26.2 7:10 148.1
Leyden Community Dist. 212 10.3 7:05 156.3
Riverside Brookfield Twp. Dist. 2 5.2 7:05 162.3
Bremen Community Dist. 228 14.0 7:00 153.6
Oak Park & River Forest Dist. 200 5.8 7:00 163.8
Ridgewood Community Dist. 234 3.1 7:00 157.6
Argo Community Dist. 217 32.7 6:55 154.9
* Bloom Twp. Dist. 206 39.7 6:55 149.9
Thornton Fractional Dist. 215 28.8 6:55 153.0
Maine Twp. Dist. 207 10.7 6:50 161.7
Reavis Twp. Dist. 220 7.7 6:45 153.0
Oak Lawn Community Dist. 229 5. 0 6:35 155.7
Lemont Twp. Dist. 210 3.6 6:31 159.6
Evergreen Park Community Dist. 23 4.5 6:25 158.2
Consolidated Dist. 230 (Orland Park) 3.8 6:18 161.8
* J. Sterling Morton Dist. 201 (Cicero) 66.2 6:15 149.3
* Chicago Dist. 299 (high schools only) 82.9 6:14 147.6
Rich Twp. Dist. 227 33.2 6:05 151.6
* Thornton Twp. Dist. 205 38.5 6:00 149.6
DUPAGE COUNTY
Community Dist. 94 (West Chicago) 8.4 7:30 159.7
Community Dist. 99 (Downers Grove) 4.1 7:20 162.4
DuPage Dist. 88 (Villa Park) 13.7 7:15 160.4
Fenton Community Dist. 100 12.1 7:07 155.5
Hinsdale Twp. Dist. 86 4.0 7:00 167.4
Glenbard Twp. Dist. 87 7.0 6:55 162.1
Lake Park Community Dist. 108 3.0 6:51 160.7
LAKE COUNTY
Mundelein Consolidated Dist. 120 9.8 7:35 160.5
Adlai E. Stevenson Dist. 125 0.5 7:25 169.3
Antioch Community Dist. 117 5.1 7:20 156.4
Lake Forest Community Dist. 115 0.0 7:20 169.9
Libertyville Community Dist. 128 2.4 7:20 166.8
Grayslake Community Dist. 127 2.3 7:15 161.4
Grant Community Dist. 124 13.1 7:00 155.6
Township Dist. 113 (Highland Park 8.4 7:00 168.3
Warren Twp. Dist. 121 4.8 6:55 161.1
Zion-Benton Twp. Dist. 126 12.2 6:48 155.2
MCHENRY COUNTY
Community Dist. 155 (Crystal Lake 1.8 7:25 162.1
McHenry Community Dist. 156 3.4 7:05 159.5
Marengo Community Dist. 154 5.5 6:57 157.8
Richmond-Burton Community Dist. 1 1.4 6:34 159.3
WILL COUNTY
Lockport Twp. Dist. 205 4.7 6.59 159.2
Lincoln Way Community Dist. 210 1.6 6.31 161.4
* Joliet Twp. Dist. 204 53.1 6.30 150.3
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Note: All times are based on the 2001-02 school year; PSAE scores are from 2001. There are no high-school only districts in Kane County.
Sources: Illinois State Board of Education, Chicago Public Schools
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