Presidential commissions, parents, academics, and employers have proposed the same solutions, again and again, for fixing the time students spend in school: (1) Add more days to the annual school calendar; (2) Change to year-round schools; (3) Add instructional time to the daily schedule; and (4) Extend the school day. Three reasons--cost,…

This publication offers suggestions for making more productive use of time, a scarce and valued educational resource. The chapter authors, authorities on the use of educational time, write about how to extend and enhance learning time within and outside schools. In "Productive Use of Time," Herbert Walberg describes how learning time can be…

Drawing on 14 case studies, this article examines reforms and innovative strategies affecting quantity and quality of time usage, and the potential of nonschool educators to complement and expand youngsters' learning opportunities. Many successful programs offer students less classroom time. Some residential programs for dropouts and poor minority…

Four dissimilar schools each respond to a learning challenge by questioning set-in-stone thinking and taking risks. A K-8 school in Toronto bypasses the traditional--and problematic--long summer vacation to follow a balanced calendar model. Students attend school year-round with two-week breaks scattered throughout the year; both remedial and…

The Education Council Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-62) established the National Education Commission on Time and Learning as an independent advisory body charged to do a comprehensive review of the relationship between time and learning in U.S. schools. Based on its 24-month investigation, the Commission found that American students spend an…