With Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushing to lengthen the school day by 90 minutes, you might wonder how Evanston schools stack up in the time-on-task derby.
With Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel pushing to lengthen the school day by 90 minutes, you might wonder how Evanston schools stack up in the time-on-task derby.
Well, figures from the state board of education show that Evanston elementary school kids have a longer school day than the existing standard in Chicago schools, but a shorter day than what Emanuel is proposing there. High school students in Evanston already spend more time in school than what Emanuel proposes.
Chicago Public School students now have 308 instructional minutes per day, which would rise to 398 minutes under Emanuel’s plan. Students in Evanston/Skokie District 65 have 350 minutes, and students at Evanston Township High Scholl reportedly spend 410 minutes in classes.
The median length of the school day across the state is 354 minutes.
Length of School day
There are different lengths of the school day at the magnet schools, the elementary schools and the middle schools in District 65. Which day is reflected in the 350 minutes cited?
lagging behind
We can compare ourselves to Chicago – or we can look more broadly.
"In most states, instructional time requirements are established in state law and regulation. States vary on whether or not public schools are required to have a minimum number of instructional days per year, instructional hours per year and/or instructional hours in the school day. While most states require a minimum threshold of 180 days per year, state minimums range from 160 days per year in Colorado to 186 days (for grades K-11) in Kansas. States vary even more in the thresholds they set for school day length. The shortest allowable number of hours for a school day falls between 5.5 and 6.5 hours, with variation by grade level. …, in many states public schools are subject to multiple time-related requirements. For example, most states require a minimum number of hours in the school day and either a minimum requirement for instructional days or hours in the school year."
Colorado seems to have 1056 hour for 6-12 and Massachusetts has 990 hours.
Heres a link to state by state comparisons
http://www.timeandlearning.org/research/State Time Policies Brief April 2011.pdf
minutes and hours – still the same ranking
I was surprised they have it down to the minute – maybe if we count seconds the number will be even bigger.
Regardless, Evanston and Illinois are not leading the nation.