The Center for American Progress takes a look at the role that extended time is playing in high schools that are working to close the achievement gap. It wisely makes no suggestion that more time in school is a silver bullet, but notes that successful school programs like KIPP and Cristo Rey, among others, keep kids working for considerably longer periods of time than struggling traditional schools.

The report also scratches at the bizarre disparity between the hours that parents work, and the considerably shorter hours their children are served by schools, and argues that there are many ways to offer stimulating afterschool and summer education experiences.

Lots of charter schools locally (but certainly not all) have made a longer day/year a part of their school operations. The United Federation of Teachers likes to note that it has done so without requiring teachers to work too long by staggering their shifts.

It is easy to predict this issue will only get more attention in the next few years as the urgency to improve student achievement intensifies under No Child Left Behind.