The Effects of an Extended Day and Extended Year Elementary Schools on Academic Achievement - Dissertation Example

Curriculum, teachers, staffs, transportation and other developmental facilities are the other resources that are required for managing schools. Due to the scarcity of resources, members of the education department should ensure that time is best allocated in order to receive the highest benefits by incurring lesser costs. Thus, schools must focus on effective strategies for providing their basic objective of teaching children. However, apart from teaching, schools help to provide enhanced quality of education that enables people to interact communally and value ways to practice safe and healthy behaviors.

Furthermore, effective schooling also helps in contributing reliably and ethically towards family, friends and community and to acquire basic knowledge about values and habits that are expected from an individual (Greenberg, Weissberg, Brien, Zins, Fredericks, Resnik & Elias, 2003). The essay will discuss the effects of an Extended Day and Extended Year Elementary Schools on the academic achievements of students. Moreover, it will discuss the different laws and school timings that differ from state to state or from country to country.

The essay will also help to evaluate the various factors present in other countries whose students are believed to have the highest performance rates comparatively. Theory and current research using ALT Extended Learning Time (ELT) has evolved as an optional policy over the past periods, with increased interests in the future among various educational organizations. Extended learning is defined as lengthening of the school timing or period for all students studying in a particular school for enhancing the knowledge and skills by providing quality education to ensure students’ success.

According to Farbman & Kaplan (2005), a research conducted by Massachusetts 2020 revealed that the continuous underperformance of primary and secondary public schools in the United States (US) prompted members of educational institutions to introduce programmes for enhancing the performances of the students. Thus, ELT has been one of the preferred options for various institutional organizations which help students in gaining additional knowledge during non-schooling hours (Farbman & Kaplan, 2005).

A research conducted by Chalkboard Project (2008) has revealed that ELT is beneficial to students who have various disadvantages or physical disabilities compared to children belonging to middle or high class societies. Moreover, the research suggested that ELT programs have been effectual during primary and secondary classes compared to middle schools. The report also revealed that ELT when compared to Extended School Year (ESY) is more cost-effective in providing quality education to students.

However, in implementing ELT programmes successfully in institutional organizations, certain factors should be considered. The factors, such as having a bold leadership style, an environment that includes teachers’ commitment effective leadership, the programmes should be evidence based with sufficient data, engage support of parents, communities and partners along with providing focus on fundamental academics and improvement activities which are associated with other objectives and developments (Chalkboard Project, 2008).

Thus, it can be stated that ELT programmes are effective, when implementing with consideration to the factors and addressing certain findings by the schools or