Do your homework (why there should be no exceptions)

The Tribune has published yet another cheerleading editorial for the longer day, "with or without a big financial incentive...at every school."

Stand for Children reposts it on their blog. 

Here's an open letter to the Tribune Editorial board: 

The central argument to "More time in school: Why there should be no exceptions" (March 30) is a 30-year old report entitled "A Nation at Risk," a study which has been soundly debunked, notably by Bruce Biddle and David Berliner in The Manufactured Crisis. The decline in test scores between 1960 and 1980 was due in large part to a huge influx of first-generation college students, minority and less affluent students, who had historically not taken the SAT and not enrolled in institutions of higher learning. What persists is overtesting leading to narrowed curricula, lack of transparency and authentic community engagement, leadership that fails to harness teams and build trust, and chronic under-resourcing of public schools, especially the ones that need it most. Before the Tribune editorial board uses its pulpit to advocate for an unfunded 7.5 hour public school day, perhaps they should do more homework and learn where the district's priorities really lie.

To the leaders at Stand for blindly parroting the call for an unfunded longest school day and school year in the nation:  

...I urge an education nonprofit -- with a multimillion dollar warchest and leadership who do not have any children enrolled in Chicago Public Schools -- to learn more about good pedagogy before amplifying the call for the longest public school day and school year in the nation.

I used to fret that too many policymakers' and news outlet's understanding of good pedagogy was a mile wide and an inch thick. Now I see that it's an inch wide and an inch thick.