52
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The Apollo 20 initiative of the Houston Independent School District, an initiative that aims to transform a set of underperforming schools, explains on its website that “Apollo schools use strategies and best practices from successful public and charter schools across the nation…. Those strategies include: (a) an Effective Principal and Effective Teachers; (b) More Instructional Time; (c) Use of Data to Drive Instruction; (d) In - School Tutoring; and (e) a Culture of High Expectations. (See: http:// www.houstonisd.org/HISDConnectDS/v/ index.jsp?vgnextoid=c46d66e91844b210Vgn VCM10001000002fa6RCRD&vgnextchannel=0891 0591ed4db210VgnVCM10000028147fa6RCRD)
Anne Williams, “Springfield Cuts School Days,” The Register - Guard, 15 June 2010; Mark Baker, “Schools’ Short Year Burdens Districts,” The Register - Guard, 15 May 2011; Nicole Dungca, “North Clackamas Schools Budget Committee Recommends Cutting Ten Days, 59.5 Teachers in 2010 – 11 school year,” The Oregonian, 10 June 2010; and Anne Williams, “Springfield Cuts School Days,” The Register - Guard, 15 June 2010.
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Ron French, School Daze: Michigan’s Shrinking School Year, (Ann Arbor: Center for Michigan, 2009), p. 6. California Legislative Analyst’s Office, “Update on School District Finance and Flexibility,” Report presented to Assembly Budget Subcommittee No. 2 on Education Finance (Hon. Susan Bonilla, Chair), 7 February 2011.
56
Los Angeles Unified School District, “AALA Agrees to Shorter School Year,” Press Release, 20 April 2010.
57
Arne Duncan, “The New Normal.”
58
Christine Donis - Keller and David L. Silvernail, Research Brief: A Review of the Evidence on the Four - day School Week (Portland, Maine: Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation, University of Southern Maine, February 2009), p. 2.
59
Gale F. Gaines. Focus on the School Calendar: The Four - day School Week (Atlanta, Geo.: Southern Regional Education Board, August 2008), p.1.
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Donis - Keller and Silvernail, pp. 1 – 2.
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Jason Koebler, “More States Consider 4 - Day Weeks,” US News & World Report, 19 May 2011.
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Michael Griffith, “What Savings Are Produced by Moving to a Four - Day School Week?” ECS Policy Brief (Denver, Colo.: Education Commission of the States, May 2011).
63
Donis - Keller and Silvernail, pp. 1 – 2.
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Gaines, p. 3.
44
L EAR N I NG TIME I N AMER ICA
65
Gaines, p. 1.
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Harris Cooper, et al, “The Effects of Summer Vacation on Achievement Test Scores: A Narrative and Meta - analytic Review,” Review of Educational Research, 66:3 (1996), pp. 227 – 268.
Karl Alexander, Doris Entwisle and Lynn Olson, “Schools, Achievement, and Inequality: A Seasonal Perspective,” Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23:2 (2001), pp. 171 – 91.
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Brenda McLaughlin and Jeffrey Smink, “Why Summer Learning Deserves a Front - Row Seat in the Education Reform Arena,” New Horizons for Learning Journal 8:1 (Spring 2010), p. 45.
Boston Public Schools, Communications Office, “New Data Shows Innovative BPS Program Helped Students Make Remarkable Growth in Math and English Proficiency,” Press Release, 23 November 2010.
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Jennifer McMurre, Instructional Time in Elementary Schools: A Closer Look at Changes for Specific Subjects (Washington, D.C.: Center on Education Policy, February 2008).
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Diane Rado, “School Days Shrinking in Illinois,” Chicago Tribune, 21 September 2010.
72
Commission on Time and Learning, Prisoners of Time.
73
For a summary of the latest developments see Jennifer Dounay Zinth, “Helping Students Get a Head Start on the “Real World”: State Strategies for Early High School Graduation” ECS Policy Brief (Denver, Colo.: Education Commission of the States, 2010).
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Quoted in Chris Sturgis and Susan Patrick, When Success Is the Only Option: Designing Competency - Based Pathways for Next Generation Learning (Vienna, Virg.: International Association for K - 12 Online Learning, 2010), p. 8.
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Information on the Brooklyn Generation High School is available online at: http://www. generationschools.org/about/.
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For more information, see Melissa Lazarín and Isabel Owen, Union and District Partnerships to Expand Learning Time: Three Schools’ Experiences (Washington, DC: Center for American Progress, November 2009).
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See http://www.achievabledream.org/site/ PageServer?pagename=dream_program.
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The Rocketship Education tutoring model is explained online at: http://www.rsed.org/ innovate/.