“Expanding” or “Extending” School Time?

What difference does it make?

Take a look at two blog posts I read today. The first, by ELL teacher Larry Ferlazzo, contains a list of resources on “extending” the school day. He cites titles that include phrases such as “not always a cure-all” and “it doesn’t fit.”

Compare that with this post about “expanding experiences for all our children” by Dropout Nation’s RiShawn Biddle, which explains why we need to link lessons learned in art and music to those learned in subjects such as English, math and science. The benefits of doing so, he says, include: making learning relevant to kids, improving minority students’ SAT scores, and “helping poor kids become adults who can move into the middle class.”

Sure sounds like a good use of time to me.