单选题
Most students in grades K-12 attend school for 6 to 7 hours
a day, 180 days per year. Some schools offer extended learning by adding extra
time to the school day or increasing the length of the school year. Some states
are moving to this type of schedule in an attempt to increase student
achievement. Is it worthwhile? Longer days allow for more
instruction in core classes, individualized attention and additional tutoring
time for struggling students. Schools that switched to longer days reported
significant gains in language arts, math and science. The most notable change
was a gain of about 20 percent more proficiency in math from 2006 to 2010.
However, the additional time must be accompanied by quality instruction to have
an impact. Longer school days also have positive implications
for teachers, allowing for more collaboration with colleagues, planning time and
opportunities for on-campus professional development. Some districts that use
extended time have raised salaries and increased benefits to compensate teachers
for the extra hours. Longer days can also help close the
achievement gap between socioeconomic groups. Families who can afford it often
supplement their children's education with additional classes and tutoring. With
longer days, children from less-wealthy families would have these same
opportunities. Students in schools with extended days average seven hours of
instruction in art, music and physical education, which is double the national
average. Advocates of longer days argue that American students
spend less time in school than their counterparts in other nations and are
consequently lagging behind. In fact, American students attend school for 900 to
1,000 hours per year. Finland, which consistently performs well on standardized
tests, averages 608 hours of instruction at the elementary level per year. By
middle school, many American students have received many more instructional
hours than students in Japan, Korea and Finland, yet these three countries
continue to post high scores. Additional time in school means
more energy costs, higher salaries and more resources. While adding time appears
to have positive effects, it comes at a cost that some schools cannot afford.
Adding time to the school day increases school budgets an additional 6 to 20
percent more per year. Cash-strapped schools may not be able to cover this
additional cost without revising their budgets. The question that schools must
answer is whether the additional instruction and enrichment time is worth the
additional costs.
单选题
Some schools in the U.S. add extra time to the school day or school
year to ______.