Chicago Officials Announce 36-Minute School Day Extension For Next Year

The Chicago Tribune (12/23, Hood) reports, "On a day when the Chicago Teachers Union staged rallies to protest closings or turnaround projects at eight public schools, school district officials on Thursday revived the longer school day debate by announcing they would extend the high school day by 36 minutes beginning next fall." CPS officials say that with other adjustments, this will add 46 minutes of classroom time, the Tribune adds, noting that the "move also aligns the high school day with the new 71/2-hour standard for CPS elementary schools, which historically have had some of the shortest school days in the nation. Mayor Rahm Emanuel led the charge earlier this year to lengthen elementary school days by 90 minutes, dangling financial incentives to schools that adopted the longer day this year."