Do you believe kids these days need Longer School Days and a Longer School Calendar to keep up with other parts of the world in the Academic Area?

No, I think the teachers need less paperwork and should be allowed to teach rather than always having to comply by going to this meeting or that meeting or having to send the children to test prep classes etc. As a veteran teacher for the last 36 years, time was never an issue until states started making pass and failing based on a state tests rather than teacher discretion. Now the school day is focused on one major issue....getting ALL students of all mental abilities to pass a state test. No child left behind? Seriously? How can you compare a precious child who is mentally challenged with a child who is in the gifted program and has an IQ 60 points higher? You can't. Yet, they are judged by the same standards on the state test. One child easily passes, the other may never pass. You cannot expect a child with handicaps to ever reach the same potential as students with greater intellectual abilities. No matter how much you teach or how hard you try, they may all be unique and wonderful, but they all are NOT the same. YES, ALL students improve and learn. BUT, not all students will be on grade level. THAT isn't always achievable. Especially when testing now takes place in February and March. You cannot cram an entire school year's curriculum in 6 months. It used to be, teachers taught their hearts out, and if a child improved to the best of his or her ability, the child moved on and his learning was recognized. Now, it all depends on one test. So you can have a kid in 5th grade with a mustache, with his voice sounding like a man, who can be a father, and still sitting in class because the poor student has a Forrust Gump IQ and can't pass the state test. Education has been a mess since the Bush administration created their brand of testing. It isn't the amount of time in school. It is how the school delegates the time. And teachers are there grading papers and planning until 6:00 pm in the evening because during the day, during their former planning time, we are forced to go to meetings about testing and not allowed to actually plan or grade student work. The whole school system has gone nuts. If you keep students in school for too many hours, they shut down and stop paying attention. Somebody in education needs to make educational decisions. NOT idiot politicians. Education should be, teach, learn, evaluate, and move on. Simple!!! You cannot lump every child into a box and think they all will be the same. What happened to the individual??

Yes there are tests high school students take that determines if they graduate or not. I teach elementary school and those are the references I was making and referring to. I am sorry I didn't make myself clear. I consider high school a whole other ball game with different criteria than elementary. First of all while I imagine that there are unethical teachers who would teach the test and do the wrong thing, 99% of teachers are dedicated and would never dream of doing that. BUT, to prevent it from ever happening, all tests require teachers to sign a document each year stating to follow test guidelines etc. ALSO, each classroom has a proctor to watch students and teachers to make sure everything that goes on during testing is on the up and up. There is no way anything unprofessional could occur. Plus, only teachers are allowed to gather test booklets and they must hand them over to the authorities to be locked up right after testing. There are even police on campus all around the state. Yes, we have a national teacher's test. We met AYP by following the guidelines, but that is determined on percentages of improvement and per grade level and other factors on state tests not national tests. My school was an A school and we followed criteria governed by the state. But students haven't taken the NRT in several years. BTW, last year my writing scores were the 2nd highest in the state, pretty cool. I retired this year but several schools had me come in and give workshops to teachers to help them prepare the children. The key is motivation, keeping them interested, and teaching relevant material as well as not boring them to death. LOL Oh, and teachers never know what exactly is on a test, just what skills they need to teach. Then we sit down and go over the data and determine our strengths as a school and as a teacher and determine
how to improve improve each year. I teach reading and writing and 90% of my students' scores consistently improve in reading from 3rd to 4th grade and my writing scores rock the charts. My strategy? I was an actress before I taught school. I do improvisation, teach method acting skills ( using sensory imagery for character development) and my students truly become amazingly descriptive writers. I also teach 4th graders Shakespeare, but that's just me. I love what I do and the kids know it....But this year teachers on the elementary level went without breaks every day due to budget cuts and moral was low. It was very sad. It didn't bother me since when I started teaching we didn't have breaks except lunch and I taught my own art music and PE. But new teachers aren't used to doing that. And yes, it will be very interesting to see what happens in education in the years to come.