By M. Scott Carter

Transcript Staff Writer

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma public school students need to spend more time at school, and those schools must do a better job of using the time they have, state education superintendent Sandy Garrett said Tuesday.

Garrett, delivering her annual “State of Education” address at the Superintendent’s Leadership Conference, said the Oklahoma school year should be increased to a minimum of 180 days. She also urged state lawmakers to add an hour to state’s six-hour school day.

Currently, Oklahoma public schools are required to hold classes 175 days out of the year with a minimum, six-hour school day.

But schools in China, she said, operate nine-hour days for 10 months — a 200 day educational calendar — and “many countries around the world” require students to be in classes over 220 days.

“Japanese students are required to attend 240 days,” she said.

To compete, Garrett said Oklahoma must consider expanding the school year and “eliminating interruptions” in the classroom.

“There should be great urgency to act on this next logical step in Oklahoma’s education reform movement,” she said. “The average U.S. instructional calendar is 6.5 hours and 180 days. I submit to you that our state must move to an extended day of one additional hour and add at least five days to the instructional year.”

Citing a study by the Broad Foundation, Garrett said the correlation between time and student achievement “gets stronger” with more engaged time.

“The complicated relationship between learning and time indicates that improving the quality of time used for instruction is at least as important as adding to the quantity of time spent in school.”

But while she called for an expanded school year, Garrett said public school districts should have flexibility to develop their new calendar.

“Some schools have used block scheduling or implemented a ‘year-round’ school plan,” she said. ‘And since 1998, some Oklahoma school districts have received 21st Century federal grants to establish academic before and after school and summer programs.”

Schools could even use bus time as instruction time, she said.

“There are some districts which offer instruction as students ride the bus,” she said. “And another example of more time is the charter school model which features nine-hour days, Saturday classes and mandatory three-week summer school.”