Christopher Peak Photo
John Taylor high-fives an arriving student.
Principal Laura Main showed up to work around 6:30 a.m. to welcome kids with cartons of milk. She went home at 6:30 p.m. after meeting with a dozen parents and students to resolve an argument.
That 12-hour span is a typical day at Booker T. Washington Academy for the principal as well as for several of its students. The public charter school at 804 State St. offers extended hours: a boon to working parents and struggling students.
About one-third of the 240-member student body takes advantage of the academy’s after-school programming. A little under half of the parents pay $5 a day; the rest get a discount for financial or academic reasons, from either the school or the state’s Care 4 Kids program.
Why do the schools need this? A ton of reasons, said John Taylor, the school’s executive director. He said the longer day provides parents with “flexibility” in their work schedules and “confidence that their child is safe and well cared for,” while kids get “targeted support” on their homework and “age-appropriate playtime.”
Nationally, several high-needs districts have experimented with stretching the school-day’s hours, some of them as voluntary drop-in hours and some of them as mandatory classes.
In New Haven, “extended day and after school programs exist at virtually all schools,” Will Clark, the district’s chief operating officer, wrote in an email. Lincoln-Bassett School partnered with ConnCAT to provide offerings for both kids and parents, and Hillhouse High School developed a pilot tutoring program last year that is expected to be replicated at other high schools, Clark added. In 2015, three more schools considered hiring AmeriCorps teaching fellows to stretch the day for at least three more hours of classes; Clinton Avenue got state “Commissioner’s Network” funding to add the extra time.
The effects of these extended days are hard to assess, often because schools are given the freedom to allocate the extra time to any subject or enrichment they choose. One case study: In Washington, D.C., seven of the eight schools that lengthened their days scored higher on standardized tests other institutions, notching 10.6 percent gains in math and 7.2 percent in reading within one school year.
Taylor greets a busload of students.
At Booker T. Washington on New Haven’s State Street, the first group of students, anywhere from 6 to 15, show up at 6:30 a.m. Early in the morning, before sun-up, there’s no structured programming, just a chance for parents to take the early shift. These kids might read, chat with the supervisor, or take pictures.
For most of Booker T. Washington’s “scholars,” as the K‑5 school calls its students, the day starts with a high-five from Taylor. As he greets each student, all in a uniform of maroon polos and khaki pants, Taylor looks for signs of stress. An indicator might be someone who frowns or brushes past his open hand. In those cases, Taylor clicks on his earpiece and radios the principal’s walkie-talkie to pull the student aside.
On a recent morning, a girl stood crying in the doorway to the front office, begging for her mother to come back. The morning supervisor picked up the girl and held her on her lap until the tears stopped. An older girl sitting next to her talked about puppets, while two boys eat cereal and played on an iPad.
Around 7:15 a.m., Taylor and the teachers fanned out around the property to welcome students.
Taylor waved to every passing car and got a few honks back. When the buses arrived, he helped a few kids leap down from the steps. When cars rolled up, he opened the door and helped zip up backpacks. He made two calls on his microphone to Main: One girl was angry at her brother and needed a hug, and another girl’s red eyes might have been pinkeye the nurse needed to check out.
Using the Yale-developed RULER system, a color-coded mood meter, Main debriefs each student individually. After Main asks how the student was feeling, the scholar can point to gradations of four main colors: red for anger, yellow for happy, blue for sad and green for calm. In just a few minutes, Main helps the child cope, by taking deep breaths or reframing the problem.
Often, this doesn’t require an extensive interview. “I don’t need to know what’s going on to identify what the emotion is,” Main explained. Rather, “it’s trying to shift the emotion.”
Those interventions are rare, Main added. “Usually our scholars are pretty excited to get to school. They’re almost running, and we have to tell them to walk. But that’s what you want.”
An after-school tutor reads to two students.
By the time school officially starts, with a working breakfast, the educators’ hope is that students will be able to focus just on their classwork, not whatever else preceded it, Taylor said.
School officially runs 7.5 hours each day, giving students the chance to absorb five hours daily in the core subjects or reading and math and extra time for electives. Weekly, the students pick up 2.25 hours of science, 4.5 hours of art and dance, 2.25 hours of physical education, and 1.5 hours of Spanish.
After the official day ends, kids take a break with a snack then launch into a rotating schedule of after-school activities. What’s unexpected at Booker T. Washington is how the voluntary program integrates work and play. During the extra hours, the grade-schoolers don’t robotically continue to drill their lessons. Instead, homework and reading are mixed in with a rotating schedule of snacking and chatter, breathing and exercise, and music and dance.
Walking the halls, one can see the kids are clearly enjoying themselves.
“They get to do their schoolwork and a chance to exhale,” said Anton Bures, the after-school program director. “Kids’ attention is not something that they can provide without limit. We build in that variation.”
Larry Simpson, a first-grade assistant teacher, teaches a student to play drums.
That’s a change from the after-school program’s original structure, Taylor said. When it was first offered, the focus was just on finishing up the day’s homework, he said. Parents love when students have their homework done, Main noted. But essentially, the program felt closer to babysitting. Now the kids have more access to technology and student-centered activities, like checking out books, dancing to music, learning musical instruments, and moving mindfully, alongside the extra tutoring.
Sometimes the segments don’t go according to plan. A class on relaxation techniques, through breathing and stretching, can turn into a free-for-all with almost half the class in five-minute time-outs at desks, or it can be a tranquil run through various poses. Sometimes even the wilder sessions are a way for kids to get out their pent-up energy.
Many of these activities are led by academic assistants. That gives lead teachers the afternoon off to prep the next day’s lesson plan, while the assistants gain experience directing classroom activities for a smaller group of students.
Teacher and student alike dance to Justin Timberlake’s “Can’t Stop the Feeling!”
Altogether, that means some kids are at Booker T. Washington for up to 12 hours. Vinise Cook, the parent of a kindergartner and second grader, sends her kids to both the morning and afternoon sessions. It helps with her work schedule, and her kids “love” it,” Cook said.
Heath Crawford said he likes that his daughter in kindergarten gets “hands-on extra teacher time.” Mahogany Tyson said it is “very effective and very helpful” to have a place where her kids can wrap up their homework.
Parents often say they “feel at ease knowing that their child is in the same location as their school,” Main said, even if it means long days for her.
Click on or download the above audio file to hear a recent episode of WNHH radio’s “Dateline New Haven” that explored the academic success of Booker T. Washington Academy.