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Across the nation, more than 1,000 schools have increased learning time in order to raise students’ core academic skills and ensure a truly well-rounded education. Most of these schools have adopted what the authors of this Policy Perspectives paper term the “new day”—about two more hours of scheduled school every day.

This paper highlights a dozen design principles that the authors, Christopher Gabrieli and Warren Goldstein, believe should be part of future new day schools. Their conclusions are based on their direct experience in helping create such schools, on-site visits, review of the available data, and best judgment. Gabrieli and Goldstein’s intent is to encourage more people to seek change and to help those who want to make the new school day work. The paper ends with a discussion of key issues that call for more experience, data, and perhaps innovation.

“The new school day is still young as an educational strategy,” the authors note. “We should learn a good deal over the next few years. We hope our candor about matters that need more thought and work will help stimulate a creative, productive dialogue as well as more research and experimentation.”