Reading, writing, arithmetic, but more hours of it

YOU REPORT that making students spend more time in school "appears to be working," except it turns out that the only effect has been a possible increase in their test scores ("Longer school day appears to boost MCAS scores," City & Region, Nov. 30).

So what? Tests such as the MCAS tend to measure what matters least. Why, then, should we assume that keeping kids in school for an extra two or three hours every day has been worth it?

If this experiment had resulted in students' becoming more excited about learning, or more creative in the way they think about questions that matter, then the findings could be taken seriously and weighed against the reduction in time for kids to pursue other interests they have outside of school.

But better test scores are no argument at all for a longer school day - or for any other policy that produced this result.

ALFIE KOHN
Belmont

WHILE LONGER school days may help improve test scores of some kids, what about those kids who are already doing excellently on the MCAS?

It is not productive to make kids who are already bored with the slow pace of the current school day sit through even more of it.

This is an example of the wrongheaded one-size-fits-all approach that makes many parents opt for private schools.

Longer school days should be optional and, ideally, combined with opportunities for more advanced students, whose educational needs have been neglected in Massachusetts for too long.

LEO REYZIN
Newton