The states that require the most instructional time in effect mandate the equivalent of about 1.5 academic years more of school over the course of a student’s K-12 career than those with the lightest requirements, according to the study, which is the result of researchers examining 74 studies related to instructional time and student achievement as well as class time requirements in each state.
“There’s a huge gap between legislating the amount of time the kids should be in school and the actual amount of instruction that students get that’s meaningful and high quality,” said Matthew Kraft, an associate professor at Brown University, who co-authored the study with Sarah Novicoff, a doctoral candidate at Stanford University. “We have incredible work to do to bridge that gap.”