An extended academic day is integral to the Partnership’s academic strategy.  Having students spend more time on task in language arts and math raises achievement levels.  Our extended academic day will run from Monday through Thursday and provide 1.5 additional instructional hours daily. 

This fall, the Partnership implemented extended academic day at two network schools, Immaculate Conception and St. Athanasius.  Now, all Partnership network schools offer it and instructional time runs from 8:15 AM to 4 PM.

Principal Sister Patrice Owens explains what this means for her school, Immaculate Conception: “Extended academic day is an opportunity to expand and enhance the ELA and Math curriculum according to the new Common Core State Standards.  These standards require a more rigorous and deeper approach to learning Math and language skills.  We are able to provide daily 90 minute Math and 90 minute ELA periods for grades 1-8 with this new schedule which will most certainly accelerate our students’ mastery of higher order thinking skills.  At St. Athanasius School, Principal Marianne Kraft commented that the teachers, “feel less rushed and the students have time to ask more questions.”  She then added, “a 6th grade student told me that he has more time to ‘get into the zone of learning.’”  A perfect summation of the value of this program.