Duke University professor Harris Cooper says that it is time to rethink how we organize the school calendar.

Let’s excuse Dr. Cooper for his mistaken belief that the purpose of summer vacation was to allow “kids to be off to work in the fields.”  Rather, let’s entertain the notion that we should increase the number of hours and days that students spend in the classroom.  Clearly, low-performing children could benefit from an additional hour or two of high quality instruction and tutoring (see KIPP charter schools), but we would expect others to encounter diminishing returns on the additional time and expense.  Some highly motivated kids may even benefit from a shorter school day.

Perhaps we need to begin thinking about school time in terms of customization, not standardization.