Ed reformer visits Hiatt magnet; School among first to get funds for longer day.

Byline: Jacqueline Reis

WORCESTER - First-grader Isiah James had news for Christopher Gabrieli the education reformer, former gubernatorial candidate and author.

"We went on a book tour, too," the young boy said, detailing the stops: St. Mary's Health Care Center, an author's tea and kindergarten.

Mr. Gabrieli's tour might have a slightly wider reach, but it is grounded in part on Isiah's school, Jacob Hiatt Magnet, which is featured in Mr. Gabrieli's new book, "Time to Learn," which advocates an extended school day.

Hiatt was among the first schools to receive state money to lengthen the school day in 2006, and the book details how extended days at Hiatt and elsewhere are letting teachers such as Isiah's, Kimberly L. Langhill, spend more time on literacy, author's teas and enrichment partnerships.

Mr. Gabrieli is cofounder and president of Massachusetts 2020, an organization that works with the state on initiatives such as expanded learning time, so his connection to Hiatt is more than writer and subject. In fact, former Jacob Hiatt Principal Anthony J. Caputo is now a consultant for Mass2020 and works with schools in Worcester and elsewhere that are implementing extended days.

Longer days are catching on statewide. Two other schools in Worcester started extended days this year - City View School and Chandler Elementary Community School - as did Academy Pilot School in Fitchburg. Many more have applied for state money to open extended programs this fall, including Worcester's Claremont Academy, Woodland Academy and Worcester East Middle School, Fitchburg's B.F. Brown Arts Vision School, Gardner's Middle School, Southbridge' West Street and Wells Middle schools, and Webster's Middle School. The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will notify the new districts by July 1 whether they will receive the grant.

The grants allocates $1,300 per student per school extra for extended learning time, and the state spent $13 million on expanded learning efforts in fiscal 2008, according to a February report from the state Department of Education. The report also found the extended day nurtured better connections between students and staff and improved academic work.

Mr. Gabrieli argues that expanded learning time is "common sense" in schools in which students are struggling, and he noted that it often happens, though in different forms, at prep schools that mandate after-school activities. At Hiatt, a magnet school in Main South, almost a quarter of the students are limited English-proficient and two-thirds are from low-income families.

"It is a no-brainer to make this available" to such schools, he said, adding that he also doesn't believe it should be forced on schools.

Hiatt parents who went to yesterday's event were, not surprisingly, fans of the extended day. "There's so much more than chalkboards and workbooks," said Christine Kachadorian, whose four children have all attended the school.

Susan G. Puryear, whose children went to private school in California before the family moved to Worcester, said she recently attended a portfolio conference for a preschooler at which the preschooler did the presentation along with the teacher. She also has a daughter, Mykah Puryear DeMeulenaere, who is in Ms. Langhill's first-grade class with Isiah. "I was very impressed," Ms. Puryear said of the school.

Contact Jacqueline Reis at [e-mail].

ART: PHOTOS

CUTLINE: (1) Jacob Hiatt Magnet School professional development director Susan Allen, left, watches as Clark University clinical faculty member Holly Kapuscienski looks at her signed book as author Christopher Gabrieli signs a copy of his new book, "Time to Learn," for Ms. Allen during a visit to the Jacob Hiatt Magnet School yesterday. (2) Jacob Hiatt Magnet School first-grade teacher Kimberly L. Langhill talks to her students. Author Christopher Gabrieli visited her classroom yesterday.

PHOTOG: T&G Staff/PAUL KAPTEYN