LONGER SCHOOL DAYS NOT ANSWER FOR KIDS.

Byline: CARLA SANGER and RAMON CORTINES

Local View

IT sounds like a solid plan: Forget about the traditional 3 o'clock bell. Keep kids in school with their teachers until dinnertime. Not only will they avoid the temptations of the street, but also they'll learn more and test scores will improve.

In California, an astounding 22 percent of school-age children are on their own in the critical hours between 3 and 6 p.m., when juvenile crime and students' experimentation with drugs, alcohol and sex hit their peak. Local, state and federal government -- along with foundations, corporations and civic groups -- have long seen the value of after-school programs that keep students safe, supervised and connected to caring, responsible adults that help students maximize their achievement in after-school hours.

Recently, some influential think tanks and philanthropists have argued that the solution to raising the education bar is keeping the regular school day's credentialed teachers with students until 5:30 or 6 in the evening so there is seamless delivery in academic support, more hours in the day to teach and, purportedly, to learn.

The academics, businessmen and policymakers backing this approach point to such programs' success, measured primarily in improved test scores, and contend that both private and public funding for all after-school programs should be diverted to replicating the model in public schools across the country. But redirecting funds to this end would result in nothing less than a crisis in public education.

While programs with this model demonstrate gains in students' test scores, valuing the test-score outcome alone could diminish the focus on outcomes such as fewer dropouts and less involvement in juvenile crime -- outcomes that community-based staff are more likely to deliver in their time with kids after school.

After-school staff who come from the community around a school bring added value that is both profound and unambiguous: They more closely reflect their student population in gender and ethnicity. They have common ground from which to build trusting relationships with the children in their charge. And they connect families, culture and community to the students' learning.

Before we put education funds in one basket, we need to take a closer look at programs like LA's BEST, as well as emerging research from other community-based programs.

LA's BEST was established in 1988 as a true partnership of the city, school district and private sector. Now in 180 elementary schools across Los Angeles -- with 60 in the San Fernando Valley -- it serves more than 26,000 students annually. Independent research over the last 15 years has demonstrated the program's effectiveness in keeping kids in school (with up to 20 percent fewer dropouts), improving students' engagement in the regular school day, and reducing juvenile crime.

LA's BEST helps students succeed through open collaboration with school teachers and administrators. It offers a balanced mix of homework support, learning activities, nutrition and fitness, and enrichment and recreation programs informed by the students' interests. All are delivered by a staff primarily made up of passionate young people recruited from the school sites' surrounding neighborhoods.

If, tomorrow, government and private funders were to use a yardstick that measured only test scores, perhaps the credentialed teacher in an extended day would appear to be a common-sense solution to the problems facing public education. But implementing such a model would risk losing both the kids' interest and the connection of communities to schools.

Everyone agrees on the end goal for public education: work- and college- ready high school graduates. But the notion that all children can be served by an extended regular school day is built on a fragile hypothesis: that credentialed teachers working longer hours for increased pay will optimize all students' readiness for college and career.

For many students, the reality is that only a combination of engaging academic lessons in the classroom and an after-school program -- informed by children's choice and led by community-connected staff -- will create the ideal conditions to learn.