Editor's Note: For a review copy, fax your request on media letterhead to Judy Spevack of SUNY Press at (518) 472-5038. Patricia Gandara of the University of California, Davis, won't be winning many fans among elementary- and high-school students. Not when the professor of education and editor of a newly released book on school reform advocates extending the traditional nine-month school year. "There are lots of children in our schools who need more time to learn," Gandara says, "and the only way to provide it is to make the school year longer." As editor of "The Dimensions of Time and the Challenges of School Reform," she has assembled 11 chapters about how time -- and our different concepts of it -- affect learning and school reform in communities as diverse as a lobster-fishing village in Maine and burgeoning Palmdale, Calif. Gandara says children who don't speak English, immigrants accustomed to different school systems and those from disadvantaged backgrounds often struggle to play catch-up at school. "They just continue to get further and further behind," says the professor, who has written extensively on the education of minority and immigrant children. In general, all schools should experiment with time, Gandara says, to learn how to accommodate the patterns and rhythms of life experienced by children in their communities. But she also cautions against thinking that extending the school year or classroom period will itself lead to improvements in student achievement. "The changes have to be made thoughtfully, and the found time used strategically for programs addressing particular needs," she says. Examples of such programs include enrichment activities and field trips for disadvantaged children and special classes to help children learn English outside of subject instruction. In one chapter of the book, Gandara describes how three California schools experimented with an 11-month school year to increase teachers' job satisfaction, a critical but often overlooked factor in the success and failure of reform efforts. The schools in Oroville, Palmdale and Chula Vista assigned students to one of five tracks, with three common breaks of one to four weeks and three staggered breaks of three weeks each. They were able to teach 20 percent more students and increase teacher satisfaction by extending teacher contracts and, consequently, raising salaries. Gandara writes that the teachers considered the team teaching and collaboration to adapt curricula -- made necessary by the new schedule -- among its most desirable features. The schools maintained overall student achievement, and all of them showed significant gains in particular areas and for certain groups of students. Teachers also reported that students were better behaved and more of them participated in class. Other contributors to the book, including Professor Jon Wagner of UC Davis, explore how: o school reform is critically dependent on the time teachers have to engage in the process of change, and strategies for finding the necessary time are suggested; o the innovative uses of time in eight exemplary programs for English-language learners support learning and help English-language learners meet the unique challenges they face; o a year-round schedule for educationally "at-risk" students in one Texas school district resulted in higher achievement, probably because they didn't forget what they'd learned over summer vacation; o concerns voiced by students -- many related to time -- were incorporated into scheduling changes to help Alisal High School in Salinas, Calif., become more responsive to the immigrant and farm-worker populations it serves; o time is a resource for designing and implementing reforms, a template for reorganizing activities and a measure for how long it takes to complete tasks, but actual school change is described by teachers as turning points and crises, such as a superintendent's recall; o and the grade a reform project receives depends on who is doing the marking -- the government, academics or teachers. "The Dimensions of Time and the Challenges of School Reform" is published by the State University of New York Press. Media contacts: -- Patricia Gandara, Division of Education, (530) 752-8262, pcgandara@ucdavis.edu -- Julia Ann Easley, News Service, (530-752-8248, jaeasley@ucdavis.edu