On Monday, December 3^rd, it was announced that select schools in New York, Massachusetts, Colorado, Connecticut, and Tennessee will be extending hours beginning with a pilot program during the 2013-2014 school year.

The effort follows a similar initiative that began in Massachusetts in 2006 by a group known as Massachusetts 2020. According to Chairman Christopher Gabrieli, this effort was based primarily on state funding; the new initiative, by contrast, shall rely on federal, state, and private funding, courtesy of the Ford Foundation.

It’s important to bear in mind that the forthcoming program is only a pilot; across the five states, more than 19,500 students will be enrolled. Participating schools aim to offer an additional three hundred hours of instruction and enrichment during the course of the year.

So how will this affect Albany High? The answer, most likely, is not at all, at least not immediately. The scope of the program is not very large; odds are, Albany High will not be one of the New York schools picked for the program. Yet that’s not to say the initiative won’t have an impact, especially if it proves successful. Though it certainly won’t be an academic cure-all—the initiative, by definition, can only account for experiences within the school—it may produce positive results. Should this be the case, more schools, such as the continuously restructuring Albany High School, will be likely to pick it up.

The verdict: the initiative likely will not affect you in the immediate future, but it’s certainly something you’ll want to keep an eye on as the trial run gets underway.