A study examined students' achievement increases to determine whether improvement resulted from spending a longer amount of time on language arts. Subjects of the study were 149 freshmen who attended Northeast Dubois Middle and High Schools in Indiana. During the eighth grade, 77 of those students had one 45-minute language arts period in 1992 and the other 72 had two 45-minute periods of language arts the following year. The comparison was based on reading, language, and total battery scores from the statewide Indiana Test for Educationasl Progress (ISTEP); a one-tailed t-test was used to determine the significance of the scores. Results indicated that there was a significant difference in language at the .01 level, and no significant difference in reading or total battery scores at the .05 level. Findings suggest that increasing the amount of time spent in language arts instruction may be a viable way to increase student achievement. (One table of data is included, contains five references.) (Author/CR)