Longer school year

Governor Christie is proposing a longer school day:

In his fourth State of the State address as governor, Christie said the state should change a school calendar that is “antiquated both educationally and culturally,” and add time to the school day and year, as a way to improve student performance and boost competitiveness.

The governor plans to release details to the proposal soon, but if he does not propose a year-round school calendar, I say he isn't going far enough.

How is it that we claim to value "life-long learning," but we're ok with taking the summer months off?  And how many times over the summer do we say "These kids need to go back to school!"

Studies show that despite what we may think about parental or cultural attitudes impacting children's performance in school, with quality instruction all kids - despite socio-economic background - will learn to equal levels of achievement.  But that all changes over the summer.  Summer vacation sets back under-privileged children; relatively advantaged children maintain what they learned the previous school year, but "under-privileged" kids return to school in the fall having lost a substantial portion of what they learned.  Why? Because they are less likely to be stimulated in the summer months, either through reading, engaging vacation destinations, or just through the kind of thought-provoking conversation they experience in school.

Believe it or not, some people might say "So how does that effect me or my kid?"  Well, our community and our schools are responsible for the education of all  students. Further, all kids are effected when some kids return to class behind the rest - the teachers have to catch them up before the whole class can move on to new material.

But isn't summer a sacred time for family, vacation, just goofing off?  Absolutely.  Well, kinda.  But who says we can't have it both ways?  Wouldn't child care over the summer be a lot less stressful for working parents?  And who says school would have to be the exact same over the summer months?

We have some challenges to overcome if we're going to make year-round school work. Here are some ideas.

• No changes to the present school year: 182 school days, taught by our teachers, current contract applies.
• The summer school day is a half-day - no lunch served.
• Over the summer, student attendance is required no less than one week out of any three; in other words, two-week family vacations are no problem.
• Summer vacations of three weeks or more are accomodated through summer project assignments (no one misses out on summer vacation).
• Summer learning consists of team projects - half based on last school year's curriculum, the other half on next year's curriculum.  Projects cross content areas - they incorporate math, language arts, science, etc.
• Fewer teachers are needed, because much of the learning is self-directed; teachers are needed for student support and guidance.  
• The summer program is outside the teacher's contract; salary guides do not apply.  Wharton teachers who want a summer position would have first refusal on the jobs.  If all the positions are not filled, other area teachers may apply. 

Imagine the impact on learning and student achievement; students come back in the fall smarter and ready to learn new material.  Less pressure, more fun, family time unaffected, learning uninterrupted.

And we get away, finally, from that antiquated shool calendar, inherited from our agriculturally-dependent ancestors.  What do you think?  Do we have the guts?