Today the Des Moines Register published an article about lengthening the school day or the year http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111106/NEWS/311060039/Iowa-education-plan-likely-to-feature-lengthening-school-day-or-year. Whenever the idea of making someones work day long is brought to the table it is going to create controversy. All though educators are paid on a yearly salary, they are contracted for a certain number of days for the school year and a certain amount of hours for each day. If the idea is proposed to expand those hours or days people are going to want more money and rightfully so. The issue then becomes where does that money come from.
The article states that research has shown if hours in a day or school year are expanded the test results will rise, so if the overall plan is for education to raise student achievement then this should be a route explored. It would be hard pressed to argue with the idea that is research based but it is important for a school district or the state to put money up to make this happen.
With change happening so quickly it is important for people to realize that change usually cost money and the bigger the change the bigger the money. With the tight budget of today economy it is important that we are patient in these changes. As educators we can not jump to conclusions and become defensive about the idea right away because they are just ideas and thoughts. Forming questions about these issues are always a good thing, the part that does not sit well with me are the people who form all sorts of questions but never offer any solutions.
We need to look at how teachers use the time allocated in the day before we make a commitment to more hours in a day or longer school years. I am pessimistic regarding teachers using the extra time to teach. Plus, if 40 minutes are added to a day and a school follows an eight period schedule, teachers only gain five minutes.
ReplyDeleteI would agree with the limits on expanding the school day, but the big push back that is going to be emerging is athletics and extra-curriculars. We would like to think that these are not part of the educational process, but to many parents and community members it is extremely important. Many schools in foreign countries have moved away from extra-curriculars in schools and that might be a step the U.S. has to look at addressing. I believe however that they are so ingrained in our culture it will never happen.
ReplyDeleteI am not against the concept but I have the same reservations that you,Terry and Zac have brought up. I honestly think we could get more out of students on some sort of an alternative year-round calendar. The three month vacation for some students is just too much. However, it would probably be very difficult to work around baseball and softball schedules in the summer.
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