I am a life-long fan of the San Francisco 49ers. Before I even watched football, my
favorite aunt in SF would send me 49ers t-shirts, hats, and other team gear for
my birthdays. I grew up watching
the great Joe Montana, Jerry Rice and later Steve Young win a total of 5 Super
Bowls. Then there were the 18
years of no super bowls until this season when the team finally returned to the
big game and nearly won another championship. I have long thought that the Monday after Super Bowl Sunday should
be a holiday in the US. After all,
the game is the most watched television event year after year and those of us
on the east coast stay up past our bedtime to see the conclusion of the game. Others have had the same thought: http://tinyurl.com/c7kjkef
Not that sports should dictate our work-week, but I wonder
how many young sports fans in the east coast get interested in baseball,
college football or college basketball when the playoffs and national
championship games are all on too late on school nights to draw a young
audience able to stay up and watch these exciting events. I digress. Really, this blog entry is my thoughts on the current
structure of the school calendar in the northeast.
I have just started our annual February school vacation
week. It is at this time of year that many school districts create their school
calendar for the next school year.
There are so many decisions to be made. When do the vacations fall? Though this has become pretty
standard in each state. Do
students and teachers start before or after Labor Day? Will we have full day professional
development days, half day PD days, delayed openings for PD, or some
combination of two or more of these options? When will the PD opportunities take place? All of these questions are challenging
to answer and I have not even brought up the length of the school year or the
school day, which would most often be questions that need to be collectively
bargained and decided by local school boards and or state departments of education.
While you would think a simple survey of the three major stakeholders
(students, parents, and teachers) could assist districts in making these
decisions, the opposite is true. In fact a survey on any one of these questions
typically results in no consensus at all.
If you survey students, often the high school seniors respond
differently than other students.
Seniors typically end their school year earlier than all other students
so their bias tips the survey results.
For every teacher that prefers a half-day of professional development
there is another who prefers full days.
Parents are equally divided in their opinions of school calendar
decisions as well, as they are concerned with child-care on early release days,
for example.
In New England, some of the school calendar decisions are
weather-related decisions. In New
England most public school classrooms are not air conditioned because
realistically it is only hot enough for A/C for a brief time at the start of
the school year and a brief time at the end of the school year. Additionally, school calendars in New
England need to account for snow days (see my last blog entry for thoughts on
snow days).
There are not easy answers to any of these questions, but here
are some ideas to consider:
1) Consider front-loading professional development
for teachers to extend the summer (and summer camp) opportunities for kids to
be kids. The teachers would have a
week of PD before Labor Day and the students would return to school after Labor
Day. Front loading professional
development would allow teachers to have up to a full week to both prepare
classrooms for the return of students and learn, train, and collaborate prior
to the start of the school year.
This would provide focus, a theme, and get the whole district moving in
the same direction. Any additional
professional development during the school year should be related to the theme,
which ideally will last more than a single year. Let’s work to avoid getting stuck in school systems because
of too many initiatives. Fewer
disruptions to the school calendar because of PD is something to strive
for. Take advantage of quirks in a
calendar year to make PD as least disruptive to student learning as
possible. For example, follow-up
on front-loaded PD could take place in what is often a short week of school
after New Year’s Day. Bring
teachers back for PD days on January 2 and extend the vacation by a day or two
or three for students and families.
Use this time to assess the initiative that was started back in late
August and plan next steps.
2) Consider consolidation of the February and April
vacation weeks to a longer break in March. The one week in February and one week in April tend to disrupt
flow. Momentum in schools,
particularly schools in New England, is already challenging in winter with
Monday holidays, parent conference days (see past blog entries on Student Led
Conferences that replace traditional parent-teacher conferences), and snow
days.
3) States should consider moving assessments to the
end of the year. In Massachusetts,
for example, the MCAS tests take place in March for ELA and in May for
math. If all of these exams were
moved back to June, the tests themselves would not be disruptions and teachers
would not feel as stressed about having the time to complete lessons that will
result in better results on these exams.
What are your thoughts on the school calendar challenges
that schools face. Do any of these
thoughts resonate with you? For
those of you in Massachusetts, enjoy this February vacation week :)
