Thoughts on the School Calendar

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 :)