Wednesday, August 14, 2013

Balanced Calendar

One of the blogs I follow is Exponential Impact, written by Trent Bowers, the Assistant Superintendent of Worthington City Schools. He recently wrote an article discussing the change Noblesville (Indiana) Schools has made to its school calendar. The big news is that they have reduced their summer break to about eight weeks, essentially June and July, but have created breaks in October, December and March lasting two weeks.

I am intrigued by this.

The claim is that the educational benefit of doing this is that the kids "backslide" less over the summer. Mr. Bowers cites studies which have shown that students lose two months of math skill over the summer, and lower-income students also lose two months of reading proficiency.

From a family scheduling perspective, I don't sense that restarting the first of August is that big of a deal. If you are around any of our high schools in early August, you know that the fall athletes and marching band members have already started their practices. I suspect that many of the kids in the lower grades are out with their parents getting supplies, and getting eager to get out of the house and be with their friends. So are their parents.

Those two week breaks during the year sound pretty good as well. While the winter break is already two weeks, a two-week October break is something new, and I think adding a second week to Spring break sounds pretty appealing.

A key question is of course, what our teachers and staff would think of such a schedule. Many of our teachers start gearing up in early August for the new year, even though their contract doesn't require them to report back for the new school until a couple of days before the students. How would this change that? Perhaps this kind of schedule could mean less restart effort to the teachers as well.

The facilities folks count on the summer months for performing maintenance projects that they can't do easily while school is in session. You may have noticed that with all the rain this summer, our facilities team is hustling to get all the parking lot and driveway reconstructions completed, and there are double crews working at Alton Darby Elementary to get the roof replacement done. How would they deal with having fewer weeks to complete these tasks?

Then there is the question of what it means to fall sports.  I'd think it wouldn't have much effect on game schedules unless and until other school districts make similar changes to their academic calendars. But if league rules or state law prohibits practices from beginning until a certain number of weeks before the game schedule starts, then athletes and band members wouldn't have the opportunity for the "two-a-day" kind of preseason practice schedule many now employ - because the students would be in class most of the day. Does this give an advantage to school districts who start classes later in August?

In spite of these challenges, we can't ignore the potential benefits to the students. After all, the mission of a school district is academics, not extracurricular programming and facilities maintenance.

What do you think?

26 comments:

  1. It's not really unusual in the rest of the world for something like this. The UK has December and Easter breaks (~2 weeks) and 6 weeks in the summer. There's also a week long break in October, February and May. School year ends in early-mid July and resumes beginning of September.

    However... you ask:

    "Then there is the question of what it means to fall sports. ... Does this give an advantage to school districts who start classes later in August?"

    Do we really care more about sports than education in this district? Do we make the non-footballers suffer so a relatively small number of kids can benefit?

    Doesn't the fact you have to ask that question really demonstrate that HCSC has lost sight of real priorities?

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    1. No, I think it says that such a decision should be made with consideration of all of these factors, with appropriate weighting to each.

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    2. So that weighting should be about 98%-2% in favor of education vs sports, but I suspect somehow the opposite would be the case in HCSD...

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  2. Paul,

    As Joe Pesci said in the movie CASINO it always about the dollars.

    1. What would it do to utility costs?
    2. Do all buildings have A/C?
    3. Teachers contracts.

    If all buildings have A/C then it would only be the utilities. If the physical plant has A/C, lets use it. I will take the increased utility cost as an increased cost and even pay what it takes with a utility levy.

    If it helps deliver a more ripe learning experience, I'am all in. Using what we have to provide the learning experience we owe the children.

    Now the BIG one, teacher contracts. Same days, same pay. They should have no problem with this. Remember it is about the children.

    This is where I want to see Dr. M and board review evaluate and provide an opinion.

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    1. Good question about the A/C. I think they all do, but it's a consideration.

      You are correct that this is a matter that would have to be negotiated with both the unions.

      The question of a schedule like this isn't on the table right now, nor do I know what Dr. John and the rest of the leadership team think about the merits of such an approach. I float this out merely to collect some thoughts from all of you.

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    2. I would suspect that the contract would have to be adjusted for more compensation. Not in favor of that. We have enough issues with supplemental costs that we pay way too much for. It is a good thing some adjustments are coming for Hilliard in the new budget, but there needs to be an adjustment downward in cost at some point

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    3. Heating is usually on still in March, so some extra A/C costs in the summer would be partly offset by lower heating bills.

      That said, I've been in some of the buildings in the summer months and they still seem fully air-conditioned.

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  3. I would also be concerned about what that schedule would mean for working parents. Finding daycare for 12 consecutive weeks in the summer is easier, in my opinion, than 8 in the summer and then 2 more in the fall and 2 more in the spring. Or, if parents take a week of vacation from their jobs in the spring, that would still leave another week.
    And I would want to know how much is gained by changing the schedule. The studies have shown what is lost with a 3 month break; what is gained by shortening the break to 2 months?

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    1. The child care issue is one that would affect lots of folks, and would certainly have to enter into the dialog.

      The glib answer to your second point is that the gain is not having the loss, and that's almost how I responded. But then I realized that your question might have been "So what do we do with the time made available by not have to 'reteach' the kids so much material?" and that's something I've not seen addressed. So good point.

      I suspect the answer would be that the teachers would love to have that extra time to better cover all the material contained in the current curriculum.

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    2. That is partially what I meant when I asked what is gained. But I also meant: 1) How much learning is lost in the 8 week break? Is the 2 month learning loss cut to only a month or do they still lose close to the same amount in the shorter time. And 2) Do we lose anything with the extra breaks? In my experience, for many grades and classes, the week leading to Winter Break and the last couple of weeks before Summer Break don't involve much besides class parties, field trips, extra recess, etc. So if we just "gear-down" a third time in October, have we gained any teaching time?

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    3. Good point. Similar story with snow days - when they add a day or two at the end of the year to make up for excessive snow days, it's not like those days are very productive. Parties, watch movies, etc.

      I don't know the answers, but there seems to be enough districts trying out such a schedule that we should start getting data.

      As I said, not on the table for discussion right now in Hilliard.

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  4. As a parent of 3 'bandies' I can say our summer is already packed with band activities, shortening it would make it more challenging. The week to 10 days prior to the 4th of July has parade prep and late July starts evening rehearsals in preparation for next year. Of course, these are not mandatory but there are 3 weeks of activities in August that are (a week of all day band camp, and a week each of evenings only pre- and post- camp). Scheduling family vacations and other activities around these can be challenging, especially if coordinating with extended family. Yes, this is our choice, but a shorter summer would exacerbate that. I'm certain that fall sports teams would have similar challenges.

    I get the point above about our priorities being on education over extra curricular activities, but to treat them as of nearly no value is short sighted. Many studies have shown that students involved in music do better academically. I'm not sure what correlation there is with athletics, but I would not be surprised to find a similar correlation there, assuming the athletic program is seen as a supplement to an education that the primary focus as it is too often given.

    We've loved being a part of the band family and what it has given our kids in terms of friendships, discipline and more. My point is to say school is only about book learning is a too narrow view. The main objective is to prepare them to venture out on their own, whether in the workplace or to further education. These extra activities, if properly positioned by faculty, students and parents, can enhance and balance the book learning and are an important, if lesser, part of the HS experience. To say something like "We're here to learn, any consequences to athletics or music is inconsequential." is quite short sighted in my view.

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    1. I don't know that extracurricular activities would start any sooner. I was a marching band member in high school as well, and the only reason we started practice before school started was that the first football game was the first week of school. When that is the case, both the athletes and the band members need some time before school starts to prepare.

      But I'm thinking that if the date of the first game doesn't change, neither does the pre-season practice calendar. The football players already start camp in mid-July, not sure when the bands start up. But the point is that if the fall athletic schedule doesn't change, then it shouldn't cause the pre-season practices to start any earlier either. Therefore no impact on family calendars in this regard.

      You don't have to sell me on the benefits of extracurricular activities - you're right on all counts.

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  5. I have a question!

    Just finished reading the Dispatch. Large section of teacher ratings. However I did not see Hilliard listed.

    1. Was this because we did not take part in trial run? If we did not take part, who made that decision? If it was Dale did he do it own his own or was there board approval.

    Given the decision to leave stem because we were so good why would we shy from a trial run.

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    1. I don't know the answer to your question, but will ask. Our district actually helped pilot the new Ohio Teacher Evaluation System.

      As to your point about "leaving stem," I assume that you're talking about Hilliard's withdrawal from the Metro High School. I wasn't a big fan of that decision in the beginning, but have come to be okay with it.

      The reasoning behind leaving Metro was that we would instead devote our resources to developing our own STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) program. Right now, we operate the large pre-engineering program in Ohio, and what I've seen of it looks pretty impressive.

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  6. My son is entering the 4th year of the engineering program (Project Lead the Way). Being an Engineer myself, I can say without reservation that this has been a fantastic program. My son has learned material I did not learn until college, and the program gives a great introduction into what Engineering entails. My son went to an Engineering camp this summer at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, and an Electrical Engineering Professor there was impressed with the program and how much he already knew.

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    1. Thanks for the feedback. As a retired (and therefore non-current) technology geek, I've been envious of what our kids get to do in high school.

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  7. It's funny sometimes what generates the most feedback on here haha.

    The challenges regarding childcare during the mini-breaks would be a dealbreaker for me.

    Most of the scheduling talk in my neighborhood has revolved around the 7:30am start time for 6th graders.

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    1. I think a lot of folks - include me perhaps - underestimate the impact of changing childcare arrangements. Thanks for the feedback.

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    2. Yeah just to elaborate on that point further- many of us rely on college aged nannies in the summer. It's actually a pretty competitive market where families and nannies begin interviewing right after Spring Break through the end of the school year to find that 'perfect fit'. If Ohio State set up their schedule in the same manner, I think it could be workable for the nannies and families. And it's not as simple as just taking your kid to a daycare for those weeks, either. The reputable daycares around have enough demand that they don't usually accept short term arrangements like this and aren't staffed for a sudden influx.

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  8. And as a former football benchwarmer, I'll tell you that two-a-days are of zero benefit to the players and team performance. They are, and have always been, for the enjoyment of sadistic football coaches. hahaha

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  9. I'm a big fan of the "balanced calendar." I have a colleague who lives in the Indianapolis area who, at first, was not happy about the potential child care issues, but has come to love the schedule.

    I have one high schooler (band and athletics), as well as a elementary student and preschooler in daycare. We'd be affected. But I think it's ultimately in the best interests of the student to reduce the time away from the classroom in the summer. Extracurriculars would adjust. Daycares would adjust.

    Personally, the biggest issue for my family would be that my wife teaches in a different district, with a calendar that frequently doesn't match Hilliard's. But we'd adjust. And no, I don't see teachers expecting more pay for the same number of classroom days.

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  10. Kudos to the last post before Pauls reply. When it comes to being about the children the idea of adjusting is what it about from parents to teachers. We should do what is in the best interest of students and learning. To focus on making it easy for parents is a slap in the face of tax payers. Either you want the best educational experience for your children or not.

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