Working on the "Summer Slide"

More than a few school systems are using short summer programs (not summer school) to help students prevent the summer slide, that dip in readin and math skills that occurs over the summer in a fair number of students. The Baltimroe Sun looks at a program at Annapolis High in nearby Annapolis Maryland.

Research shows that children, particularly those from low-income families, slip in reading and math over the summer if they don't receive appropriate enrichment to reinforce school lessons. The findings have grabbed attention in Washington, where Maryland Sen. Barbara A. Mikulski and Democratic presidential candidate and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama are co-sponsoring a bill that would, among other things, grant $100 million to five states selected by the U.S. secretary of education to fund summer programs for children from disadvantaged families.

"Everyone would expect an athlete or a musician's performance to suffer if they didn't practice. The research suggests the same is true for students and their academic work," said Ron Fairchild, executive director for the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University. "We know, through research, that students who don't practice lose ground every summer. Those losses are cumulative and grow the achievement gap that schools are working so hard to erase."

Just about all children have some sort of slide during the summer and it is not unreasonable. It is also not unreasonable to try to do something about it. But these "focused efforts" tend to ignore the whole problem--that of our school calendar.

Every year, the issue comes up and every year nothing is really done about either the summer slide or the school calendar that creates it. Most schools in America close somewhere around the end of May or early June and then reopen a week or two before Labor Day. Most school calendars are 180 class days long and include that nearly two and half to three month break.

Like most things in American education, the school calendar is a relic of the past, based on an agrarian calendar. The agrarian calendar is no more applicable to education as a mule drawn plow is. Yet we continue to do it based on all sorts of reasons, not the least of which is tradition.

But if we as a nation are going to be serious about incresing the quality of our education system, close the achievement gap and really prepare our kids for life outside of school, then having a more year round schedule just makes more sense. A school year of 200 days, with longer breaks spread out over then entire year makes sense. Below is a sample of a 200 day school calendar (I have put 2007-2008 dates in for exampels:

Sep. 4--Tuesday After Labor Day--School Begins and continues for 30 straight days, thorough October 15
Oct. 16-19 Fall Break--this is just a four day class free break. Teachers would still be working, either for in-service training or for parent conferences or both.
Oct. 22--Nov. 16--20 straight days of class--ending with the end of quarter
Nov. 19-23--Thanksgiving Break--one week long--employees work first two days
Nov. 26-Dec. 21--20 Days of class
Dec. 24-Jan. 4--two week Holiday break--all employees off as well
Jan. 7-Feb. 15--30 straight days of class--end of second quarter
Feb. 18-22--one week break for students--Employees work entire week--in-service or conferences.
Feb. 25-Mar. 28--25 Days of Class
Mar. 31-Apr. 11--Spring Break of two weeks--Everyone off.
Apr. 14-May 23--30 days of class, end of thrid quarter included in the time frame.
May 26-May 30--Summer Break 1--Employees working.
Jun. 2-Jun. 27--20 Days of Class
Jun. 30-Jul. 11--Independence Day Break--everyone off.
Jul. 14--Aug. 15--25 Days of Class--end of school year.
Aug 18-Sep. 1--"Summer Break" Three weeks.

Now of course, in order to achieve this type of schedule, a school system has to be willing to do three things it may not want to do. First, it must weather a withering storm of criticism from parents and teachers and unions. But all the arguments about vacation time and schedule disruptions are bogus. No private sector and most public sector workers won't allow vacations of more than three weeks at a time except in the most unusual of circumstances. There are lots of one and two week breaks in this schedule--plenty of time for vacations.

Second, the lengthening of the school year by 20 days must be filled with curricula, and one would hope better materials. This means that school systems would have to re-tool curricula to alter the expected time of learning things, i.e. would algebra start sooner, say in sixth or seventh grade since by the time a student gets to those grades, they will have had, hopefully, 100 days of added instruction in math and no pesky three week reviews at the beginning of each year. So a student under this schedule would be nearly a year ahead of a sixth or seventh grader under the 180, long summer schedule.

Third and finally, a 200 day, full year, calendar affects the business processes of the school system. Summers are often used to order books, refurbish schools and facilities. This kind of work would have to be spaced out over a year, rather than concentrated in 10 weeks durin the summer.

But a 200 days school calendar obviates teh need for "summer slide programs" which probably cost as much per student for teh program as it would for keeping the child in school longer each year.