Thoughts on mid-summer school starts
Tuesday, August 12, 2008Written by: Uncle Charley
The state’s largest school district – Jefferson County – opens its doors to students today. On August 12, you say? Yes, indeed. It appears that Jeffco is helping to push the trend of earlier and earlier starts to the school year.
In a sort of non-binding way, Colorado Revised Statutes § 22-33-102 defines the “academic year” as “beginning about the first week in September.” Right now, with the Olympics crowding the airwaves and the Democratic National Convention coming to town immediately thereafter, the first week in September seems like quite a long time from now.
Once upon a time, it was more the norm for the public schools to kick off the year right after Labor Day. Much of this of course stems from our nation’s agrarian roots and the need to comport with planting and harvesting schedules on the family farm. So by bringing up the fact that Jeffco Schools start today, am I merely bemoaning an antiquated tradition that should be out of place in a 21st-century education system?
Or does the scheduling shift indicate a larger push toward the year-round schooling model? Research shows that the purported academic gains of dropping the long summer break for a series of shorter breaks dispersed throughout the year have largely been oversold. Or am I missing something here? Is there more evidence out there that the year-round model really does help reduce summertime learning losses?
And what about the vital needs of others? Are parents—especially Jeffco parents—on board with starting the school year before the middle of August, much less supportive of the idea of year-round schooling? What about teachers? Is it professionally beneficial to shorten the long summer break and spread out the recesses, or does that model cut into alternative earning opportunities?
Just a little extra food for thought, at least until we reach next week and most other major school districts join Jeffco and get the 2008-09 school calendar underway.
