I remember when school started the Tuesday after Labor Day and ended the last day in May. Why not go back to that schedule?
ATLANTA --- State Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox plans to press local boards to postpone the start of the school year until late August.
This would reverse a previous hands-off approach to start dates and offer the possibility of better-looking test results.
Schools would start next year's academic year no earlier than the third week of August under the plan, which would be voluntary, Ms. Cox said. In return, state Department of Education officials would have more time to crunch testing data from the districts, with the potential that fewer schools would fall short of federal standards. The extra time would allow for standardized testing retakes to be considered.
Ms. Cox plans to propose the idea formally to local administrators at a Georgia School Boards Association meeting this weekend in Savannah.
Less than four years ago, when lawmakers were considering legislation requiring schools to follow a "universal start date" to keep schools from starting too early, Ms. Cox said that "there is no one-size-fits-all approach to improving education."
"We must resist the temptation to mandate generic solutions for the unique challenges faced by our state's individual school systems," Ms. Cox said in a statement issued by her office. "Forcing all of Georgia's public schools to begin on the same date each year would not only undermine the principles of local control, it would hurt the very children who are now being helped by new programs made possible through individualized school year calendars."
But, last week, the superintendent said she was troubled at the previous push for a later start date because it was aimed at boosting the state's tourism industry instead of student performance.
In this case, the later start dates would allow her agency to take the results of students who retake state-required standardizing tests into account before deciding whether a school falls short of the federal standards, known as Adequate Yearly Progress. That isn't possible now because of how quickly the state has to crunch test numbers to meet federal requirements on notifying parents two weeks before school starts of their school's performance.
Currently, the department can consider retesting results if a school district appeals. But if state officials rule that the district missed adequate yearly progress, the school system has to continue to offer students extra help or a choice of going to a different public school regardless of the outcome of the appeal.
That can also confuse parents, Ms. Cox said.
Ms. Cox said she would like to see about 80 percent of the state's school systems agree to move their start dates before she would feel comfortable moving forward with the idea.
Laura Reilly, a spokeswoman for the school boards group, said members likely would be willing to consider the superintendent's proposal.
"I think as long as its voluntary, they would be receptive to it," she said. "Now, whether or not it works out in their local systems, that just depends on ... a whole host of local events and dates that they have to manage locally."
Reach Brandon Larrabee at (678) 977-3709 or brandon.larrabee@morris.com.
2008 SCHOOL START DATES
RICHMOND COUNTY: Aug. 11
COLUMBIA COUNTY: Aug. 11
AIKEN COUNTY: Aug. 18
Comments
I remember when school started the Tuesday after Labor Day and ended the last day in May. Why not go back to that schedule?
Because then they don't get as many days off during the year. The teachers would have a fit.
OH NO - Please don't mess with the start dates. Later start dates means later football practice rules! Teams need at least a few weeks to practice in full pads before their first game!
We always practiced before school started again. There's no need to wait until then.
Why should this affect football rules, just start at the regular times that football does and give the schools their later starts. It would kind of be like pre-school picks and practices. What would be wrong with that?
school is about education and enlightenment, not about football practice, which is an EXTRA-curricular activity.
lets go with 4/10s (four ten hour days) to save energy, and go year round with several 2 or 3 week breaks.
I played football, baseball and basketball, however I agree 100% with TREEROCK.
MY child and I would have a fit. The kids need the breaks as well as the teachers. She is also a high scoring students on tests. We spend a lot of study time and she works hard. So now we not only are teaching to tests we are scheduling the school year to tests. I am glad we only have two years left. I will strongly encourage my daughter to home school when she gets ready to have a family!
We teachers would not necessarily have a fit as NEone seems to think. Teacher contracts call for 190 working days, no matter the start date. In actuality, it may be the parents and students having more of a fit than the teachers. Personally, I would welcome a later start date.
I definitely say start late. The present schedule feels rushed especially in Febryary, March and April. I think we should start after Labor Day and end in June like the olden days. This year we could start the week before and still honor Labor Day. That would give the students an extra day to shop and get all necessary supplies.
This teacher/parent would be thrilled with a later start date. I also would not mind giving up a few of the little breaks here and there to add a week or so to summer. I've looked at the numbers of our system here in the Valdosta area. An awful lot is spent on utilites in the month of August. Our students return August 8. Way too early, in my opinion.
Do a little calendar math folks and make sure it all lines up. In recent years days have been added such as the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, MLK Day, Presidents Day, close to 2 full weeks at Christmas and always a full week for the Masters for CSRA schools. Some districts offer a few days for Fall Break and a few more for mid-Winter break. I'm cool with starting later, as long as you all are cool with finishing in mid-June. Aren't you just trading one end for the other?
Having a later start date can not hurt. We need to try something different. I forgot the education system in the south is excellent....NOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I attended school in the 70's and early 80's, we started the week before labor day and we finished the first week of June. There was no fall break or mid-winter break. We always got 2 weeks off at Christmas too. All of this bull about kids needing a day off just about every month is rediculous.
As the late, great Ronald Reagan said -- "well, there you go again." Kathy "protect my schools from the AYP wrath" Cox wants to protect her name from the feds in Washington. Where in this article does it say how this proposed change would help the students? She attempts to explain that it might help schools avoid falling behind in the federal AYP progress requirements, but doesn't mention students at all. Kathy's term can't expire fast enough!
Bowtie, just because the school districts have ADDED all those extra holidays in recent years does not mean they cannot REMOVE them. Time to get back to the old Labor Day to Memorial Day calendar. You can easily cram 180 days of instruction into those nine months.
Finally !!! csrareader ..you hit the nail on the head!!!...............
And the four-day school week would help immensely. The calendar would remain the same, Sep through May. And the 180 days of instruction would be adjusted by multiplying by four-fifths. The children would go 144 days for instruction, with the teachers tacking on a week before and a week after. Same pay.
Longer summers equal more time for students to lose critical skills, especially in the area of Math.
I'm all for starting school a week later. We have to take our oldest son to college the same week our youngest is to start high school. We can't leave him at home by himself so now he will miss a couple of days the first week of school. I have to agree with 40something.
Well, Duh. " there ya go again". The south is so far behind the rest of the world. Schools in the midwest and up north have always started school after Labor Day. I ask any adult reading this: Would you want to practice foot ball in Augusta heat? Could you do your best in a crowded school room with never enough air conditioning? Just makes no sence at all. Most kids are in an air conditioned enviroment all thru the heat of summer, except when they need to be at their best, and starting school in the heat of summer is not going to give them one advandage.
To JustWondering: The summer vacation would not get longer by very much. Right now summer vacation is mid-May to early-August. Cox's idea would have summer vacation June to early-September. I don't buy the "the kids can't remember anything" argument. Time to quit making excuses and get back to learning.
The football schedule would follow the school schedule. Just slide everything back by three weeks. Have the first game be on the Friday after Labor Day! Just like it used to be!
Look at the research little lamb.
I'm for going all year and having a 2-3 week break every 9 weeks. That would be awesome for the kids to be able to take a break from the hum-drum of what school seeems to be! Test scores might even be better if burn-out of study was not there!
Having kids go through traditional and year round schools, the year round is a much better experience....same amount of days off, just spread out over the year.
If your kid is a marginal student who forgets his math over the summer, then your kid is a candidate for summer school and private tutoring. And maybe if Mom and Dad would work with him over the summer he might improve. But for the average kid, a three month summer vacation from June through August does not erase the brain.
the summers wouldn't be longer, justwondering; they would just begin / end at a different time. parents that want to continue the development & retention of skills with children will certainly find ways to not allow their kids to "forget." remember, studies probably only used student populations that did not engage in any review over the summer. bored in GA, i agree completely: the 3 weeks in between would be the perfect time to provide remediation to students who don't do their work the first time (hidden message: students who fail classes won't get the full three weeks off - talk about having incentive to pass!!!).
When I was in school we started the day after labor day and were out around the end of May or the first few days of June. We had two weeks off at Christmas (did I say that word CHRISTmas?), we had two days off at Thanksgiving and all federal holidays off with a day or two scattered here and there for some kind of days for teachers to catch up. We had half a day off and were taken to the fair by school bus. Jewish students had their religious holidays. I can use pen and paper and do real math, I'm quite well educated on what's going on in the world I understand how history has affected the world and with God's help I've managed to live a productive life, all without spending half the summer in school. WE had a good graduation rate and ARC had a good football team. Compare all that to the struggles of schools and students and athletics today and tell me which worked better. We started the day with scripture (no, NOBODY ran screaming from the room or disabled because of it) and said the pledge of allegiance to the United States flag. Does anyone know the name Pat Dye? I think he has been fairly successful following the same time frame I did. Current schedule can't match it.
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