Cheat Sheet
The Best In Brief
Obama Wants Shorter Summer Vacation
President Obama and his top education official want to increase the amount of time students are in classrooms, which might mean—gasp!—shortening summer vacations. "Now, I know longer school days and school years are not wildly popular ideas," Obama said earlier this year. "Not with Malia and Sasha, not in my family, and probably not in yours. But the challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom." Education Secretary Arne Duncan said the current school calendar is based on "the agrarian economy," but kids today aren't working in the fields. "Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here," Duncan says. "I want to just level the playing field." But the Associated Press reports that kids in the U.S. spend more hours in school than many students in Asian countries like Singapore,Taiwan, and Japan, who outscore American students on math and science tests. Charter schools report academic gains from lengthening the school day.
JCapozz
Yeah, Obama is finally doing something that will really help change our economy. We worry so much about our kids getting into college and paying for them, but what we really should worry about if they can read and do math. Hopefully, uniforms will be next!!
case1234
They also mentioned the possibility of extending the day to 5pm instead of 3pm. That would save MY family $800 per month in daycare cost.. What would that do for the nations parents, do the math.
-- I bet there are more than a few conservatives out their who would like those saving.
JDK-JDK
In some ways, I have a problem telling my toddler that the rest of his life is going to be a 9 to 5 life.
newswoman
Lengthening the school day or year is not the way to go. You are assuming kids only learn in school. What about other ways kids learn. Summer vacations to the national parks, like the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone Park, Bryce Canyon, are great learning experiences as well as visits to Civil War battlefields, Canada and even Europe ( for those who can afford it). We went to school from about 9 to 4 during WW2 and had homework, too. We needed recess and play after school, and I think the kids today need them too. In other words, they can teach the right subjects in the time that's alloted now. They just might have to change the curriculum!
case1234
Also, many of the people commenting here don't have or don't deal with children and education. The long break is an issue. Some kids come back with amnesia because of the shear amount of continuous time without instruction. Having shorter breaks distributed around the year has proven beneficial in conjunction with an effective curriculum
newswoman
That is a really good idea, but you would have to change the way business is done in the rest of America. How would mothers arrange babysitting every couple of weeks when the vacations were in place? What about teachers taking classes over the summer if it is shortened? It was tried in Arizona but I don't know if it is still the system. Maybe someone can enlighten us on the subject.
Progressive2
This change is unnecessary. You need to motivate people that a good education is necessary to make right/better/wiser choices in life.
Add a week more to schooldays doesn't do that.
JDK-JDK
What does?
An honest question... not sniping.
whipmawhopma
Progressive2 - JDK-JDK raises an interesting question. I am not sure what motivates someone in high school to do well in school. Some are self-motivated, but beyond that it seems the rest are very distracted by the drama of their lives, rather than setting that aside long enough to focus on the 50 or 60 years of work that they have after high school.
spotted
Nicholas Lemann did a piece in The Atlantic about 20 years ago in which he questioned whether the lack of successful professionals (e.g. doctors, lawyers, etc.) living in minority communities post-Civil Rights had an impact on the drop-out rates and overall bad performance. The issue was how to create role models for the underclass to encourage education. Was "The Cosby Show" enough?
I think Obama's speech to the students a few weeks ago was meant, in part, to put his own success out as an example.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--BanjokellThis user is no longer registered.
n--Y--ZodiacZeldaAndreainNY
My thoughts, too. It's not the length of the school year. It's what goes on during the day.
I'd want to ensure that kids are learning each day; otherwise, we'll just have more days of ineffectiveness.
jojo12
Stop blaming teachers & start looking at the parents of the children who are failing in this country. Too many parents in this country expect the teachers of their children to be parents to their children. Parents in this country have abdicated their role when it comes to religious education, sexual education & anti-drug education. They expect teachers to not only educate their children but to teach their kids good manners & respect for themselves & others.
My siblings & I were raised in a one parent home (my father died when I was a child) & we lived in a major city in the Northeast. My mother worked outside of the home, so we were latch-key kids. We got ourselves fed & clothe in the morning & off to school. Upon our return home, after attending after school programs, we had assigned chores to do & no friends were allowed in our home while our mother was not there. TV time was restricted as homework had to be attended to. We had excellent school teachers who pushed us to achieve but the rest of what we had to learn was taught to us at home by our mother. Not one of us dropped out of school, drank, did drugs or experimented with sex. All of us furthered our education & accomplished the goals our mother & our late father set forth for us. We learned from them, raised our children the same way & they in turn are now raising their children the same way. Education begins in the home, it's time today's parents learned that.
Granite
I went to high school in Germany for 2 years. It was like college. My longest school day was over at one o'clock. But then I put in hours and hours of homework.
If Obama really wants to change education (get ready to scream), he should stop allowing kids to drop out. Many kids just hang out and cause trouble until they can drop out. If they had to stay until they could pass an achievement test they might put more effort into their own education.
JDK-JDK
How does stopping them from dropping out make them put in more effort?
All you would have in 25 year old high school sophomores.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--ZodiacZeldaJDK-JDK
I think they already do that... don't they?
hardrain
Yes!
Obama must have read "Outliers" and good on him-Gladwell's argument for shortening (ending) summer vacations is compelling!
Hooray for a literate President!
whipmawhopma
hardrain - "Outliers" was an interesting read, but I wonder what is to be done to make student value education and to value the hard work that is also necessary. I still remember the 10,000 hours of practice number the author used for predicting the success of people like Bill Gates and the Beatles.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--ZodiacZeldahardrain
Agreed that hard work is necessary for extreme success.
But Gladwell showed that affluent students surpass poor students in testing because when affluent kids have vacation, they are still engaged in learning-their homes have accessible books, they go to museums and camps, and travel. Whereas poorer students hang out, watch TV etc.
By eliminating summer vacations schools could reduce the educational disparity that is related to class (economic).
Not to mention that it could be a great way for Obama to find support from Republicans-after all one of their ongoing beefs has been the power of the teachers' unions. Obama would have to take a stand against those unions to enact such a policy. I think that would be a good thing.
AND imagine the impact on working parents, who could worry a little less about quality and affordable summer childcare.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--genomegkkaonashi
I live in Japan. The school year may be shorter - perhaps - but does not include the prodigious amount of time kids here spend in "cram schools." These schools teach up to the kids and, as they are for-profit, do their best to push the kids along. It's an challenging balancing act: they have to keep the kids interested and the parents satisfied in order to retain the business.
Also, let's not forget the traditional, fathomless respect for education common in Asia.
xlntcat
A longer school day or a longer school year is at least at start. For those you assume nothing will work, we must just accept that American's are inately dumber than at least 18 of other industrialized nations or that our race to the bottom of international literacy is just acceptable. The school year was originally formulated to allow time for kids to participate in crop production. They were used to plant, tend and harvest crops for the benefit of their agricultural families in past centuries. That is an extremely outdate rational for an extended summer vacation. I have talked to many parents who support both a longer school day and a longer school year that more closely aligns with the parent's work schedule and prevents the lock-key child, home alone.
When you have fallen from 1st to 18th place in education over the past two decade, of course, no one change is going to solve the whole problem but we have to start somewhere and this is one proven place to start. Successful, charter schools have adopted a more rigorous approach with more time spent in the classroom with significant success that cannot be refuted or ignored.
If we are going to become a future prosperous society, we absolutely have no time to lose in improving the education of the nation's children.
JDK-JDK
I think it's too late.
Most uneducated people don't see the value of education... and as sweet as the cutesy viewpoint of how child rearing should be, most parents, at least in America, don't really want their children to have more than they did.
Jealousy.
newswoman
You are so wrong, JDK JDK. It's because American people want their children to have EVERYTHING they didn't have, that we have gotten into this mess. Parents for-got that their job is to teach their children how to be informed and useful people to society.
JDK-JDK
No.
You may be living in a different part of reality than I, but here in the midwest, parents are JEALOUS if their children have too much more than they had. Education IS NOT valued where I am.
hfb1053
jdk - you may be describing your experience but that's not my experience. Turn off the lights in your paneled basement and come outside and talk to someone other than at Walmart. Try, come on, try.
Redhead5050
People have to truly believe in the value of education. Understand that our young people must compete in a global economy and the pool of qualified personnel will be deep as well as wide. We must pepare them to succeed in that world. Less summer vacation and a focus on actually educating rather than teaching to successfully take a test will be positive steps. The basic education should occur in grammer school, grades 9,10,11, and 12 should be set up so students would be allowed to declare a major and focus their coursework to meet their goals. Just a basic change that could create a more positive attitude and maybe even be the start of greater chnge so badly needed.
JDK-JDK
I agree.
Education SHOULD start in 'grammer (sic)' school... and obviously does not.
hfb1053
From that remark making fun of the spelling of grammar and the implied put down, you must be a really lovely person to hang with. And, are you originally from the hollows of Kentucky?
bobj72
I too, agree. Much of the present education-gap where the U.S. "trails" other industrialized nations, I believe could be greatly decreased by extending classroom education time by 30% (about 2 hours per day.) (Studies show actual classroom instruction time to be about 45 minutes, and an incremental 20 minutes per class results in a significant increase in student's learning performance.)
nh603er
I agree, our country needs to do something! This old, outdated line of thinking needs to change.
*Later time starts for the older children (delayed melatonin release- they will no longer, for the most part, be walking, sleep deprived zombies). Many states have already done this with fabulous results...the rest of the nation needs to follow suit.
*A little more time in between classes so transitioning from one class to another isn't such a mad rush.
*Shorten the summer vacation, add a few more 3- day weekends to recharge.
*Healthier breakfasts & lunches, more gym time & outdoor activities (not everyone is shooting for a sports scholarship but they still need exercise).
*Less classes per term (not to worry, extended school year)
*Increase class time during the term so the kids have time to learn the lesson, do classwork and receive teacher's input when the information is fresh.
allonfla
If you are a parent why are you complaining about a longer school year when most parents can't wait for kids to go back in the Fall?
finderj
Actually, the problems with education are multiple.
Politically mandated standardized tests take up far too much instruction time. Schools are penalized for lower test scores, yet the tests themselves are not well-designed and are not relevant to what students have actually learned, beyond the ability to take the test.
The traditional method of placing one teacher in a single classroom with 25-20 students for eight hours a day does not allow for the implementation of newer instructional methodologies that allow for differing learning styles.
The No Child Left Behind Act required districts to continue the policy of hiring 21-yr olds, with their newly printed certification, as teacher, while highly qualified college professors (retired, or wanting to give back) who lacked that certification could not teach. School districts could not hire qualifed physicians, attorneys, mechanics, computer technologists, artists, musicians, or other equally competent persons to teach without certification, and no allowance whatsoever is made for the otherwise stellar qualification of the individuals in question.
Moreover, many school districts have no clue what goes on inside their own classrooms, with heavy, top-down dictatoral management, and the habit of promoting persons less than competent within the individual schools to the central administrative offices, in order to avoid dealing with the problems the incompetence causes.
And those are just the beginning of the school's problems. The cultural, social, and health issues facing contemporary schools is terrifying. Read Eisner's "The Kind of Schools We Need". Read any educator/researcher's work. We do indeed have problems.
Longer school terms are attractive to some because it makes it looks like this is a manageable problem. But it is a 'band-aid' fix, not something that will truly make a difference.
Want to know what will?
Poll the classroom teachers. Ask them what they need. They are the front-line experts.
Don't ask a politician.
xlntcat
If you are in the field of education, you know that teacher competence varies widely and that some teachers gave up years ago. The problem will not be solved by anyone change in the system, but if we don't try, we are doomed to the continuing decline we have sustained over the past two decades.
Plantagenet
Have the students all take IQ tests in grade school. Track the stupid students into trade schools. Track the bright students into elite and well-funded college prep programs.
eze666
Thanks for wrapping that up for us, Plantaganet. Now we can all rest easy with your simple, 3-step program for education reform. It's just that simple. Thanks again.
JDK-JDK
So you want this increased government intervention into schooling?
For shame, Plantfagenet! For shame...
Your handlers will not be pleased.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--genomegkwhipmawhopma
Don't assume that Plantagenet isn't the Maytag Repairman.
But he does raise a certain interesting point. Students should be presented with the option to track into trade school (plumber, technician, nurse, policeman, accountant, etc) or to track into a higher level of eduction (engineer, scientist, doctor, etc).
But IQ shouldn't be the determining factor.
wfleet
I'm with Granite. I went to 4 years of college-y high school where the end of the class day was 1:45p. School started on Sept 27, there were long vacations, and school ended the year around May 20. We had study-hall before dinner and after dinner Sunday thru Friday. When I got to college (Mount Holyoke) I was joyously used to masses of work. But, oh, did I mention that there were seven students in my high-school graduating class?
Small classes. Repeat after me: small classes. As an erstwhile English teacher, I can tell you that every student should write every day. If you have five classes with 30 students, that's 150 essays a day. It doesn't happen. With small classes, teachers have the time and energy to work you like a happy dog. More days buried in big classes are just prolonged baby-sitting.
My situation was too idyllic no doubt, but all classes could be 15 students. We could clearly afford it if we recognized that our real national defense is an educated people.
We can easily get all the best courses online and have 15 in a class if we jettison all the idiot dinosaur weapon systems and pour the dough into teachers and a laptop for every single American child.
By the way, if you look back from 300 years out, clearly we realize that only belligerent dopes have gigantic weapons systems. If not quite Aetna's bloated Ron Williams' annual 24 million, teachers are paid big impressive salaries because teaching your children is a very big, impressive job.
We make sentimental noise about valuing education, but class size, teachers' salaries, and the perpetuation of the absurd & obscene military-industrial-complex proves we don't really give enough figs.
DrToketee
When I went to school I had six 6-week grading periods back to back with every week a 5-day week except for holiday weeks and the 2-week Christmas holiday break. No special days off for the teachers to "train" or attend "workshops". School always started the first day after Labor Day and ended just before Memorial day. 180 classroom days - period. It was the law. Classes started 8:30 AM and went until 3:15 PM. 9 45-minute periods per day, with one period used for lunch. If weather closed the schools, the calendar was extended to make it up - weather days were NEVER thrown away. And teachers always did their workshops and special classes only during the summer in order to not disrupt the school academic year.
Result: in those years we had the highest SAT scores in the history of our nation.
So we don't need more hours/days in school. We need to make BETTER USE OF SCHOOL TIME.
JDK-JDK
In my day, we walked uphill BOTH ways to and from school... in the snow... with no shoes... dodging bullets...
And we LIKED IT! We LOVED it!
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--ZodiacZeldanewswoman
JDK, your sarcasm is misplaced. Dr. Toketee is right. that's the way it was in the 40's and it worked.
JDK-JDK
And he LIKED IT! He LOVED IT!
Apparently you have never seen SNL with Dana Carvey.... about 10 to 15 years ago.
seemoreglass
Teachers went into teaching because of the light work schedule (and education is an easier major than business)....more time in school will not make teachers more effective or encourage students to learn more science and math.
Instead of trade school /prep school, why not have English speaking school and Spanish speaking school. For sure the illegals will not want the anchor babies taught only in Spanish, so they may start encouraging education instead of gang membership.
This user is no longer registered.
n--Y--ZodiacZeldaxlntcat
Since we are one of the few industrialized nations that isn't at least bi-linqual and since the future will continue to be global perhaps instead of isolating English/Spanish speaking schools we could join the rest of the world and start in kindergarten teaching a second language. Language is an area of learning that has a critical period. Young children pick up langage innately. After age 12 it is far more diffficult. It is something the education system should have incorporated at least 20 years ago instead of clinging to the past and assuming that the world would not change.
newswoman
Teachers went into teaching because the were WOMEN and liked working with children. Also, there were no other professions really open to women at that time (1940-50s). And it was not a light work schedule. They had to mark papers at home in the evening. Teachers have often gotten a bad rap.
CarolinaCutie
I have been an educator for more than 15 years. I have to admit that the majority of it was in higher education. I spent the 2008-2009 academic year substitute teaching in various school districts in grades 5 - 12. A longer school day would be overload for the students as well as their teachers. The speed that teachers today have to present information, track progress of every student, reteach what has not been understood, etc., is amazing to me and left my head spinning when I observed other teachers.
I have gone back to college to get my certificate in Academic Intervention as well as Literacy & Reading K-12. If we can not have year round school or a lengthened academic year, then summer school should be mandatory for those not working at grade level. The caveat to this is to NOT have summer school shortly after the end of the academic year but to have it shortly before the next academic year begins. Just like children forget during the summer months and need extensive review upon return to school... those who attend early occuring summer school suffer the same fate. In several school districts it has be statistically (through scientific based research) to help the student more by having them wait until shortly before school begins. This gets the lower performing students back into a routine, the chance to review and in some cases return to the fall classroom on the same level as their peers... all because we had summer school at the end of July and the beginning of early August. Does anyone else have imput regarding late summer school?
Thank you.
As a first time user, your comment has been submitted for review. It can take anywhere from a few hours to a day or two for your comment to be reviewed, depending on the time of week and the volume of comments we receive.