Extended year for 11 schools. Is this a pilot for the rest of the schools?
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Anonymous
You do realize this IS NOT how extended school year is set up in DC?? The students go 210 days instead of 180. They don't get "extra weeks" off. The get a 4 day break in Oct (5 if you include the Monday of Columvus Day). They have the exact same breaks as other schools Nov-June. They get one three day weekend in June and the day before July 4 off. School ends July 14 and starts back July 31 for the new year. So your plans of vacations during the school year doesn't hold up. DCPS is not doing year round school like other states they are literally extending the school year. |
Anonymous
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PP makes a very important point- the year-round schools are designed to give kids MORE TOTAL SCHOOL, not just eliminate summer slide. It's to help our weakest schools and students.
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Anonymous
If that's true, how are they getting teachers to sign up for that? Are they being paid more? |
Anonymous
There are also 'intersession' times. Here are the two calendars. Extended School year. http://dcps.dc.gov/node/1147176 Traditional school year. http://dcps.dc.gov/node/1147171 |
Anonymous
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ESY = 205 school days, not 210 vs 180.
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Anonymous
I'm not sure of the union negotiations, but I do know several teachers who left because they wanted their summers off. I get it- it's part of the benefits of being a teacher! |
Anonymous
But the point is that they are in school 5 weeks more year than the traditional schools. In other parts of the country, "year-round" school means they take the 180 days and just spread then out more evenly. |
Anonymous
And ten days are, apparently, optional. Meant for kids who are 'behind.' D.C. Public Schools Start Year-Round Program by: James Wright Special to the AFRO jwright@afro.com / (Photo by DCPS) / August 10, 2016 0 284 The District of Columbia Public School System recently expanded its year-round program, with a Southeast Washington Elementary School serving as its public launch. Anita J. Turner Elementary School, located in the Congress Heights neighborhood of Ward 8, is one of 11 schools participating in the District schools’ extended school year program. On Aug. 8, Turner Elementary School Principal Eric Bethel stood outside of the entrance with staff members welcoming students and parents to the 2016-2017 academic year. “I think year-round school is a tremendous opportunity to stretch the school year to the advantage of our students,” Bethel told the AFRO. “Year-round school will give us the chance to address the glaring academic gaps that persists between students in Congress Heights and the more affluent areas of the city.” The extended-year calendar includes an extra month of instruction from the traditional school calendar, which extends the academic school year from 180 to 200 days. One of the goals of year-round learning is to eliminate the “learning loss” which some students experience during the summer. Under year-round learning, there is an optional two weeks for students who need extra academic support. There are scheduled breaks in October and June to accompany winter and summer breaks. The Raymond Education Campus in Ward 4 served as a pilot for the extended learning program and interim D.C. Schools Chancellor John Davis told the AFRO that “the program worked well at Raymond Elementary.” D.C. Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson said that the program is designed to give low-income children the same advantages as middle class ones. “The extra classroom time that an extended-year calendar provides is critical,” Henderson, who will leave her post on Oct. 1, said. “We know that students from low-income families often lose more than two months of reading achievement during the summer, despite the fact that their middle-class peers are making gains. Providing students in struggling schools with more instructional opportunities across all subjects – from math and English language arts to world language and music – leads to better outcomes in the long term.” In addition to Turner and Raymond, the schools participating in the program include H.D. Cooke Elementary School in Ward 1 and Randle Highlands and Thomas Elementary School in Ward 7. Ward 8 schools include Kelly Miller Middle School, Garfield Elementary School, Hendley Elementary School, Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School, and Hart and John Hayden Johnson Middle Schools. There are 3,600 students attending the year-round schools. The schools were selected based on community interest, school leadership, and interest in improving academic outcomes. Bethel told the AFRO that the extended-school year will allow his students to experience “rigorous, joyful learning” that includes classes in ballet, string music, choir, and foreign languages. Presumptive D.C. Council member Trayon White (D-Ward 8) attended the Turner launch. White is a former D.C. State Board of Education member for the ward and endorsed the extended-year program. “This is huge,” White said. “Programs like this will allow our students to compete throughout the world. Education is the great equalizer and this program will help raise our next generation of leaders.” White isn’t the only Ward 8 resident enthusiastic about the program. Cheri Hall, parent of three Turner students, is elated that school started early. “I love it,” Hall told the AFRO. “This will get the kids off the streets and into the classroom where they belong.” The District’s traditional public schools will begin classes on Aug. 22. |
Anonymous
| I hope so. |
Anonymous
They get 10% more but when you add it up you are losing more time off than the pay increase is worth. They got people to stay by requiring teachers at ESY schools to sign a contract by March 25. The teachers were not given the ability to transfer. They either signed or were excessed and had to find a job at a new school or be let go from DCPS. Many teachers didn't want to take that chance this year. Most, at least at my school, are going to transfer this year. |
Anonymous
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DCPS and WTU really need to negotiate a new teacher contract. For many reasons, including to support potentially worthwhile initiatives like this.
That said, will there be enough transfer slots open to accommodate everyone alluded to on this thread? |
Anonymous
PK3 still hasn't made it to Upper Caucasia. (Nor, for that matter, have charters.) I would love to have summer school at our (WOTP) school -- for enrichment, not remedial. |
Anonymous
Teacher here, This is another misguided effort from the good people of central office. If they stopped loading us down with a dozen different (conflicting) "best practices" the students would fare better. Central office issues mandates without input from us and then sends minions out to observe us several times a month to make sure we're doing it. On top of that, principals have their ideas of best practices, so they require things of us. Next up to bat: instructional coaches who (you guessed it) also have best practices that we should try. So now we have a dozen different things we should do that everyone is standing in the back of our room with a laptop waiting to see us do. Every now and then you get one brave child who raises her hand and asks "Why are we doing this?" Unfortunately, it's never when the policymakers are in the room. Holding parents and high school students accountable for their actions would work wonders. If a child misses 30 days of school by December, and I've called the home several times then I shouldn't be subjected to congressional review for putting an F on the books. If a child is violent, aggressive, throwing things, and blasting music on a daily basis in class then I should have the right to put that child out of my class. Unfortunately that's not how it works. That kid gets three minutes out in the hall before someone brings them back and all of the other kids shake their heads as the child comes back and returns to the same disruptive behavior. We're expected to be a holding facility for those who might otherwise run the streets and end up dead or in jail. Meanwhile the ones who we could actually help are made to suffer. Last year, I had several students give up during a standardized test because they couldn't concentrate. The other kids were blasting music and walking around the computer lab. I asked to have the students removed or the test invalidated. Neither happened. |
Anonymous
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DCPS teacher here.
I would be all for year-round school - 180 days spread out more evenly throughout the school year. Extended school year? No. A million times no. I love my job. I'm really good at my job. But without adequate time to decompress, I would burn out, fast and hard. If my school goes to extended school year, I will leave my school. If all schools go to extended school year, I will leave the district. DCPS has an unfortunate habit of throwing things at the wall to see what will stick--but then wandering away and throwing different things at a different wall before results are in. This is just more of the same. Four or five extra weeks of school and I would lose my mind--and so would my students. |
Anonymous
200 days, not 210. That's an extra 4 weeks of school. |