I'm a teacher in DCPS and the vacancy lists have been released for next year. Every extended year school has at least 12 openings next year. Many having 20 openings. I know quite a few teachers who signed the new contract that DCPS made teachers sign (by March 25 requiring them to stay at their school or be excessed) who are looking to go to Montgomery or PG. Many teachers signed this year knowing they can't be offered a 13 month contract next year and will transfer under normal transfer rules next year. Look for lots of turnover at these schools year to year.

We are at HD Cooke.

We have extended day this year. What that means is that for 2nd-5th grade, school goes from 8:45 until 4:30. The way it's been implemented at Cooke is that the 3:30-4:30 block is "enrichment" where kids choose what group they want to be in. There were a lot of choices, from poetry to yoga to baking to Egyptian culture. Everyone else went to aftercare at the regular time or went home.

We are not doing extended day next year because we cannot afford both. Extended year will be 20 extra days. Teachers are moving to a longer calendar. They will be paid more. They were concerned about the burnout factor for both extended day and extended year, but they seem to be less concerned now. Every teacher I've spoken to has said that they are excited to have more instructional time because it will allow them to do more dynamic lesson planning, will allow more field trips, etc. A couple are concerned about how it will work out for their own kids who are at schools with the regular 180 day year, but as far as I know, no one has said they will leave as a result of this.

I like the idea of extended year, as I've always thought the summer breaks in the US are too long. I grew up in Germany and we have six weeks in the summer, and then shorter breaks (1-3 weeks) in the fall, over Christmas, in the late winter, and around Easter. After six weeks of summer break, I was always ready to get back to school.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is desperate. They are trying anything and everything except the obvious...the inclusion classrooms DON'T WORK! It's a stupid idea. Take the really at risk kids and give them the services they need so that everyone, including at risk kids can get the damned education that they deserve!

We don't need an extended school year. We need a system that works instead of this sad veneer of success over a rotten infrastructure.

They are following the model that's been successfully done at charters with similar populations (DC Prep and Kipp, to name a couple).

Also I think you need to look up what inclusion means - it has NOTHING to do with at-risk kids.

+1, except that those charters are more extended day than extended year. If we had to have one at our school, i'd choose extended day over extended year. The reason why DCPS is doing year versus day may be the union contract.

The research supports the extended year model.

http://mobile.nytimes.com/2011/07/28/opinion/28smink.html?referer=

Our DCPS (which is not one of the extended year school) already offers extended day. I can't find a list right now, but I think extended day is at way more schools than 11.

For real they need to do this shit for high schools and get the teens off the streets.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is desperate. They are trying anything and everything except the obvious...the inclusion classrooms DON'T WORK! It's a stupid idea. Take the really at risk kids and give them the services they need so that everyone, including at risk kids can get the damned education that they deserve!

We don't need an extended school year. We need a system that works instead of this sad veneer of success over a rotten infrastructure.

They are following the model that's been successfully done at charters with similar populations (DC Prep and Kipp, to name a couple).

Also I think you need to look up what inclusion means - it has NOTHING to do with at-risk kids.

+1, except that those charters are more extended day than extended year. If we had to have one at our school, i'd choose extended day over extended year. The reason why DCPS is doing year versus day may be the union contract.

So how come some DCPS schools do have extended day, despite the unions?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is desperate. They are trying anything and everything except the obvious...the inclusion classrooms DON'T WORK! It's a stupid idea. Take the really at risk kids and give them the services they need so that everyone, including at risk kids can get the damned education that they deserve!

We don't need an extended school year. We need a system that works instead of this sad veneer of success over a rotten infrastructure.

They are following the model that's been successfully done at charters with similar populations (DC Prep and Kipp, to name a couple).

Also I think you need to look up what inclusion means - it has NOTHING to do with at-risk kids.

+1, except that those charters are more extended day than extended year. If we had to have one at our school, i'd choose extended day over extended year. The reason why DCPS is doing year versus day may be the union contract.

Well when you add in the charter school Saturdays, it may equal the same amount of extra time, but I get your point.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is desperate. They are trying anything and everything except the obvious...the inclusion classrooms DON'T WORK! It's a stupid idea. Take the really at risk kids and give them the services they need so that everyone, including at risk kids can get the damned education that they deserve!

We don't need an extended school year. We need a system that works instead of this sad veneer of success over a rotten infrastructure.

They are following the model that's been successfully done at charters with similar populations (DC Prep and Kipp, to name a couple).

Also I think you need to look up what inclusion means - it has NOTHING to do with at-risk kids.

+1, except that those charters are more extended day than extended year. If we had to have one at our school, i'd choose extended day over extended year. The reason why DCPS is doing year versus day may be the union contract.

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is desperate. They are trying anything and everything except the obvious...the inclusion classrooms DON'T WORK! It's a stupid idea. Take the really at risk kids and give them the services they need so that everyone, including at risk kids can get the damned education that they deserve!

We don't need an extended school year. We need a system that works instead of this sad veneer of success over a rotten infrastructure.

They are following the model that's been successfully done at charters with similar populations (DC Prep and Kipp, to name a couple).

Also I think you need to look up what inclusion means - it has NOTHING to do with at-risk kids.

DCPS is desperate. They are trying anything and everything except the obvious...the inclusion classrooms DON'T WORK! It's a stupid idea. Take the really at risk kids and give them the services they need so that everyone, including at risk kids can get the damned education that they deserve!

We don't need an extended school year. We need a system that works instead of this sad veneer of success over a rotten infrastructure.

DCPS probably wants all schools to have extended year. Raymond EC has extended school year this year. Next school year 10 more schools will be added without knowing what worked or did not work with Raymond.

This was announced a while ago. There are previous threads that you can look up. Also search on the archives for the Kojo show because Kaya has come on a couple times to discuss this.

Not clear that there are plans to expand it. Below are some news articles from when the plan for next year was announced that include quotes from Henderson and Grosso, among others.

http://wamu.org/news/16/02/03/to_combat_summer_slide_10_dcps_schools_to_try_out_extended_school_year

https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/the-school-year-is-about-to-get-longer-for-thousands-of-dc-schoolchildren/2016/02/03/e2de8128-ca29-11e5-88ff-e2d1b4289c2f_story.html

School Year 2016-2017 Calendars

The DCPS calendar for next school year is now available online for your reference. Please find a color copy online at dcps.dc.gov/page/dcps-calendars.

As you may have seen in the news or on our website, 11 schools will have an extended-year model in School Year 2016-2017. The extended year includes an additional month of instruction, bringing the school year to 200 academic days, with an additional two weeks provided for a subset of students to get targeted support, as well as breaks in October and June to accompany the normal winter and spring breaks. The 11 extended-year schools are:

• Garfield Elementary School (Ward 8)
• H.D. Cooke Elementary School (Ward 1)
• Hart Middle School (Ward 8)
• Hendley Elementary School (Ward 8)
• Johnson Middle School (Ward 8)
• Kelly Miller Middle School (Ward 7)
• King Elementary School (Ward 8)
• Randle Highlands Elementary School (Ward 7)
• Raymond Education Campus (Ward 4)
• Thomas Elementary School (Ward 7)
• Turner Elementary School (Ward 8)

Are they just trying to see how it works and will implement in the rest of the schools the year after?