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Valley district adds 4 weeks to school year, a first in Arizona

The district website claims
that "Research supports a longer year," but
they don't name the research. SchoolsMatter
lists the population as, 74.3% Hispanic, 99.5%
disadvantaged.

Here's the reaction of John Wright, president
of the Arizona Education Association.




"Our school day, school week and school year
still revolve around the agrarian calendar when
students were farmers' children and they were
needed in crops at the end of the day and in
the summertime," said John Wright. "In 2009,
that's absurd."

Wright said the school day should be based on
students' ages, needs and interests.

"I think that you would have some students who
would start the day very early and end their
day mid-afternoon," he said. "And because of
other family, personal or school needs, other
students might start their day late morning and
end it in the evening."

He said there's no reason that schools should
not operate year-round, with breaks scattered
throughout the year.

Wright also agreed with the president's call
for parents to take more responsibility for
their children's education.

"These children live with you, they are yours
and we need to be sure the TV's off when it's
necessary and that we're talking about what's
important with our children," he said.

The president's plan calls for education
improvements that will better prepare kids to
compete in the global work force, which Wright
said is imperative.

"Students in Arizona will be going to work with
students from Switzerland and India. We are
going beyond national boundaries and we have to
be sure that we are all looking at the kind of
standards that the international
responsibilities really demand of us," he said.



He has definitely drunk the Business Roundtable
Kool-Aid.

by Pat Kossan

On Tuesday, President Barack Obama called for
America's children to spend more time in the
classroom, but a small inner-city district in
Phoenix was way ahead of him.

That same day, Balsz Elementary District
decided to become the first in the state, and
one of the first in the country, to add 20 days
to the traditional 180-day school year.

Next school year, the 3,000 students at Balsz
District's schools will spend four more weeks
with their teachers.

"With this extra 20 days, if a student is with
us from kindergarten through eighth grade,
they'll end up with one additional year of
instruction before high school," first-year
Superintendent Jeff Smith said.

Smith believes extending the year will help
students learn more and improve standards in a
struggling school district.

Although some independent public charter
schools have stretched their school year, it's
a rare decision for an entire district,
particularly one that is struggling
academically and financially.

The state has labeled one of Balsz's five
schools as underperforming. Last year, the
district also lost 300 students and the
associated per-pupil funding.

But extending a school year is an innovation
that research shows could dramatically improve
the academic performance of students in a high-
poverty school, particularly in districts such
as Balsz, where 74 percent of kindergartners
enter school struggling to speak English.

"Poorer kids can learn, and even outlearn,
wealthy students," Smith said. It's during
holiday and summer break when poor kids are
more likely to lose academic skills.

If student achievement improves, Smith expects
parents to seek out the district's schools for
their kids and enrollment to climb back up.

Such an increase could help overcome one of the
major hurdles to adding school days in any
district: money to pay the teachers, keep the
lights on and fuel the buses for 20 extra days.

Arizona schools are being squeezed by the
economic downturn. Voters are saying no to
extra school taxes, lawmakers are making budget
cuts, and many districts are suffering from
stagnant or declining growth in their
neighborhoods.

Schools are trying to reduce, not extend,
calendars.

For Balsz, it's a matter of timing, luck and
consensus that this unlikely district will lead
the state and nation in innovation.

In November, voters approved extra school taxes
they had rejected a year earlier. The
district's status as low-income also makes it
automatically eligible for a large amount of
extra federal stimulus money.

Improving education is a goal of President
Obama, who suggested earlier this week that
schools consider extending school days as well
as school years to help America's children
better compete in the world.

State schools Superintendent Tom Horne supports
the Balsz District's move and is asking the
Governor's Office to award the district more
stimulus money.

Balsz also will be the first district to use a
12-year-old state law that gives schools a 5
percent increase in per-student funding if they
stretch their school year to 200 days. It has
sat unused, except for a few charter schools,
because it is difficult to fund an 11 percent
increase in days with a 5 percent increase in
cash.

A survey indicates that a majority of Balsz
parents, teachers and administrators support
the idea, Smith said, and teachers agreed to a
9 percent salary hike for working more days.

Many states and districts want to make the move
to longer school years but always back off when
confronted with the costs, said Kathy Christie
of the Education Commission of the States,
which tracks policy trends across the nation.

Where it's put in place, achievement often
rises, Christie said, adding this caveat: "It's
an admirable move. But just so they know, in
the end, it all comes down to that quality of
instruction."

The district starts school July 28 and ends
June 5, giving students seven weeks of holiday.
Next year, holiday weeks will be cut to four
and the last day of school extended to June 11.

"Change is always hard," said Brenda Janicsek,
district board member and mother of two Balsz
students. "But I really think the teachers we
have in our district will be able to do it."

— Pat Kossan
Arizona Republic
2009-03-13
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2009/03/13/20090313longeryear0313.html

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