Curious why Atlanta schools begin in August?

[Alicia64]

Originally Posted by BR Valentine

Newsboy's first paragraph earlier in this thread nailed the explanation. School starts in early August so that the first semester ends before Winter Break. In particular school districts want Winter EOCTs administered before Winter Break. I know based on previous parent lobbying for a later start date in Forsyth that the issue is absolutely not negotiable as far as district leaders are concerned (and I imagine this is the case in many other area districts as well). Of course, people do what they're incentivized to do. Since everyone in K-12 education from district superintendents to teachers live and die by test scores, we shouldn't be surprised that testing strongly influences the school calendar.

I dislike the current calendar and know many other parents who do as well, but I foresee no chance of change anytime soon.

Thanks everyone! Newsboy's explanation makes a lot of sense.

I'm new to the state of GA, so was just curious.

I just wanted to add: there is one way to change things and that's to homeschool. We've moved a lot and we've kept our favorite curriculum versus changing curriculum from state to state (which happened to me when I was a kid). That said, I'm not in favor of common core, but that's another subject.

And, I do agree w/ the concept of summer "brain drain." So while my kids get to do plenty of typical summer stuff -- I also keep math, spelling, writing and history going on a daily basis. I even have a friend w/ several degrees in physics teaching physics to her kids and mine once a week.

Anyway, thanks for explaining -- I appreciate it!

Alley

[alco89]

Interesting article on this very topic. And it shows that it's not just an Atlanta thing. In fact, more and more school systems are getting on board with it:

First day of school: Why August is the new September - CNN.com