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End of the year add ons is the path of least resistance. Parents raise holy hell if Easter is truncated. My former system tried it a couple years ago and got so much flack that the Board publicly slapped the Superintendent around and changed it back.
When my kids were in school, that is how it was done.
In NYS, public schools are required to offer around 180 (plus or minus a few days) of instruction per year. School districts tend to build in buffer days in case of cold/snow days, but if they go over, the school year will be extended. I can see merit to this plan, but if its only a few days less than the mandatory minimum, I think its a bit overkill to extend the year.
Our district in Colorado has some policy (and I really don't feel like looking it up right now) about how many missed days before makeup days have to be scheduled. It's not one for one.
I live in the NYC suburbs. It snows here. We know this. Schools build in extra instructional days, and it's rare that a year would have to be extended. Schools are more likely to shave days off of a scheduled break.
OP, could you tell us what your concerns are? I just don't get this!
There are always those who complain about having to many snow days, not having snow days, making them up (usually a state mandate out of the control of the local system), not making them up, making them up at the end of the year, making them up on previously scheduled days off, and on and on.
Our district in Colorado has some policy (and I really don't feel like looking it up right now) about how many missed days before makeup days have to be scheduled. It's not one for one.
There are 2 or 3 extra days required by state law for snowdays and cancellations. I don't remember the specifics.
Based on responses I always think would it make better sense for school systems to have a contengency plan should schools be interrupted for any reason whether the district administration overreacted or not? I.e should a large storm thats likely to interrupt school be already forecasted, there should be alternative ways to get coursework from teachers to students whether as a packet or digital. Or having a conference call, as even if students don't have computer or Internet they should at least have phones. There would be no harm done should school still end up open as normal.
I find even if a district builds in snow days, Would the planned snow days on the second semester actually allow the first semester be extended more days for teachers to catch up on the missing coursework due to the unexpected interruption and students time to prepare for their final exams? I know that many times snowed in days or other emergency cancellation occur a few weeks before the end of term or finals week.
Wouldn't it make better sense if school days were extended i.e each class period by five minutes starting from the day closest to the end of semester or finals. As students would generally do nothing but study that close to final examination on those weeks. Or the days leading up to state tests for that matter.
One thing slightly off topic that I am annoyed with is how much time middle and high school students spend getting from classroom to classroom each day if only we can cut down on that and use the time for learning.
... Your quest for efficiency strikes me as misguided. When is the last time you spent the day in a school?
One thing slightly off topic that I am annoyed with is how much time middle and high school students spend getting from classroom to classroom each day if only we can cut down on that and use the time for learning.
That's one of the arguments for block scheduling - it cuts the transit (and roll-taking) time in half.
That's one of the arguments for block scheduling - it cuts the transit (and roll-taking) time in half.
It seems the rationales should be educational, rather than stuff like the above. My kids' school had two days of block scheduling. The lab science teachers loved it, some other teachers not so much.
This comes up every so often in some states. There have been a few years in Kentucky where we had two districts in an isolated, mountainous area that literally could not make up all their missed inclement weather days before the next school year. One year even adding Saturdays and going until 5:00 each day had them still in school until the middle of July, with a starting date in the first week in August, until the governor exempted them 20 days. Of course, those are the districts in the counties with the lowest percentage of homes with internet in the state, along with spotty, limited cell phone reception.
I think such deficiencies in days of instruction should be made up. That's over 10% of the school year.
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