Year-Round School in Virginia until COVID Learning Losses are Made Up
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35 responses to “Year-Round School in Virginia until COVID Learning Losses are Made Up”
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Captain Sherlock I am with you all in on this one. Bring on year round schooling. I routinely remind the Superintendent and School Board of Fauquier County that this is the only true remedy. No raises or extra pay for this either. Some school teachers and the VEA have held classrooms hostage with their insistence on virtual only instruction. There should be a price to pay. Here is the bill. Year round school for the same pay. I see the equity at last.
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Nice idea, but it will never happen. Instead, the battle to open schools in fall 2021 will be equally fierce. “But the students haven’t all been vaccinated!” “One-third of the staff refused the shots!” “There are still hundreds of cases per month in Virginia!” “There is no proof that the vaccine prevents you from spreading it!” Even a summer term? Fuhgedaboutit.
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At some point a school board with gumption will determine that any teacher refusing to work is effectively on strike and will sever their employment.
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I don’t think anyone would stick their neck out to require teachers to work 70 extra days for no pay. Just to put that in perspective, please consider the following, all derived from the 2019 Superintendent’s Annual Report. Based on average pay, teachers’ salary for 70 extra days across the state would amount to a tad over $2 billion, or roughly 12% of the overall public K-12 budgets in 2019.
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I have recommended additional teacher pay.
First, Matt, not nearly every school district will participate, so your numbers are interesting and I appreciate them but they will not be correct.
Second, federal COVID money dedicated to the schools appears to be coming.
Whatever the direct cost to Virginians, pay it as per diem for days in the classroom over 180 until the learning deficits are mitigated.
Since it is exactly like building a bridge, if necessary bond the money and pay it back over 30 years with a new addition to the sales tax as a dedicated bond payment stream. No harm to the budget, the tax increase is temporary and the bonds will not hurt the state bond rating.
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I think there are 113 school districts in Va but if you divide the 2 billion by 100 to make it easy – I think you get about 20 million and jurisdictions pay (more or less ) half so it would likely result in increases in real estate taxes.
If they did it by refereenda, it might be interesting especially if the idea was to do it just for a couple of years to catch up from the pandemic and then reassess it after 2 years.
I have no idea if other countries do year round or even other places in the US.
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See the bold statement early in the essay.
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Yep.. Thanks. I think you’re on to something. As you outline, Virginia actually has 2020 legislation to help districts that may want to do it and study data exists that confirms that year-round schooling is particularily effective for economically-disadvantaged kids.
This sure seems to be something that CAN be done about equity. The 2012 JLARC study was interesting in that it actually did help some kids who were behind but did not seem to affect the kids that were not behind – on SOL scores. I guess I would have thought all kids SOLs would advance with more time on task.
I’m actually a little surprised that Virgina school districts are not looking into doing this as a transition from pandemic to in-person – to help catch the kids back up especially the ones that will have fallen back the most. (Maybe some are and it’s not yet discussed publicallly).
Finally, “year-round” is not just one way – there are multiple ways to do it including trimesters.
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90 – 30 or 100 – 20 are trimester schedules Larry.
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well yup – 3 sessions of varying different lengths and different length of time between them?
I get more feedback from teachers – confirming that economically disadvantaged fall behind during vacation and the longer the vacation – the longer it takes to catch back up.
I think now ought to be a time when schools consider starting back come summer and staying in session until kids are caught back up – confirmed by SOLs.
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Captain Sherlock I am with you all in on this one. Bring on year round schooling. I routinely remind the Superintendent and School Board of Fauquier County that this is the only true remedy. No raises or extra pay for this either. Some school teachers and the VEA have held classrooms hostage with their insistence on virtual only instruction. There should be a price to pay. Here is the bill. Year round school for the same pay. I see the equity at last.
-
Nice idea, but it will never happen. Instead, the battle to open schools in fall 2021 will be equally fierce. “But the students haven’t all been vaccinated!” “One-third of the staff refused the shots!” “There are still hundreds of cases per month in Virginia!” “There is no proof that the vaccine prevents you from spreading it!” Even a summer term? Fuhgedaboutit.
-
At some point a school board with gumption will determine that any teacher refusing to work is effectively on strike and will sever their employment.
-
-
I don’t think anyone would stick their neck out to require teachers to work 70 extra days for no pay. Just to put that in perspective, please consider the following, all derived from the 2019 Superintendent’s Annual Report. Based on average pay, teachers’ salary for 70 extra days across the state would amount to a tad over $2 billion, or roughly 12% of the overall public K-12 budgets in 2019.
-
I think there are 113 school districts in Va but if you divide the 2 billion by 100 to make it easy – I think you get about 20 million and jurisdictions pay (more or less ) half so it would likely result in increases in real estate taxes.
If they did it by refereenda, it might be interesting especially if the idea was to do it just for a couple of years to catch up from the pandemic and then reassess it after 2 years.
I have no idea if other countries do year round or even other places in the US.
-
See the bold statement early in the essay.
-
Yep.. Thanks. I think you’re on to something. As you outline, Virginia actually has 2020 legislation to help districts that may want to do it and study data exists that confirms that year-round schooling is particularily effective for economically-disadvantaged kids.
This sure seems to be something that CAN be done about equity. The 2012 JLARC study was interesting in that it actually did help some kids who were behind but did not seem to affect the kids that were not behind – on SOL scores. I guess I would have thought all kids SOLs would advance with more time on task.
I’m actually a little surprised that Virgina school districts are not looking into doing this as a transition from pandemic to in-person – to help catch the kids back up especially the ones that will have fallen back the most. (Maybe some are and it’s not yet discussed publicallly).
Finally, “year-round” is not just one way – there are multiple ways to do it including trimesters.
-
90 – 30 or 100 – 20 are trimester schedules Larry.
-
well yup – 3 sessions of varying different lengths and different length of time between them?
I get more feedback from teachers – confirming that economically disadvantaged fall behind during vacation and the longer the vacation – the longer it takes to catch back up.
I think now ought to be a time when schools consider starting back come summer and staying in session until kids are caught back up – confirmed by SOLs.
-
-
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I have recommended additional teacher pay.
First, Matt, not nearly every school district will participate, so your numbers are interesting and I appreciate them but they will not be correct.
Second, federal COVID money dedicated to the schools appears to be coming.
Whatever the direct cost to Virginians, pay it as per diem for days in the classroom over 180 until the learning deficits are mitigated.
Since it is exactly like building a bridge, if necessary bond the money and pay it back over 30 years with a new addition to the sales tax as a dedicated bond payment stream. No harm to the budget, the tax increase is temporary and the bonds will not hurt the state bond rating.
-
-
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Some of my teacher friends say that kids lose some of what they learned over summer vacation – and the ones that seem to be most affected are the economically disadvantaged.
So when they go back, some kids catch up quick and others take longer and they are in the same grade class.
So some get held back so that others can catch up first OR if the class pace is right for some kids – others get left behind.
I favor year-round but it will cost more money if they actually use professional staff and not babysitters like I hear is what some schools summer school really is.
I see this going on also in NYC:
Officials announced major changes Friday to admissions processes for selective New York City middle and high schools in the nation’s largest school district and one of its most segregated.Mayor Bill de Blasio made the revisions — which advocates and integration supporters have long urged him to pursue — seven years into his tenure and one year before leaving office. Disruptions to testing and attendance brought on by the pandemic drove the timing of the changes, at least some of which are expected to outlast the coronavirus crisis.
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You’ll have an easier time getting rid of Daylight Savings Time.
Those kids need to work the fields, and they need sunshine when they do. Besides, the people in Indiana love screwing with air travelers. “Wait! Is this East Coast time?”
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You’ll have an easier time getting rid of Daylight Savings Time.
Those kids need to work the fields, and they need sunshine when they do. Besides, the people in Indiana love screwing with air travelers. “Wait! Is this East Coast time?”
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I have relatives in Wake County, N.C. (part of the Raleigh metro) whose two sons were on an all-year schedule. They seemed to be pretty happy with the arrangement. As I recall it worked like this: three months of school, one month of break, three months of school, one month of break, etc.
In theory a big advantage is eliminating the long summer vacation in which students’ retention of knowledge and concepts backslides. I don’t know if the theory is backed up by empirical data or not, but that’s the theory.
Even better would be requiring kids to spend more days in school — maybe 10 weeks in school and only three weeks off, etc.
Is there something about 180 days of schooling? Why must that be a uniform number for all school systems — or all students? If some students aren’t mastering the material, why not extend the school year for them until they do? The system we have strikes me as rigid, bureaucratic and adapted to the needs of teachers and administrators, not to the individual needs of students.
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“If some students aren’t mastering the material, why not extend the school year for them until they do?”
In the old days they called that Summer School.
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“As I recall it worked like this: three months of school, one month of break, three months of school, one month of break, etc.”
The Virginia Beach City School System experimented with such a format at some of its schools in the mid to late-1970s. Mine was not one of them, but several friends of mine went to “guinea pig” schools and did the year-round thing for a couple of years.
There must have been some kind of down-side at that time because they ended the experiment and never adopted it system-wide.
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I’m assuming the downside wasn’t so obvious as they all became Trump Republicans? It is VB.
Year round school is like the metric system. It works better. Has a basis in reality. And will never catch on here.
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I have relatives in Wake County, N.C. (part of the Raleigh metro) whose two sons were on an all-year schedule. They seemed to be pretty happy with the arrangement. As I recall it worked like this: three months of school, one month of break, three months of school, one month of break, etc.
In theory a big advantage is eliminating the long summer vacation in which students’ retention of knowledge and concepts backslides. I don’t know if the theory is backed up by empirical data or not, but that’s the theory.
Even better would be requiring kids to spend more days in school — maybe 10 weeks in school and only three weeks off, etc.
Is there something about 180 days of schooling? Why must that be a uniform number for all school systems — or all students? If some students aren’t mastering the material, why not extend the school year for them until they do? The system we have strikes me as rigid, bureaucratic and adapted to the needs of teachers and administrators, not to the individual needs of students.
-
“If some students aren’t mastering the material, why not extend the school year for them until they do?”
In the old days they called that Summer School.
-
“As I recall it worked like this: three months of school, one month of break, three months of school, one month of break, etc.”
The Virginia Beach City School System experimented with such a format at some of its schools in the mid to late-1970s. Mine was not one of them, but several friends of mine went to “guinea pig” schools and did the year-round thing for a couple of years.
There must have been some kind of down-side at that time because they ended the experiment and never adopted it system-wide.
-
I’m assuming the downside wasn’t so obvious as they all became Trump Republicans? It is VB.
Year round school is like the metric system. It works better. Has a basis in reality. And will never catch on here.
-
-
-
Some of my teacher friends say that kids lose some of what they learned over summer vacation – and the ones that seem to be most affected are the economically disadvantaged.
So when they go back, some kids catch up quick and others take longer and they are in the same grade class.
So some get held back so that others can catch up first OR if the class pace is right for some kids – others get left behind.
I favor year-round but it will cost more money if they actually use professional staff and not babysitters like I hear is what some schools summer school really is.
I see this going on also in NYC:
Officials announced major changes Friday to admissions processes for selective New York City middle and high schools in the nation’s largest school district and one of its most segregated.Mayor Bill de Blasio made the revisions — which advocates and integration supporters have long urged him to pursue — seven years into his tenure and one year before leaving office. Disruptions to testing and attendance brought on by the pandemic drove the timing of the changes, at least some of which are expected to outlast the coronavirus crisis.
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[…] I wrote about some of the options for increasing in-school days in an earlier post. […]
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It makes perfect sense to move to year round schooling. Why do we keep billions of dollars of educational facilities dormant 3 months of the year? Why not extend the school year and perhaps shave a year off of the 1-12th grade model? Or perhaps add something useful like coding or shop classes? The only problem I see is the teachers whining about more pay.
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It makes perfect sense to move to year round schooling. Why do we keep billions of dollars of educational facilities dormant 3 months of the year? Why not extend the school year and perhaps shave a year off of the 1-12th grade model? Or perhaps add something useful like coding or shop classes? The only problem I see is the teachers whining about more pay.
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