school schedule

Ellieblue · 08-16-2007, 01:46 PM

No wonder our kids are so far behind the rest of the world in academics. I just looked at the school schedule for next year and it shows that every month of the year has at least one day off-some months there are week off breaks. School starts on Aug 28 and ends on June 4th. There are a total of 32 days off plus weekends.

Ellie

suzeeq · 08-16-2007, 06:54 PM

What's the total number of days they're actually in school though? That might be comparable to other states; in Idaho they set the calendar at about 180 days a few years ago.

Ellieblue · 08-16-2007, 07:01 PM

The last I heard it was about 155 days.

Jess_knit · 08-16-2007, 07:26 PM

Oh, wow. Pennsylvania government mandates 180 days of school, but my district usually has a couple extras built in for snow days...

suzeeq · 08-16-2007, 07:41 PM

Guess that's where the 32 days went to. If you think the kids should be in school more days, see about getting the state board of education to change it. I will say though, that the length of the school year doesn't necessarily have anything to do with whether the kids learn more or not. Seems like most of May mine were having field trips of something about every week.

flea · 08-16-2007, 08:50 PM

*drags out her old-lady-soapbox and climbs atop with as little wobbling as possible*

Ahem, apologies ahead of time for any rantish sounding contents of this post.

I think the worst thing to happen to schools in the last 10 years is the on-then-off schedule. It's just ridiculous to me that they can't be in school like we were back when I was going. You know, every weekday through 9 months then have 3 months off? Schools now have this haphazard, week off here, two days off there... oh, and you start back to school in the middle of summer (supposedly to make up for the weird schedule).

I looked at my niece's schedule a couple of years ago (high school) and they were running trimesters on top of that. They weren't in a single class more than 5 weeks in a row! How are they supposed to learn without the continuity and consistency we "enjoyed"?

I'm willing to loan the soapbox to anyone who wants.

debinoz · 08-16-2007, 09:01 PM

My kids started back yesterday. They go 182 days. The only breaks they have are for holidays, spring break (5 days), and parent/teacher conference days. The high school has block scheduling and the middle school, modified block. I like it that way because they spend more time in each class period (almost 90 min.) than the rgular day when it was only 35-45 minutes.

zebstriped · 08-16-2007, 09:20 PM

My best friends are teachers and seem to have days off all of the time, and it's at least one day per month. It's annoying when they ask what I'm doing for the long weekend, and I'm like "what long weekend?"

marykz · 08-16-2007, 09:54 PM

what kills me are the random "half days" where school closes early for no discernible reason. there's never any after care those days, and I may as well just take the whole day off and keep the kid home. I understand teachers need time to plan and grade papers, but how much can anyone get done in a "half day"??? take one whole day every other month! (sigh)

Carla1019 · 08-16-2007, 09:58 PM

I don't know how many day my DD goes to school, but do know that get out alot. But this year she is going into the 9th grade. They have had only 7 classes per day. now she will have 8. so that mean least time in each class but more stuff for her to have to learn.. I see it both way. But I don't like the short time in each class.