DeKalb offers parents two calendars. Weekly early release still under consideration.
Just received this from DeKalb schools:
After hours of collaboration and discussion by a team of parents, teachers, principals and administrators, the DeKalb County School District Calendar Committee has released two calendar options for public review.
The first, a traditional calendar, reflects a start date of Aug. 12 and an end date of May 23. DCSD has historically adopted the traditional calendar model.
The second, a balanced calendar, begins the school year on Aug. 5 and ends on May 29, but has an additional week of vacation in each semester. Balanced calendars are growing in popularity and are utilized by other districts including Rockdale County Public Schools and the City Schools of Decatur.
Both calendars have 180 school days for the students and an additional 10 days for the teachers, comprised of nine work days and four two-hour teacher conference nights.
Among other considerations is a weekly one-hour early release in order to allow for professional development for all teachers and administrators.
“We know that in order to provide the best possible education for our students, our teachers must also be life-long learners,” said Superintendent Dr. Cheryl Atkinson. “These professional learning opportunities will help our staff help our children.”
The calendars will be available for public comment until Sept. 26. Community members may also participate in a brief survey to gauge the level of support for each calendar as well as the early release day.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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82 comments Add your comment
d
September 17th, 2012
8:30 pm
Now the one major question regardless of which choice…will teachers actually work 190 days and kids get 180 of instruction?
Eric
September 17th, 2012
8:34 pm
Don’t know why people think balance calendars are so wonderful? There would be less of a summer vacation, but I guess everyone’s supposed to work 24/7 sooner or later, and that leisure is a notion of a bygone era.
JT
September 17th, 2012
8:36 pm
Did they actually post the calendars or just the description of them?
concernedmom30329
September 17th, 2012
8:58 pm
Maureen,
For Dr. Atkinson to claim that she is worried about “summer melt” for students, yet continue to allow high schools to use block scheduling, when some students can go 9 months between math and language art classes, is ludicrous. Study after study has shown that it isn’t the calendar but the number of days — 220 days serves disadvantaged students better than 180, but Dr. Atkinson has chosen to use a huge percentage of DeKalb’s Title 1 funds for a packaged program, America’s Choice.
Dolores
September 17th, 2012
9:15 pm
You know everyone continues to complain about how the kids have problems with the block schedule. Not sure but our students’ scores have improved each year with the block. I think that it depends on the students and perhaps that’s it.
Atlanta Mom
September 17th, 2012
9:25 pm
“Among other considerations is a weekly one-hour early release in order to allow for professional development for all teachers and administrators”
I’m curious. Would one hour each week be an effective delivery method for professional development?
The Deal
September 17th, 2012
10:01 pm
I wish Dr. Atkinson would focus on our known problems (there are many) instead of creating new ones. Both parents work in our family, and, even though the two weeks in the middle of the semester don’t represent extra time off, I don’t consider having to put my 4 kids in 2 random weeks of camp in the middle of the year to be anything that benefits their academic achievement. I don’t have the money or time off work to be free those two weeks during the year. It is much easier to make day plans for the kids in one block in the summer. Employers understand parent time off is more likely to happen in the summer, and they plan for it, too.
Dr. Atkinson, please focus on bigger and more important issues that are directly related to student achievement. Stop with all of the assessments (the whole month of October), fix the block scheduling, fix the high school math, target failing schools, produce an org chart, keep our accreditation, don’t spend $30 million more than is budgeted in a year, be transparent with us and SACS, and, just do your job.
d
September 17th, 2012
10:09 pm
To anyone who complains about the the two weeks off in the middle of the year, what do you do with your children during those same two weeks in the summer?
Maureen Downey
September 17th, 2012
10:15 pm
@d, In the summer, there are dozens and dozens of camps available for kids from preschool to high school. There is one recreation department camp in September and February when my system takes its breaks. When my system moved to this schedule, there was a concept that school-based enrichment programs would be offered. That never happened, which is why you will see lots of kids roaming around downtown Decatur during these breaks. It is far easier to fill two weeks in the summer than a week in February and a week in early September.
Maureen
concernedmom30329
September 17th, 2012
10:25 pm
Delores,
Which scores? Which school, if you don’t mind sharing? Overall, the system’s SAT scores have plummeted since the inception of the block and as the parent of college bound students, this is the only score that matters to me.
It is clear that the block has damaged the math SAT scores at most DeKalb schools.
RCB
September 17th, 2012
10:51 pm
The whole summer off is ridiculous if you’re REALLY talking about education.
mountain man
September 18th, 2012
6:33 am
“The whole summer off is ridiculous if you’re REALLY talking about education.”
In the “old days” – you had the option of “summer school” to make up work if you were not ready to pass to the next grade level. That is the way it should be now – pay teachers more and require them to work year-round, then use the summer “quarter” (why DID we move away from the quarter system?) for intensive low-student:teacher ratio classes. Then if the student is STILL not on grade level – retain them. Then regular students can go back to having their summers free, parents don’t have to struggle as much with day care, and at-risk students can be addressed. But no, I forget, that would take money, so it is not a viable option. Just don’t go to the balanced schedule.
mountain man
September 18th, 2012
6:40 am
“To anyone who complains about the the two weeks off in the middle of the year, what do you do with your children during those same two weeks in the summer?”
Summer camp. They have those things in the summer. They don’t have a “one-week” summer camp in February. So older kids become latchkey kids, and parents struggle to find daycare for the younger ones.
mountain man
September 18th, 2012
6:41 am
By the way, yes, the block schedule is stupid, also. I won’t go into the myriad reasons that it does not make sense.
d
September 18th, 2012
6:44 am
So mountain man, is it my job, as a teacher, to provide child care services? Maybe it’s that belief that is the core issue behind our educational issues today.
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
6:53 am
While, I am not a fan of the 4×4 block, I don’t think it has much to do with scores falling – there are schools on traditional schedules and modified block that have seen their Math scores drop as well.
I haven’t yet made up my mind – though I will only have one more year left in DCSD, so for me it does not make much difference.
My niece is a student in Cherokee Schools which is on a balanced schedule and that school district has a good academic reputation. My sister indicates that it has not been an issue for the family.
Mountain Man
September 18th, 2012
7:25 am
“So mountain man, is it my job, as a teacher, to provide child care services?”
This isn’t the 1950’s when all the men worked and the wives stayed home and were barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen. In today’s world it is almost a necessity to have a second income. The average cost of family health insurance alone now is $15,000. For lowere wage earners, they NEED a second income.
Parents have always worked around the school schedule and daycare and summer camps have grown with the times and started offering child care in the summer. But very few cater to the “abnormal” scheduling of the “balanced schedule”.
Is it the “job” of the schools to provide child care: no. But the schools through their ELECTED School Boards, must be responsive to legitimate parent issues and this is one of them.
There is an old saying – “There are two types of fools, one says this is old and therefore good, and the other says this is new and therefore better.” I may be the first type of fool, but it seems like you and the others pushing the balanced schedule are the second type of fool. What benefits are there, education-wise, to the balanced schedule? Don’t give me that crap about students “forgetting” over the summer – if they “forget”, then they never learned it to begin with. I didn’t forget my multiplication tables over our “long” summers when school started AFTER LABOR DAY. Because I had truly learned them.
As someone said, there are plenty of REAL problems that need to be dealt with – discipline, attendance(that is a MUCH bigger issue than calendar), social promotion.
Mountain Man
September 18th, 2012
7:26 am
It seems to me that the only people arguing FOR the “balanced” calendar are teachers wanting vacation breaks during the school year. If you are that burnt out that you need a break, then something else is wrong.
Mountain Man
September 18th, 2012
7:44 am
Year-round schooling seems to be the latest “craze” in the education field, as if all our other problems will magically disappear. Parents have roundly opposed the concept of year-round schooling, so the education establishment has tried to slip it in the back door with the adopting of “balanced” calendars with earlier and earlier start dates. Some schools now start in July. Pretty soon they will move it back to June, and “voila”, a year-round calendar. It is death by a thousand cuts.
The “old” days may not have been perfect, but they were a heck of a lot better than today’s schools. So get rid of all the newfangled school ideas and go back to BASICS, until you completely ruin our education system.
By the way, the only ammo that opponents of public schools have is the ammo that public schools have given them. Solve the problems in your school systems and you won’t have to worry about competition.
Mountain Man
September 18th, 2012
7:47 am
“So mountain man, is it my job, as a teacher, to provide child care services?”
If a mom (or dad) has to stay home full-time to provide daycare for their children, they might as well just home-school them and leave the schools out of it. Their kids would be better off, too, not being exposed to discipline problems, and uncaring students and their parents.
Pardon My Blog
September 18th, 2012
7:58 am
Block schedule? Why not find out how it is working for the students in Coweta County and elsewhere before taking the plunge. I think you will find it has hurt the high school kids when it comes to AP course test, etc.
It sounds as if Atkinson is using the spaghetti test, throw ideas out there and see what sticks instead modeling the system after already proven methods. She really is in over her head and all of DeKalb is suffering whether you have a student in the system or not.
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
8:01 am
Maureen, did my comment get lost in the filter?
Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure
September 18th, 2012
8:36 am
For once, I’m with @The Deal…Dekalb has so many issues that Superintendent Atkinson could be focused on right now, yet she continues to push this pet project upon us. @Cheryl Atkinson – How about spending those “hours of collaboration” balancing the DCSS budget???
DunMoody
September 18th, 2012
8:44 am
Repeating my comments from DeKalb School Watch Two: So many repercussions. Will our high school AP teachers continue to give the same heavy-weight summer assignments under a balanced calendar? (Many systems do NOT give AP summer work.) Will our students have homework over the weeklong breaks? Will teachers lose the planned early release days to furloughs? Will DCSS provide extended childcare in clusters where low income families do not have the means to pay for those early release days? Will the balanced calendar factor in the dysfunctional block schedule, with its unhappy mix of year-long courses and semester-long courses? (Note to Dolores: under the block, students can and DO go an entire 12 month period between math and world languages unless the AP of curriculum stands on her/his head, overloads classes, and forces eSIS to make the block fit into its 7/8 period paradigm.)
Dr. Atkinson is well known for loving the balanced calendar concept, so I imagine that we’ll see a balanced calendar next year, without the requisite pre-planning essential to managing such a critical change as well as consultation with the business community that will be directly impacted by DCSS’ calendar experiment.
I look forward her roundtables … purportedly a two-way conversation with parents, teachers, and community members about whatever is on their minds. Or not.
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
8:49 am
My sister’s children attend Cherokee County Schools – one of this state’s best school system. Cherokee is on a balanced schedule. My sister indicates it has not been an issue for her family and daycare and YMCA programs, etc accommodate these schedules. I am not sure how I intend to “vote”, but I don’t believe this needs to be as “drama-filled” as I am seeing.
Here is a link to the Cherokee County school district calendar: http://portal.cherokee.k12.ga.us/parentinfo/Documents/2012-13Calendar.pdf
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
8:52 am
OT….but the next time someone says the school district doesn’t need as many school police officers….
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/crime-law/dekalb-school-cop-hurt-in-student-brawl/nSDdX/
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
8:55 am
Link to proposed Traditional Calendar for 2013-2014:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/calendar/files/C7E72B05DD1B42518C1132E2DD5744F0.pdf
Link to proposed Balanced Calendar for 2013-2014:
http://www.dekalb.k12.ga.us/calendar/files/95855B46EA6040A1972F3A38FCE04F9B.pdf
Bubba
September 18th, 2012
8:58 am
I wonder how well Cherokee Schools would look with DeKalb’s demographics?
What’s good for Cherokee (and many people in Cherokee do not like the early start calendar) isn’t necessarily good for DeKalb.
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
9:11 am
@Bubba, should demographics come into play here? An academic schedule that works should work for ever level of achievement – just my opinion.
DunMoody
September 18th, 2012
9:34 am
What does the proposed calendar look like with weekly early release days? Surely those days have to be made up in the summer break. Insufficient detail by DCSS .
bu2
September 18th, 2012
9:36 am
The Deal said it well, Atkinson has lots of other more pressing issues than another disorganized change.
And as Mountain Man pointed out, the schools can’t live in a vacuum. In the summer there are lots of enrichment options. In these odd weeks its simply a limited number of daycare options. And with only a 2 week decrease in the summer “gap,” its really just making things more difficult for parents and students, not really helping the kids.
DunMoody
September 18th, 2012
9:42 am
It hasn’t escaped my notice that DCSS is presenting the community with just two calendars to review: a single “traditional” calendar with yet another too-early school start date and a single “balanced” calendar that wends its way around testing windows and creates a week off in the second semester when school has barely gotten underway. Neither is acceptable.
Maureen Downey
September 18th, 2012
9:46 am
@Dun, If DeKalb moves to a balanced calendar, I would think it would make sense to simply adopt the Decatur calendar, which had us back Aug. 1 this year. (Again, I don’t like this calendar but the system contends it helps in teacher recruitment, so I accept it. )
Decatur rents school buses from DeKalb, and many Decatur teachers live in DeKalb. It would just seem logical for the two to align if they are following modified calendars.
Maureen
Bubba
September 18th, 2012
9:47 am
Dunwoody Mom,
You put forward Cherokee as an example of an one of the state’s best school districts – and that it has August 1 start date calendar – hence the calendar must be good.
Cherokee has a much more homogenous demographic mix than Dekalb. Looking at statistics, if you put Dekalb’s demographics into Cherokee – it would no longer be viewed very well. Cherokee’s overall better than average test scores aren’t due to the balanced calendar – it’s due to demographics.
Dawn
September 18th, 2012
9:48 am
@DunwoodyMom, I think it’s disingenuous of you to suggest that demographics shouldn’t play into any analysis of school calendars. What works for upper-middle class suburbanites with a mom or dad who stays home with the kids or has vacation time to take off to be at home in random-middle-of-the-semester breaks does not work for minimum-wage workers with no vacation to be off. Before you ask what that minimum wage mom or dad would do during the summer, you know there are lots of camps, even affordable ones at churches and county rec centers, that will not be available. Maureen even attested to this in one of her above posts. And the stress the parents feel at trying to juggle this schedule on top of the stress they may already be experiencing by the nature of being poor, is felt by the kids and has a direct impact on their ability to learn. So, don’t ever say that any given element of education, even a calendar, can work for every level of achievement. The linked article below has more detail on the non-cognitive effects of stress.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0926641098000421
Bubba
September 18th, 2012
9:51 am
Maureen: re:Aug. 1 this year. (Again, I don’t like this calendar but the system contends it helps in teacher recruitment, so I accept it. )
You don’t seem to have much backbone. Blindly accepting something that isn’t the best for your children because a government agency tells you it might make things easier for them (and you actually believed it?) – not the way to go.
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
9:52 am
@Bubba, I made no such inference. I was basically playing devil’s advocate and pointing out that Cherokee runs a balanced schedule and is a successful school district. Again, I am just not sure why you keep bringing demographics into this. The reason that DCSD is not “successful” has little, if anything, to do with its academic calendars.
Bubba
September 18th, 2012
9:54 am
Dunwoody Mom, you don’t get it, using your words:
The reason that CCSD is better than average on test scores has little, if anything, to do with its academic calendars.
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
9:55 am
Ok, well, I can see this conversation has degraded….
Maureen Downey
September 18th, 2012
9:56 am
@bubba, I see no data that would lead me to believe the Aug. 1 date hurts students. I think it is a major inconvenience for many parents but don’t see it undermining academics.
Keep in mind that most Georgia systems start around Aug. 9 anyway, so we are talking about a single week. My kids have always gone back by the second week of August. So, the change was not earth shattering.
Maureen
Bubba
September 18th, 2012
9:59 am
Maureen, I see no data that shows that the quality of teachers hired by school districts starting on August 1 is better than school districts starting August 9 or later. We are talking about a single week.
Maureen Downey
September 18th, 2012
10:04 am
@Bubba, Before Decatur adopted its calendar, it surveyed teachers and parents. Teachers preferred it, saying that they needed the week-long breaks. Again, if we were debating a Sept. 1 start date versus an Aug. 1 start, I would feel differently. But I can’t get too worked up over Aug. 1 versus Aug. 8.
Maureen
Bubba
September 18th, 2012
10:07 am
Maureen, if you surveyed teachers and asked them if they wanted free manicures, they would prefer it.
Teachers are employees, period.
Flabberghasted4sure
September 18th, 2012
10:12 am
@DunMoody – agree! Neither have well thought out options related to where breaks are placed, start dates, and the traditional calendar has 88 dyas one semester and 92 the other semester – giving block schools different instructional time frames. Usually there are more options to review.
In the past, DCSS has strived to adopt a calendar that roughly matched other public school systems in metro Atlanta in terms of spring break, winter break, etc. It is beyond me why they would present a balanced calendar so different than neighboring Decatur.
Bill & Ed's Excellent Adventure
September 18th, 2012
10:13 am
If DCSS moves to a balanced calendar w/ early release days (and those days don’t end up being furlough days), will they require teachers to get professional development hours? No offense, but if CE isn’t required, I’m betting they won’t do it.
alm
September 18th, 2012
10:15 am
Decatur attracts lots of good teachers. The K-3 schools have certified teachers working as paras because they want to get their foot in the door.
DunMoody
September 18th, 2012
10:19 am
I suspect that Atkinson will announce before January that all high schools will be on the same schedule. Evidently she likes the block schedule, but the balanced calendar does not support that particular model. Of course, she could also wait until next April or May to announce her decision, AFTER schools have developed schedules for the following school year. And expecting them to do the work again. Sigh.
DunMoody
September 18th, 2012
10:21 am
I will add to the balanced calendar considerations: AP tests are given early in May. End of course testing has to be completed in time for reporting to the district and state level. Which means teachers then come up with more content for a final exam OR students spin their wheels in lame duck classes.
CTPAT
September 18th, 2012
10:29 am
I am in favor of the balanced calendar. I see my kids starting to get edgy and “tired” of school about every 6 weeks. When they get this way, that’s when the behavior problems start and the lack of attention to school work begins. A break seems to rejuvenate and refocus them. I do think they’ll miss out somewhat on the longer summer, but I’d prefer them to be focused while learning. My sister is in Cobb and they really liked the balanced calendar for the year that they had it and said that there were options for childcare during the those breaks (I think the community will fill the need here if there’s enough notice).
Maureen Downey
September 18th, 2012
10:33 am
@DunM, It would surprise me if she moved all schools to block.
The state saw a drop in SAT/ACT scores a while back in high schools that moved to block and promised further study, but it never happened. I interviewed one of the researchers in the 2006 University of Virginia-Harvard University study of high school science courses. That study found that students on block schedules did not perform as well as kids on traditional schedules.
UVA researcher Robert H. Tai told me that teachers approached the 90 minute block much as they had the shorter class period, so the time was not used effectively. It was a surprising conclusion as UVA had been influential in leading schools to adopt block scheduling as a result of its research on how best to organize school days.
At the time, I wrote:
whatever
September 18th, 2012
10:50 am
yes, what we have waited for…another diversion from the problems in DCSS. I find it hard to believe that changing a school calendar one week on the end of the year and one week on the beginning will make the children retain more. These are kids, they take a week off for vacation and they can’t remember anything. DCSS stop trying to re-mediate kids. expect them to learn. Review and keep going. Don’t spend 3-4 weeks reteaching everything. Yet another shining example of DCSS stupidity.
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
10:50 am
The modified block seems to be, not positive, but a “compromise” between the traditional 7-period schedule and the 4×4 block. There are classes that are more suited to a longer period, such as science and math, while others easily fit in the traditional 7-period day. Year long Math and Science classes can be incorporated into a modified block schedule. I can remember in high school barely getting the science experiments ready to go when the period was over with. I know that children have said many of their AP classes take up the entire 90 minutes. I don’t have the answers, but I do believe that year-long Math and Science are a given.
whatever
September 18th, 2012
11:05 am
What is interesting is the balanced calendar a takes a week from summer at the start but only gives back 3 days in OCTOBER. I guess you could say there are days added to Thanksgiving but we have a week off this year.
DunMoody
September 18th, 2012
11:16 am
Maureen you have lucidly presented all the reasons the block schedule is such a disaster for any but the most motivated and self-sufficient students. My high school has begged for 8 years to be freed from the block, to no avail. (Teachers and students like it because teachers have just three classes a semester and students can do most of their homework in class.) There are exceptions in terms of teachers fully utilizing the longer class periods but they are few.
The Deal
September 18th, 2012
11:37 am
@whatever, I noticed that, too. It’s not like there’s a long break in October, as it’s being sold.
I also wonder, what specific problem does this “balanced calendar” solve or improve? It’s one week on either end of the school year. My biggest problem is that the kids whose parents can afford to let them relax during those mid weeks will benefit, and those weren’t the children who were suffering anyway.
The kids whose parents (or single parent) must work all day will be shoved into some all-day, quickly thrown together “camp” and will end up just as exhausted or more than a regular week of school. It will be a completely different social situation, most likely stressful to kids who don’t adapt to change well, and they will show up back to school on Monday mentally drained. I really feel for these children because their parents will have very little choice.
I just don’t see the benefit, except to upper middle class kids who get to go to the beach or Disney on non-peak rates.
Pardon My Blog
September 18th, 2012
11:57 am
I question the whole semester system anyway. Virginia, California, and several other states utilize the quarter system with much success in academics. Georgia used to be on the quarter system (I know, I am telling my age) and it did not seem to hurt the students then. Should we change back and possibly solved some of these issues?
WTF
September 18th, 2012
1:47 pm
I think it’s funny that people ignore the biggest problem with DSS. The Board! Replace them all so we can finally hire a competent Superintendent.
d
September 18th, 2012
1:49 pm
During my first two years of high school, we had a “modular” block schedule. We had 6 year-long courses, we only went to all six on Mondays and Fridays and on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, we went to four of the six – so we saw each teacher 4 times a week. Tuesday through Thursday were 90 minute blocks in order to accommodate labs and other activities.
Get Real
September 18th, 2012
1:50 pm
@WTF how about you exhibit some class on here and use a different name. Before you talk about replacing anything you should replace that name.
Flabberghastedforsure
September 18th, 2012
2:05 pm
Thanks Maureen. DCSS finally posted it visibly on their home page. Maybe they are reading your blog. Sad commentary on DCSS’s communications dept. that the stakeholders had to get it from you first. We’re paying Dickerson and Woods a chunk of change to communicate.
Dunwoody Mom
September 18th, 2012
2:08 pm
@Flabberhastedforsure…Woods was RIF’d and the calendars were on the page this morning under current news.
Get Real
September 18th, 2012
3:56 pm
@Flabberghastedforsure…Just received this from DeKalb schools: If you read the top of the article is says Maureen received the info from DCS. Lets make sure we read the entire post before we take the conversation down the wrong path.
Flabberghasted4sure
September 18th, 2012
6:41 pm
@ Dunwoody Mom: Woods may have been RIF’d but he is still on first class as the Chief Communications Officer and his emails don’t bounce back.
@ Get Real: Not sure what you are trying to say. I did read her post. Maybe you should re-read what you wrote: “Maureen said she just received it from DCSD”. Maureen did not say she found it on the DCSD web site. It was sent directly to her from DCSD. She called out Atkinson recently related to communications and they are responding by keeping her in the loop. She called them out again today for communications. DCSD is communicating with her but doing their typical poor job communicating with stakeholders. Until mid day today, DCSD had not put up the survey on their web site – wasn’t there when Maureen posted hers. I checked. Lots of emails circulated yesterday and early today looking for it since DCSD sent a press release at the end of August stating it would be public yesterday. No one here is going down the wrong path. Just expecting DCSD to do what they state in a press release.
Pinkribbon
September 18th, 2012
7:23 pm
I am in favor of the balanced calendar. I want to take my children on vacations other than spring break and summer. We have family in another state and it would be nice to have options to visit than the common times when flights are expensive and crowded. Also, going on a family ski trip would be nice in Feb rather than December or April….. I feel it really is balanced (school and family).
Pride and Joy
September 18th, 2012
7:51 pm
MAUREEN talks about dozens and dozens of camps in the Summer for kids and suggests the same will happenf for those weeks the kids are off during the year. I’ve used those camps. They aer expensive and often then don’t provide care from 8 to 5. Often they start at 9 or ten and end at 2 — harldly qualifies as something working parents can take part of.
What is the PURPOSe of letting kisd off for a week at a time durng the school year — so that Summers will be shroter and kids will more likely “remember” waht they wre taught durng the year?
If kids forget during the summer it means they were never taught in the first palce — they just memorized. Traditional calendars are best.
Student Advocate
September 18th, 2012
9:42 pm
Why not offer 2 calendars – the traditional , with a true SPRING break in the mde of spring semester, and call it what it is, a year round calendar? Different clusters have different needs. Give parents – and teachers – a choice.
Mandella1099
September 18th, 2012
10:03 pm
Maureen – I look forward to your blogs on Gwinnett’s, Decatur’s, APS’s, etc… calendar surveys/votes/committees. Do you know when you might be posting them?
concernedmom30329
September 18th, 2012
10:08 pm
Mandella
Maureen blogged plenty when Cobb and Decatur changed their calendars. In fact, Cobb changed, changed back, changed again, etc and Maureen blogged mutliple times.
If Gwinnett wants to change their calendar, they just do it. They don’t ask for parent or teacher input. This seems to work because parents have faith in the product Gwinnett is offering. In DeKalb, not so much.
Mandella1099
September 18th, 2012
10:26 pm
Well, there you have it Gwinnett parents – you are all satisfied (according to concernedmom30329)
By the way, I asked about the future calendars, not what Maureen has been done in the past. According to several bloggers here, DeKalb used to be the best district in the state – should we concentrate on what it was like then, or where things are now?
Maureen Downey
September 18th, 2012
10:29 pm
@Mandella, Not sure of your point. If another major district decides to change its calendar, I will post about it. The calendar debate last year in Cobb was a frequent topic here.
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/06/09/cobb-calendar-wars-flare-up-it-is-time-to-just-a-pick-a-starting-date-and-stick-to-it/
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/03/09/cobb-board-will-revisit-balanced-calendar-will-they-change-back/
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/02/18/cobb-axes-balanced-calendar-did-system-move-too-fast/
http://blogs.ajc.com/get-schooled-blog/2011/02/15/cobb-reconsiders-its-balanced-calendar-and-shorter-summer/
Mandella1099
September 18th, 2012
10:40 pm
Maureen – FYI – Gwinnett’s proposed calendars are “out there” (just not for the public) – Nonetheless, I look forward to seeing the blog!
Dunwoody Mom
September 19th, 2012
6:46 am
@Flabberghasted4sure…First Class has not been updated completely. There are still teachers/administrators still listed that I know for a fact have left DCSD.
FJ
September 19th, 2012
7:02 am
@ Maureen – FYI – APS is currently asking all families to complete a calendar survey and rank their choices between a traditional, balanced, or year round calendar.
Anonymous
September 19th, 2012
7:06 am
@Dunwoody Mom- You’re right about FIrst Class, the DCSD employee e-mail system, not be updated. When you combine that with an Organizational Chart with NO names listed, it’s nearly impossible to know who is in charge of what.
I wonder if they’ll show SACS an Org Chart with names on it……..
Flabberghasted4sure
September 19th, 2012
7:42 am
@ Dunwoody Mom and Anonymous: Thanks for the update on first class. That just highlights 2 more DCSD communicatioin issues: MIS and HR. They have not updated their systems to acknowledge changes and have not deleted email addresses that no longer have recipients on the other end so that the public is informed there is no one receiving their communication…or they haven’t set them up to be forwarded to the person overseeing the area or they haven’t set up an auto reply tha tthat person is no longer there and to contact someone else…between that and the lack of names on an organizational chart, you are right – it is impossible for principals, parents, teachers to know who is in charge of what…perhaps some of the BOE members wouldn’t have to ask so many questions of the administration for their constituents if constituents could determine who to contact…
Dunwoody Mom
September 19th, 2012
7:57 am
Yes, I would like to see names associated with the Organization Chart. I think HR has just been overwhelmed to this point and the fact that they are behind in cleaning up First Class does not bother me so much.
concernedmom30329
September 19th, 2012
8:59 am
Mandella
Do you think things are ok in DeKalb? Do you think the media scrutiny is a bad thing?
Lee-Ann Williams
September 19th, 2012
11:09 am
Isn’t this the same proposal that was rejected last year? Why did that take “hours” to develop?
There are plenty of comments about why the balanced calendars and early release are bad for working families (which is most people). What about this idea:
Longer school day, with extra breaks for recess and enrichment, supervised by non-certified part-time employees. Teachers do professional development by webinar during the time their classes are on their daily breaks (so it wouldn’t matter when their break was). Kids would benefit by breaks during the day, when they really need it most, instead of a week off in a chunk. Enrichment activities could be developed by the county that reinforce academic content, like games, and arts and crafts activities.
Longer school day = better schedule for families, physical activities for kids, low-stress academic reinforcement for kids, time for professional development.
Of course, even with parapros, it would cost more. Still, why can’t we put THAT to a vote? Like, here is what we propose to use the money for, please give us a penny sales tax for this (or whatever, not proposing a specific tax plan here). It would help if people felt their money were being well spent. It would need to be targeted to specific use, not dumped into the general fund.
Tired in DeKalb
September 19th, 2012
1:16 pm
Instead of looking at Cherokee or Rockdale as examples of “successful” models (calendar or otherwise) shouldn’t we be looking at best of breed school systems in the entire country? People always talk about how northern schools are better. Why? What can we do to replicate that? Looking at the top schools in an educationally bottom ranking state isn’t the answer.
I’ve heard friends in Cobb say that they love the breaks because Disneyworld isn’t as crowded in Feb. But in DeKalb how many families have that choice? You have to consider socio-economic factors when considering when to close school. And that early release day? Who, exactly, is that going to benefit? That will be the easiest hour to furlough when times get tougher and then no one benefits.
Murphey
September 19th, 2012
1:23 pm
Maureen, did you notice Ty Tagami’s front page article on the DCSD calendar today included NEW info on the weekly early release days: “The lost hour would be made up by starting a few minutes earlier each day or by getting out a little later the rest of the week, a spokeswoman said.”
So, do teachers get a raise, or are they just expected to work an extra hour for free?
This is a significant detail. Why is there no mention of this on the DCSD website or survey?
This resolves the issue of lost instructional time but I don’t know any teachers who can tolerate any more poor treatment.
Big Picture
September 20th, 2012
8:14 pm
Murphey hits the nail on the head. Early release days are NOT at all proposed to ensure teachers’ professional development. We all know that parents will schedule conferences, after school programs are staffed by teachers who must supplement salaries to pay rent, meetings will be called on these days because teachers are already there. The true purpose is to implement Fake Furloughs. Teachers add hours to every day to make up instructional time, and continue to work late on these days as required. And there is no move, from what I can see to pay them for this time. I’m not a teacher. But if we think about this carefully, it seems like actually funding full days for professional development is the fair and legitimate route. It would suggest no shenanigans…. I just really believe that this is a way to continue to require more from teachers than they want to pay for. Morale has tanked, and I don’t believe that this is a real way of dealing with the issues.
Certainly, paying for doctorate degrees for 8 principals while teachers struggle to find time to plan lessons and do not get any funding to do so seems like a slap in the face.
As a parent, I dread the idea of making a tedious, test filled day for my child any longer. He hates school because “all we ever do is take tests,” is learning reading out of order with the new curriculum and is, with his parents, reaching the end with DCSS. Really, longer days? We can barely schedule in our tutors time three days a week as it is to keep him current. And the tutor is necessary because she has the energy to make learning fun. DCSS has killed educational progress for s many students, and destroyed the joy of teaching for so many teachers.
Does anyone know what the science lab funding was this year. Our title one school was requesting science lab fees so that at least a few experiments could be done. $.50 isn’t enough for real hands on learning. But favored friends and family will get their PhDs with our tax dollars. Sorry, Atkinson does NOT have her eye on the sparrow. She’s just feathering up her fine nest. Enjoy your car, Dr. A, while you starve kids’s minds. Sorry for typos.
Double Jeapordy
September 21st, 2012
12:40 am
Where is the balance in balanced calendar? As others have said, most systems that are on the balanced calendar, have one week off in October and February. Dekalb is only proposing three days off in October which equates to a long weekend only it’s Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Who does that in the middle of the week? They are advertising weeks off in October and February but look at the balanced calendar closely before voting. Also, I am really concerned about the early release days every week for a couple of reasons. Unfortunately, I work and live in Dekalb. This is not that little country town the supertindent came from where crime is probably at a minimum. As an educator, when the kids are released early every week with nothing to do, while I’m in a staff develpment meeting, kids will be at my home attempting to break in because they have nothing else to do. Remember, we let them out early! I am curious to know if she has done any research to find out whether crime increases during early release days for students. Also, in the middle school setting, we release kids daily at 4. Some of the kids who are car riders don’t get picked up until 5, 5:30, 6:00 right now. Sometimes these students fight and run off to the neighborhoods or nearest parks to participate in “sex” or other things. When we release them an hour earlier, who is going to supervise them while staff members are participating in staff development? If anything happens to either of the students whose parents can’t get off of their jobs every week to pick up their child, of course Dekalb will be looking at a law suit and who can pay for that? Next, I am upset that Dr. Atkinson is going to pay for 8 principals to receive doctoral degrees with my tax paying dollars!!!! Too many kids are failing math, not reading on grade level and could use some extra help. Wouldn’t it make better sense to take that money, hire substitutes and send the teachers off for additional training to empower them in the classroom? These 8 elite people will get those degrees, expect money that Dekalb says that we don’t have to pay them now that they have another advanced degree, while teachers, bus drivers, custodians, para’s, secretaries, security officers and especially students will not benefit from those prinicpals having docturate degrees. CRAZY idea when we should use that money to directly affect teachers and students! I wonder how many of these elite people are from her beloved Charlotte! Seems to me that she’s hiring quite a number of her friends, bringing them here and paying them huge salaries when our salaries have been cut, benefits cut, no pay or step increases, and no matching funds into our teacher’s retirement! Her idea of cutting secruity officers has backfired as we are begining to see more loaded hand guns in the schools! That was her idea! Never have I heard her suggesting that she give up some of her allowances or take a pay cut like many of us have. Her idease are driving good, qualified people away and not making it attractive for people to live and especially work in Dekalb. There are no incentives or advantages for working here anymore. Guess she and her clonies who have no ties to Dekalb or Georgia for that matter, will continue to make a mess here then move on some where else, leaving us with the mess to clean up! Guess it doesn’t matter to her anyway since I hear that she lives in Rockdale! When are we going to get as smart as Fayette County and let her go?