I live in an area where there are a great deal of kids. I mean, alot! Our local elementary school has over 1,000 students and it continues to grow yearly. In fact, this year's total may be over 1,100. With that great strain on the time and staff at the school we currently function on what is called the "extended day" model. About half the student body comes at 8:00 am and the rest come at 9:15 and there are class switches during the day to accommodate students on both tracks. Then the early track leaves at 2:15 pm and the later track leaves at 3:30. There is a whole, complicated class movement schedule during the day and it's complexity alludes me so I memorize only those tracks that affect my children.
As far as the success of the current model, our students rank quite high in the school district in test scores. (Our school district is one of the more successful in the state so, without actual numbers I'm going out on a limb and suggest that we do well state wide also.) Across the board; math, reading and social sciences, the kids do quite well (80+ percentile) and so I think extended has served pretty well as a daily routine.
However, having been present in a meeting about this very subject and seen the two programs compared side by side, I am leaning to the new "modified extended day" model for a few different reasons.
The first being that class size will actually be slightly reduced. Granted, class size will only be reduced by one or two but what I love about this model is that for 30-45 minutes every day, there will only be 11 (approx.) students in the class allowing for focused, one on one teacher/student interaction.
The second being this; that the focus of study will be on core subjects (math, reading etc.) In a world where U.S. students are falling far behind global averages, it seems that it is time to really get our kids off on the right foot, so to speak, with strong backgrounds in the basics. Don't get me wrong, I love art and music. My degree is in Humanities! But these are not tested subjects. They enhance learning, absolutely and these subjects will still be included in the curriculum but will be limited to twice a week instead of everyday. The Modified model will add much needed minutes to math, which is drastically short already, and (based on hours) it will add the equivalent of 1/3 of the school year to reading/literacy.
There are flexibilities in both models but I feel it is better to focus on core subjects and integrate non-tested ones than the other way around.
So, there ya go. I hope that the vote by faculty and staff result in a similar decision!
1 comment:
I can always count on you for a run-down of what's going on :). I want to say that I didn't know about the meeting that was held last week (perhaps I neglected to read it in the newsletter?)... but whatever my reason for not going, I am glad to have some warning of what is on the table.
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