The LAUSD is considering moving up the starting date for the next school year to August. The change will be about 3 weeks earlier than the regular date so that the fall semester will begin in August instead of September, which was the traditional month for back-to-school that most of us were used to.
Lincoln High was one of about 17 schools that began school in August, a plan that is hoped to move up test scores for the district. Many parents are opposed the plan for a number of reasons that the Daily News story reports on: "Some Valley parents are opposing expansion of LAUSD's 'early start' plan," By Connie Llanos, Staff Writer. http://www.dailynews.com/news/ci_16729944
People mention the heat of August but there's air conditioning in nearly all schools and besides, the heat can come as late as October as with this year and a summer can be mild, again, like this year.
My idea on the resistance here is that it interrupts vacation schedules for everyone. The teachers, for example, will have a shorter summer break but there will still be the same number of school days, with a longer winter break.
Parents probably will have to re-arrange schedules but then that’s part of the overall differences in life now compared to even the very recent past. All things considered, I don’t think this will do much for the improvement of test scores or anything else to a significant degree. What might change test scores for the better, along with the rest of school life, is getting better work habits practiced by the students, with some regular cooperation from parents, not to mention having the district and site administration begin dealing with disruptive students in more appropriate ways and consistently so.
The LAUSD is becoming more desperate for getting better results with the tests. I wish they would have been a little more frugal in that building binge that burned up millions of dollars- at least they could have ACTED like they cared about tax dollars instead of going on spending sprees with architects and artists instead of accountants deciding what will be spent on buildings.
It’s nice to have good buildings, but even poorer settings can generate educated students where there’s motivated students and involved parents to cooperate with the classroom teachers, a condition that’s not seen by many schools.
Posts
