These last days of July and the first few weeks in August continually prey on my mind. As an educator I always want what is best for all students: great teachers, rigorous, engaging lessons, and high expectations for learning. As an administrator, one has the charge to provide these during the 180-day school year. But what about the 65-70 days of summertime?
When the last day of school hits, most students count down the last 10 seconds and scream with joy as they spill out of their classrooms. Yet some students have that sick feelling in their stomachs.
Some schools in Silicon Valley have more than 90 percent of their students on the federally subsidized free or reduced lunch program. Come summer, too many Santa Clara County children are home alone throughout the summertime days with empty refrigerators, and too much time with little enriching activity.
Since the last day for most Silicon Valley schools, June 12, there have been 45 days of vacation, including weekends. Some children have had those summer days enriched by horse camp, day camp, cooking school, music camp, basketball camp, adventure camp, or church camp. Others have sat at home playing X-Box or watching TV, because this year, due to state budget cuts, many summer school programs were tragically cancelled.
Some new studies are demonstrating the harmful effects caused by these enormous inequities. The children from poor families lose skills during their summer hiatus, while those from wealthy families gain in school-related skills.
Most teachers that teach summer school are just meeting their summer students for the first time, and will be with them for only 20 days. That’s a waste of money, in my opinion. One suggestion I have is to take the summer school money that the state parcels out to districts, add most of the fragmented categorical program dollars to that (including after-school tutoring programs), increase teachers’ annual salaries by 10 percent, and look seriously at extending the school year to as close to 200 days as possible. The intent is to increase the school year without costing the state any more additional dollars. I think it can be done—to benefit all students.
If you eliminate summer school and after school tutoring, what will you do for students who fail their classes?
Are you really willing to hold them back?
If not, how on earth are they going to keep up?
Great idea Joseph! This isn’t the first time I’ve heard this idea and have always wondered why it hasn’t happened. We didn’t get a long summer off when I was on Catholic School, and no one died. We got a few weeks off and back to school.
On a different note: In a previous column you wrote, I expressed concern about children going without food when school was out. I’d like to ask you again is there any way, especially with the new cuts coming from the State, that we citizens can help make sure children get a meal?
The educational system need an overhauling. Summer school in it’s present form of two curriculum subjects for 3 weeks, 4 times per week for 3 hours a day is not enough and is baby-sitting. Summer school needs to be expanded to one curriculum over 7-8 weeks, 4 times per week for 7.5 hours a day.
During the school year, adding more hours to instruction (before or after school) is counterproductive since teachers are have increased responsibility (are stressed), and often the extra time competes with sports or other activities. I have always suggested that sports team offer tutorial for it’s players.
Greg,
I agree with you that there needs to be an end to social promotion. Multi-age classrooms (like our work environments, why group children by litter) can mitigate this bad practice of moving students along the grades without having them master the content. Having their regular teachers work longer days during the regular school year has shown signs of being more effective than summer school. See the model in Milpitas Unified called “Punch out Summer School”.
Kathleen,
Difficult but outstanding question…I believe using existing food banks is the best way to have food distributed to those families/children who need it the most. Thanks for asking it, perhaps others might have better ideas.
Rick,
Yes, the educational system needs overhauling for sure, but I am not certain a longer summer school day and period is one of the best solution sets. Pay teachers for performance on how their students progress during the year and ending tenure as we know it today would be two of my first choices. A longer school day and year is essential too, however, teachers need to be paid additional money to make that a reality.
Joseph Di Salvo
I enjoyed reading your article Joseph and could not help thinking about my teaching experience in Japan. I typed in the question “How many school days are there in Japan” and I came across an interesting article called ‘The Case for More School Days’ by Michael Barrett.
According to this article, Japan ranks 1st with 243 school days a year and the U.S. ranks 25th with 180. He also makes an interesting comment that I’m sure would spark a heated debate anywhere. He states:
Presumably, multinational counts of days of instruction will be refined, in time, to provide more detail. In the meantime, an observer might note several things about the list presented above. Highly ranked are Japan, West Germany, South Korea, and Israel, four nations noted for their discipline and drive. Hungary, an Eastern-bloc country whose quality of education has not received much attention in the West, also asks for a good deal of time from its students. Swaziland and Nigeria, members of the Third World, are reasonably demanding. And the United States, which has been known to celebrate its own capacity for discipline and drive, comes in near the bottom. Conceivably such an order of finish supports the cherished American idea that the Japanese have a deviant propensity to work harder than almost anyone else. In any event, it certainly supports the idea that Americans have a deviant propensity to work less than almost anyone else.
The Atlantic Monthly; November 1990; The Case for More School Days; Volume 266, No. 5; pages 78-106.
I agree that summer school is necessary for those who have fallen behind and completely eliminating such programs would hurt (academically) these students even more.
Instead of getting rid of summer school, why not make it longer than 20 days? Give students who really need the extra education, a more serious amount of time to improve. A majority of low performing students are also the economically disadvantaged students, so they would also benefit from the continued meals during summer.
With the economy struggling and parents being forced to go back to work or pick up another job, the children of our society are not only being left alone during the summer, but they are being left with no academic or self concept stimulation. Yes, there are children who have family members who step up and fill in where parents aren’t able to, but as Joe stated, “too many Santa Clara County children are home alone throughout the summertime days with empty refrigerators, and too much time with little enriching activity.” When kids are left to find their ‘way’, whether it is in a ‘good’ neighborhood or ‘bad’ neighborhood, the influence of other children and what is seen as cool or un cool will begin to weigh on that child.
I too agree, that the school year needs to be extend, but I’ve also always had the thought that summer school should be there for those who need to work on their academic progress, but also an option for those who ‘need’ it (for other reasons). Another alternative would be to ‘adjust’ the school year calendar; according to an article in the California Department of Education called Year Round Education Program Guide, “the loss of retention of information that occurs during the three-month summer vacation is minimized by the shorter, more frequent vacations that characterize year-round calendars. For those students without intellectual stimulation, enrichment, or reinforcement during the summer, summertime can be intellectually detrimental.” Like Joe stated, many children that are of lower income, less privileged children are left to fend for themselves and I believe it is our responsibility as a community to support the education of our future generations. If that means re- arranging something that was set… well forever ago, when kids got the summers off to work on the ‘farms and fields’ then that’s what needs to be done.
I agree, I think that the school year should be longer. We should adapt to more of a year-round calendar. It will help the students retain more information and to also give them some kind of enriching activity to do, during what would be “summer”, than to just sit around and play “games” all the time. A year-round calendar can be beneficial to almost everyone. Parents won’t have to find baby sitters for their children or leave them to fend for themselves during the time off from school. The students might not like the longer school year, but once it is in place, it will become normal and they would not think twice about it. And with adding more breaks for a shorter amount of time during the year-round school, might be more accommodating to families then one full summer off.
I agree with the article in respect to the positive effects that could result from an extended summer school program for students that have fallen behind in academics during the school year. However, I do believe from the multitude of students with whom I have come in contact in the U.S., Argentina, and Spain that extending the academic year by various days would deprive children of a principal aspect of their lives, the fond memories of their childhood. I am cognizant that important academic knowledge is often lost or forgotten during summer vacation, but it is also apparent to me that a myriad of familial memories and enduring friendships are also forged in these summer months.
If summer programs are truly a necessity for many of our poorer families, another possible program that could be implemented, with funding, would be classes that promote subjects that are commonly absent or neglected in public education in the U.S. Classes on art, languages, music, and types of life skills could greatly enrich children’s lives during the summer without imposing more of the same academics that they might be vehemently attempting to avoid.
When it comes down to it problems of inequity have existed for quite some time domestically and internationally in regard to children’s socioeconomic situations. Although it is difficult to postulate that all children from wealthy families exhibit major gains in academics during the summer months while all children from impoverished families show loses, it is conceivable that some harmful effects arise from major inequities between students’ backgrounds. Some of these disparate results between the two groups should be attributed to the parents of these children and the manner in which they present education and contribute to their child’s academic development. This situation, however, does not exempt each teacher, professional, and community member from participating fully in our children’s lives by providing them with mentors and opportunities whether private or public. I have had the opportunity to speak to various first generation immigrants to this country who have conveyed to me the gratitude that they feel for the opportunities that they are offered in the U.S. and for the aid which they receive from private and public institutions when in their home countries, they and their children would have gone without.
I agree that a long summer break and mediocre programs or camps do not fulfill the expectations for learning. As you said those expectations being great teachers, rigorous, and engaging lessons are not seen in these environments.
Many parents can not afford to enroll their children in summer programs and the children end up floating between family and friends’ houses which may not be the best environment for those students to be in. In these summer programs lasting relationships between mentors/teachers and students are also short and not long lasting.
I agree that a solutions to the problem could be to extend to school year. We should keep the students in a safe en enriched environment as long as we can.
Your idea of extending the school year is an interesting one. However, to say that the summer school is a waste of money seems inaccurate.
As an erstwhile teaching credential Intern I had the opportunity to work with a group of students in summer school two months ago. The teacher had some very useful tools to teach students Language Arts skills, such as Five Finger Summary, Magic Book and Jazzy Pages summaries. This time gave the children a chance to learn from a different teacher and get information from a new perspective. The activities involved multiple modalities to engage all the students.
I agree that children from privileged homes have an advantage in learning school skills in a different setting, but it is also the kind of setting that makes learning those skills not seem like work. All the different camp activities mentioned are fun activities that allow kids to be themselves outside of a school setting. How can that experience be given to underprivileged children?
Just to play the devil’s advocate I’d like to pose the scene if children do stay in school for another 20 days. What happens at the end of school year after all the testing is done? They get wiggly and their attention spans get shorter and shorter. Maybe that is in anticipation of the end of the school year, or that there are no more incentives to encourage intrinsic or extrinsic learning, or all of the above.
Two ideas come to mind from your article: trying the extended school year, research the results over multiple years, and promote programs for needy students to come out of their shells and give them opportunities to try new things like camping, horse riding and day camp.
Mr. DiSalvo your suggestion is a great idea and would be beneficial for both students and teachers. I believe that the solution lies somewhere between that, and year round schools. The increase in teacher’s salaries is obviously long overdue but would be appropriate. Before a solution is reached we need to address the issue of hungry, unengaged kids being left alone all summer long. We need to give the low income children a chance to bridge the gap, giving them the opportunities that wealthy children are used to every summer (in the form of various daycamps/programs.)
Not only will a longer school year benefit all students academically, but the low income students will be provided with a healthy meal on those days as well. Perhaps the increase in teacher’s salaries could be minimal in the beginning, and if the program seems to have good effect, then it could be raised again. Why aren’t there summer camps and programs available to the low income students and children???
I volunteered at an after-school program in a Chicago suburb that was for kids below a certain income level. During the school year they attended the free program after school where they were given help with homework. The program also had all-day programs during school vacations like spring break, and I am under the impression that they had a summer program as well. Do we have similar programs in California?
As long as money is tight, we may be able to make a larger difference supporting more substantial programs for the bottom 10% rather than small changes (ie: 20 more days of school a year) for the entire school population.
I agree with the idea of extending the school year, especially in this country were in many families both parents have to work , and it limits their time to take care of their children. Plus longer school years can help fulfill the learning expectations. But most important, it gives students the opportunity to benefit from all the programs schools provide, including the free healthy meal; instead of being home alone or taking care of younger siblings.
Thanks for this lovely post…:)