Obama plans to lengthen school year, days
Sophomores Jimmy Jarvis, Connor Bryan, and Nick Dawson study geometry in Sherri Grear's class.
October 9, 2009 • written by Margaret Cross
Filed under News
President Barack Obama believes America needs to step up its progress and ability in the academics area, and he plans to help the country do just that. However, the method he proposes has mixed reactions from citizens. Obama plans to lengthen how much time students spend in school both by hours in the day and by days in the year.
“The challenges of a new century demand more time in the classroom,” Obama said.
This not-so-popular plan seeks to place American students on a comparable aptitude level with students in foreign developed countries.
Obama even has research to back up his proposal. In the most recent Program for International Student Assessment, sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences, 15-year-olds from 30 countries worldwide took aptitude tests in reading, math, and science. The United States placed 17th overall—not even in the top 50th percentile of the group.
Chemistry teacher Trish Stephenson believes that America’s poor science and math skills can be attributed to the country’s focus on standardized test scores.
“I think that over the course of time, we have watered down our subjects,” Stephenson said. “The standardized tests don’t allow you to teach as thoroughly as you can.”
Stephenson and Principal Mac Hawkins both agree, however, that school should be longer.
“I think our school buildings should be in use year-round,” Hawkins said. “The President is taking an active interest in high school students and how well they do, and that should be welcomed by everybody.”
Secretary of Education Arne Duncan’s hope is that by lengthening school, students will be able to focus more on the subjects in which they are not doing so well.
“Young people in other countries are going to school 25, 30 percent longer than our students here,” Secretary of Education Arne Duncan said to the Associated Press. “I want to just level the playing field.”
In some parts of the country, the concept of more school is not so unusual. In the year 2006 the state of Massachusetts conducted an experiment to determine the results of a longer school day in ten public schools.
After staying in school 25 percent longer each day, the lower-percentile students scored between 5 and 12 percent higher on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (the equivalent of the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program, or TCAP).
Another reason behind the proposal of longer school is the structure of what the government thinks is an outdated holiday system.
“Our school calendar is based on the agrarian (agricultural) economy,” Duncan said, “and not too many of our kids are working the fields today.”
Even though to some people this plan might make perfect sense, many students do not want Obama to have his way.
“I think it makes sense, but I don’t think it’s going to make us any better or smarter or anything,” sophomore Amber Dalehite said. “I think we’re going to get the same education.”
Even the National Education Association—which is “the nation’s largest teachers union,” according to The Washington Post—opposes Obama’s proposal.
“We cannot support yet another layer of federal mandates that have little or no research base of success and that usurp state and local government’s responsibilities for public education,” the NEA said.
To the joy of many current students, Obama’s plan is not yet set in stone. However, with a little pushing in Congress, students a few years from now may be taking shorter summer breaks and fewer part-time jobs as a result of a longer school day.
From a student’s standpoint it would be both a benefit and a drawback. The increase in the number of days of school would have to be compensated by increasing the overall workload of the student, but breaks would be more frequent. I can honestly say that it how you look at it from a broad spectrum you can determine how you can feel about it . Short-term; More breaks= More Fun Long-term; Increase school days= More Work. Overall, it does appear like a decent idea.