Wanted: a longer school year

[Originally published in Woodbury Bulletin on 9/5/2007]

I was glad my kids were finally back to school again yesterday. After three months of long summer break with VBS, RKK, vacation, and staying with friends, life is back to normal again with structure and routine. This was the day I had been looking forward to.

My kids were happy to go back to school themselves. There were excited to find out who their new teachers and classmates are.

I wish the school year could be longer and the summer break could be shorter.

The tradition of short school years dates all the way back to the 18th century, when America was a labor-intensive farming nation. The young people were needed at home to work and help out. That is no longer true.
I think the school years or school days should be expanded.

On average, U.S. students go to school 6.5 hours a day, 180 days a year. Other countries' school years are much longer: China's lasts 251 days, Japan's is 243 days, and German’s is 240 days.

Minnesota has no statewide mandatory number of school days. Each district sets its own calendar with a general average of 170 to 175 days. Minnesota students spend on average 172 days in the classroom, below the national average.

There are many benefits of having longer school years or days.

Students will have more structured learning time which will improve their academic performance.

Findings from international achievement surveys show that American students achieve poorly compared to those in other economically advanced countries.

Today’s competitive world economy requires that students in the United States receive education and training that is at least as rigorous as those received by their counterparts in other countries.

I think our students' lack of formal schooling contributes to the unfavorable results. Extending school years or days is one way to increase learning and improve academic achievement.

Now state and federal governments have more rigorous academic standards. In order to master tougher materials and meet higher standards, students need more structured learning time in school.

Increased learning time will enable students to participate in quality academic programs such as learning a world language. The earlier the students start learning a foreign language, the better it is.

Extending school years and days not only allows more learning time in classrooms, enables schools to offer an array of enrichment activities, it also gives teachers more time for planning and professional development.

Over the summer months, many students not only fail to advance academically, but they forget much of what they had learned during the previous school year. Shorter summer break will help them retain more of what they had learned.

Minnesota has the highest rate of women in the workforce in the nation. Extended school years and days will put less pressure on working parents. It will relieve them from the burdens of having to find alternative day care and activity options for their children while they go to work.

Parents will have fewer worries because they know their children are involved in constructive learning.

Currently, there are many children who are left on their own after school without adult supervision, because their parents are still at work.

I know there will be many objections to extending the school years or school days, from businesses that profit greatly from no school days to policymakers who are already burdened with funding constraints, from teachers who enjoy the long summer breaks to parents who think their children are already being too busy with activities.

But it's time to leave the tradition behind that no longer serves its purpose. We need to look forward and do what’s good for our children, our families and our country.

Let’s bring the District’s school year up to 21st-century standards before we demand our students to meet higher academic standards.