Last week, as the school board considered renewing the superintendent’s contract, two Black board members complained about how the district is failing black students academically. They wanted to know what he planned to do to improve.
Dr. Brent Vidrine’s response was revealing. He did not deny the claim that black students are failing miserably in English, Math, Science, and History, averaging only 15 on the ACT exam. He ticked off a long list of programs in place addressing the failures, programs that have not worked. Most interesting, he offered no new or innovative plans to change outcomes for Black students.
However, there are many things the superintendent could do that could make a difference. In the context of this column, space will only allow limited treatment of alternative approaches, but there is sufficient space to look at one area: The district needs to revisit the school calendar to reduce interruptions due to breaks and Professional Development Days.
Frequent breaks and vacation schedules that interrupt instruction can negatively impact student performance and disrupt the learning environment. The district has a calendar sprinkled with breaks and vacations that happen within teaching units instead of after them. In addition, its calendar loses an entire month of measurable instruction in May as schools play school after all standardized tests are completed, and the end of school and graduations unfold.
The district needs an academic calendar that prioritizes instruction and minimizes interruptions. This means scheduling breaks strategically to avoid important academic periods, reducing the number of days off, and offering alternative educational opportunities during vacation periods.
A peek at the 2023-24 proposed school calendar proves the point.
The district calendar uses a nine-week model that is frequently interrupted with breaks. The school will begin on August 14, but 15 days later, there is a break for Labor Day.
Twenty-four days later, a five-day Fall break will begin on October 9.
Three days after returning from the five-day fall break, the 1st nine-week period will end on October 19.
Classes will resume for eight days, and then there is a one-day break for students on October 27.
Nine days later, there is a veteran’s Day break.
Five days later, there is a five-day Thanksgiving break on November 20.
Two and a half weeks later, there is a ten-day Christmas break on December 4, a King Day break on January 15, a PD break on February 16, and a President’s Day break on February 19.
The first time students will get 20 days of uninterrupted instruction will be in February of 2024, followed by a 5-day spring break on March 25 and an after-Easter one-day break two days later on April 1.
Classes will resume on April 2, but actual instruction will be diminished as the district focuses on state tests in April. The entire month of May will not be reflected in achievement scores for the year because state tests will be over. In April, teachers will remove all charts, maps, or anything that indicates learning from their walls in preparation for state tests. Once testing has finished, most will finish out the school year with bare walls and bulletin boards.
In May, schools focus on graduations, field trips, watching videos in class, and general babysitting until school ends on May 23.
On paper, the students will have 180 days of uninterrupted instruction, but the school schedule includes so many interruptions its almost impossible to keep a steady educational flow. Ironically, many athletic teams ignore the breaks and schedule practices during the holidays because frequent breaks interrupt their training.
The school board routinely approves these intrusive calendars each year without comment.
Dr. Vidrine ticks off the long list of programs the district is doing to address poor student performance among minorities, but poor intrusive scheduling is not on his radar. None of his programs have changed the outcome for failing students, mostly because they ignore the obvious.
Each year the school routinely adopts another disruptive school schedule.
By doing so, it contributes to the continuation of the problem.
