Reader comments
Keep teaching through May

It is no wonder that homeschoolers can learn more in 3 hours than school students learn in an 8 hour day. The amount of wasted time in a students day and year are staggering. If schools effectively used the time they have students they would not even need to bring home work and could have more family time.

Grades for students have to be turned in one week before schools gets out so report cards can be given out. Book fines have to be turned in even before that. Teachers can't assess fines until the books are turned in. It doesn't take long for the kids to figure out that nothing done the last week and a half counts on their grades.

Simple solution...

Pay the teachers for two or three days AFTER the last day of school to do grades. Mail the report cards home like just about every other state in the union does.

Oh yeah, give the end of level testing at the END of the level. My son has a one semester science class in 7th grade. The took the test almost a whole MONTH before the end of the school year. From what I can figure a semester consists of about 90 days. They took the test with about 20 school days remaining. They still had over 20% of the semester left !!!

This issue comes up EVERY year. Paying the teachers a few extra days to do the paper work would solve the whole issue.

It's that frustrating time of year again. School is technically in session until the end of May, but some of the parents stopped sending their students to class two weeks ago. Close to 10% of my students are "out for vacation" during the last two weeks.

I think every class should have a test or project due during the last week (perhaps not the very last day, that may not be reasonable). If students aren't there for it, then they don't get the points, and their grade can suffer. Parents and students would soon get the message, and they'd be there.

As a teacher for six years, I found ways to be fairly productive up until the last couple of days. It wasn't always easy, because some other teachers quit requiring work. It's easier when there's more solidarity.

@5:27 As a high school teacher in Jordan School District, I didn't have to submit my grades until after all the students had signed their yearbooks and gone home. I don't know what the practices are elsewhere, but I assume it's the same.

As parents, one thing we can do is send an email to the teacher (and a cc to the principal) POLITELY expressing our concerns and observations.

Every student that reads this letter writer will politely ask you to keep your opinions to yourself!! Movies at the end of the year? Awesome!!

How about not so much testing did you know that over 4 weeks a year are spent on testing required by u.s. and state they don;t know what they are talking about government officials thats way to much

The school collected my kid's math book last week.

Don't lump all teachers in that category. Most, if not all, teachers at my school have given tests and assigned projects the second to the last week of school.

But as mentioned above, books are collected, fines have to be assessed, and grades must be submitted. Believe it or not, it actually takes a lot to run a classroom AND a school.

It would also help if students didn't have the 'school's almost out so let's not do anything' mentality.

Nut job.

It is easy to judge when you are on the outside looking in. Have you ever walked in our shoes??? Try teaching a class of 45 students. Try being judged by how well your students do on a test. Ignorance is bliss.

Alot of my Jr. High students think they know it all too---most of us have grown out of the mentality when we realize there is so much more to learn.

As far as the babysitting comment: home schooled students don't have to pass tests that prove they are being taught.

Sounds like my shoes are a little too big for your feet.