Comments about ‘Schools nationwide cutting back on school days due to the budget, but not Utah’

No doubt the American education system needs a major overhaul. The way we're teaching kids just isn't effective in the modern world.

Lets move education into the 21st Century. Give every child a laptop when they enter 1st Grade, and replace it when they hit grade 8. Digitize everything. There go all your costs for textbooks, paper and copiers. Let the kids type their assignments and e-mail them into the teacher. Math problems can even be written out using a touch pad and stylus.

There are already tons of free educational resources available online. Wikipedia is a great learning tool as long as you stay away from political or popular culture topics.

Kids reading out of books published 20 years ago and writing with paper and pencil is so last century.

Let's have five 30-day terms, then two days of benchmark/finals, 2 days of conferences, and one day of teacher data entry/regrouping day at the end of the term without students.

That would equal 150 instructional days, plus 10 testing days and 10 conference days. Throw in a week of Utah Achievement Tests - THE LAST WEEK OF SCHOOL to truly get a picture of what was learned that academic school year. That equals 175. (180 counting the 5 teacher work days.) And once the kids are at school keep them longer - from 8 to 3;30 or 8:30 to 4. At my school, kids have 1 hour of recess (15 AM, 30 lunch, 15 PM) and 30 minutes of lunchroom time. Going from 8:30 to 3 - minus 90 minutes of non-instructional time leaves 5 hours of actual class time (including transition/passing time). Hmm-not enough in my opinion.

Not more days, just another hour of instruction divvied up throughout the day. And move the annual testing to the end of the academic school year - and tie it into promotion. No testing, no advancing to the next grade.

Three-five hour days per week would increase learning and save money. the rest is babysitting.

I actually agree with cutting down the number of school days. My kids are getting back to school August 22 this year, when it is still too hot to be inside a building without aircondition.
Our friends' children in Colorado had multiple snow days during the winter, were out of school one week earlier in May and don't get back to school until August 29. And still their schools rank above ours in comparable testing.
They accomplish that by holding meaningful classes until the end with end or term testing. The results get reported later in the summer. In comparison, my children spend their last 2 weeks on fun but pointless fieltrips and classroom game days.
It is quality that matters not quantity! Let the children play on their own time during a longer summer break and teach them when they are in school!

Note about Colorado schools - my kids went through Colorado schools most of their career so far - Colorado schools don't have comparable test to Utah's. In CO, they teach to the test, making the kids spend most of their time memorizing stuff to help them mark multiple choice answers. The result is that they can't think, just memorize. There is no imagination coming out of most CO schools. Also, their tests dont' even cover material as advanced as Utah's or Iowa's or Minnesota's or Connecticut's (which, by the way, are the states that have consistently had the highest graduation rates and college placement rates for 60 years).

Lets make ourselves more competitive by giving test in 8th grade. If the student doesn't pass the test, the student goes to vocational school and doesn't go to college. Then when we compare our test scores to the test scores of all the other countries we will be comparing apples to apples. Instead we educate and test every student in our classrooms. We make accomadations for testing, make sure everyone gets an "A" in class(social graduation)and we don't turn anyone away from our schools. I am not saying that is bad, just don't compare us to European or Asian schools when our systems are completely different. If we want to be like them, get ready for that test in 8th grade. Also get ready to hear every parent of students who don't pass yell and scream about how unfair the test is. Why do you think we have so many foreign students in our universities. Our schools have produced some of the best minds in the world, keep the politicians out of the classroom. They have done so well with the budget, I am not sure they should be managing anything else.

We don't have the money to lengthen the school year or school day and it is not fair to ask teachers to work longer without additional compensation. I would argue that the day is long enough already. Students struggle with the length of day currently. The big pink elephant in the room is parental involvement. Quality education is a three legged stool. The student the parent and the teacher. We have eliminated two of the legs from the stool and wonder why our stool keeps falling over. No matter what we do to that one leg (teachers) we cannot make it support the stool without the other two legs. Teachers can't (and shouldn't) replace parents. Parents and students must start carrying their weight in the education equation. Students who do well in school have parents that are active in their education in a positive way. Parents who read themselves and read to their children. Parents who provide quiet time and a quiet place to study and do homework etc. Parents who have high expectations of their children's effort in school. Putting all the burden on the teachers will never be the solution to the problem.

@ Delta Fox Trot:

Probably those laptops will be out of date in 8 years, heck in many ways laptops are out of date now. And teachers are using more technology than you might think right now.

And where is the money for all this? I guess we can lay off teachers and put 50 kids in a classroom but all will be okay because they have a laptop. I mean, the reasons districts want to cut days is because there aren't any resources.

I hear a lot of people for "local control" but local control usually means no local money.

Many teachers are for furlough days because it often does save the jobs of aides, bus drivers, secretaries and others who make schools function. Instead our state has mandated by not allowing furloughing ever larger classes and many losing their jobs. This isn't going to help education and will hurt education more than missing five days of school.

We have to decide whether our young people deserve more than education on the cheap.

Why is it ou school taxes go up every year and every year the schools have less money and need to make cuts? Something strange is happening on the state level. Give us more money they say and in the next sentence they announce all the cuts that will be taking place. Hmm, 1+1 doesn't equal 2 anymore. And these people are who we elect to be in charge of the education of our children.
Time for the KISS method (keep it simple stupid).

"Kids reading out of books published 20 years ago and writing with paper and pencil is so last century. "

Except that last century kids actually could read, write and do math. Perhaps it is time to return to the basics, including the paper and pencil?

Yet.

Thank you dsk for saying what I would have said--although let me emphasize that the US education system educates EVERY child!!! EVERY one--we don't segregate those whom we don't "want". We believe EVERY child should have a chance to have access to education (even though attitudes beyond access are far from perfect--which is one of the reasons why educational outcomes can be so far from integrated)--not just the "rich" ones, the "smart" ones, or the "special" ones.

As someone who now has a PHD--who only took 2 AP courses--and who was always in a mix of "general", "honors", and "AP" courses (typical or aka: average) I am beyond grateful that the US public and higher educational systems gives EVERYONE a chance--rather than basing everyone's future on the outcomes of 1 test!!!!

No money yet they will keep paying the Office of Professional Development to "develop" nothing as far as promoting teacher growth. It is no wonder the public/taxpapers are upset. And what of administrators and their high salaries they are stacked deep, do little or nothing to assist teachers and draw big money. They should downsize that area and increase their workload like teachers in certain departments have been forced to do. Education in Utah...a sad little job!!

Students need to carry their weight. I would guarantee that 80% of the students put little or no effort into their daily studies and then point the finger at the teacher as being the problem.

Newsjunkie, I wonder how in the world I was able to get a high school diploma with no air conditioning and it was a quality education where I went on received a BA and subsequently a MS. Yes, it is uncomfortable, but don't blame the lack of air conditioning for poor performance. American kids don't want an education bad enough to pay the cost of time needed to really learn a subject.

Who cares about our kids anyway?
Cancel school, fire all the teachers and sell the buildings at auction.
We can all just live in an illiterate nation and if we're lucky some sappy nation will come in and take care of us.

That seems to be where we're headed. We may as well do it and be done with it.

Over rated:

1. Multiple choice tests.
2. Group work.
3. Computers

Bring back research papers with footnotes (no print outs). Going to the library and checking out books. Students sitting in rows. Remember the good old traditional days?

Good! It's about time. Children don't need forty hours of schooling a week. It's a crazy habit. Fifteen hours is plenty.

@Worf: Except that's not how it works in college. And college is what we're preparing these kids for, right?

For the first two years of college those kids are going to be taking notes packed in a theater style classroom with 150-200 other students. After that things pare down some but if you are in a popular major you aren't ever going to see a class smaller than 50. Why do we think 20 or 30 kids is enough for public school teachers?

Start giving these kids responsibility and watch them improve. If they cut up in class, boot them out. When the bell rings close the door and lock it, no tardies. If they bully other children let the principal instill behavioral standards the old fashioned way, with a paddle to the back side.

The only reason kids are so rambunctious and disrespectful these days is because we let them get away with it.

As far as group work goes. Don't you work with a team of people every day to get your job done? Do you rely on your co-workers to handle certain tasks, or do you do everything yourself?

Group work teaches cooperation, communication and idea sharing. Concepts that are very important out in the real world.

Computers? Over rated? Give me a break. Our entire society functions on computers, welcome to the 21st Century. Most of us are so plugged in we can't function without our electronics. Might as well get the kids used to it. Worry less about writing and teach more typing. I can't tell you the last time I wrote anything besides my signature.

Just because many colleges put students in 500 students in an auditorium doesn't mean that's good teaching. And when you get to your major, most classes are smaller and that's probably where most good learning takes place in college. Saying smaller classes won't make a difference flies in the face of common sense. Probably the best way to learn is through an internship and mentorship, one on one teaching or small-group instruction.

At some level DeltaFoxtrot you make sense, there is some need for cooperative learning and technology in our schools, however, I'm not sure bringing back corporal punishment is going to make our schools any better. I think a big key to making our schools better is more investment, happier teachers, more involved parents. And again, what happens in colleges is actually lousy teaching and probably why so many people think college is overrated and not preparing our students for the real world.