Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, August 12, 1994                   TAG: 9408120066
SECTION: EDITORIAL                    PAGE: A12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

BACK TO SCHOOL - YEAR-ROUND?

Let's see now: Where did they leave off? In nearly three months, it's easy to forget.

That's one reason why more school divisions around the country are moving to a year-round school schedule. Students' learning retention seems to improve, whereas teachers in traditional nine-month schools have to spend the first several weeks each fall reviewing material covered the previous year.

The trend toward year-round schools, or other schedules extended beyond the required 180 days, has not caught on in Virginia except in tiny Buena Vista, which has had voluntary year-round schooling since 1973.

Several school divisions, including Montgomery County's, have considered it but have run into strong citizen opposition - usually the result of anti-tax sentiment.

Granted, year-round schools come with a price tag. More school buildings have to be air-conditioned. Teachers' salaries inevitably have to be raised. Them's fighting words for many taxpayers, already disgruntled that ever-rising school budgets have not produced proportionate returns in students' educational achievements.

But that only underscores the fact that current spending isn't for maximum efficiency. School buildings, for instance, represent a multibillion-dollar taxpayer investment. Yet, what with weekends, holidays and summer vacations, they sit empty for more of the year than they are used.

Worse, when schools are kept closed for much of the year, many students' minds close, too. Or they close, at least, to academics.

The most compelling argument for year-round schools is that American public education continues to produce students who aren't well prepared to compete in the global economy - in part because they're not getting enough schooling.

Earlier this year, a federal commission reported that American students spend less than half as much time studying the core subjects of math, reading, history and science as do students in France, Germany and Japan.

That report helped give sail to year-round movements in some states, including North Carolina. All told, 1.4 million U.S. students are now enrolled in year-round public schools - including some that have copied Japan's 240-day schedule - and many of these schools are seeing dramatically improved test scores.

To be sure, the correlation between time in school and academic achievement is not straightforward. What students do while they're in class is still the most important factor, and the one in greatest need of improvement.

Nonetheless, Virginia's 180-day schedule is an anachronism, a remnant of a time when kids were needed on the farms in summer to help bring in the crops. Lifestyles today are different. Even in many farming families, both parents now hold outside jobs.

It's time for the state and local school divisions - rural, urban and suburban - to give new and serious consideration to a longer school year. The potential benefits hold too much promise to keep knocking it without trying it.