Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, August 11, 1995 TAG: 9508110072
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOEL TURNER STAFF WRITER NOTE: Above
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Some Roanoke County students might trade their long summer break for shorter vacations throughout the year if a study committee's recommendation is approved.
The panel has proposed that county schools be permitted to rearrange their calendars so they could have a longer school year with many short breaks.
Superintendent Deanna Gordon said she supports the recommendation and will make a report to the board on the issue next month.
Under one possible schedule, students would attend school for nine weeks and be off for three weeks.
Under a second option, students would go to classes for 12 weeks and be out of school for four weeks.
Roanoke County is one of the first localities in Virginia to consider such a change.
David Blevins, chairman of the committee, said Thursday night that studies have shown that a revised schedule could boost academic achievement, improve attendance, reduce student and teacher burnout, and provide remedial help sooner for students needing it.
Blevins said the summer break of nearly three months is a relic from an era when the majority of families were involved in agriculture.
``No one believes the long summer break is good for student learning,'' he told the School Board. ``Nearly every industrialized nation in the world follows a much different schedule.''
Blevins, principal of Hidden Valley Junior High School, described the proposal as an ``extended school calendar'' that would distribute the 180 school days over 12 months.
He avoided the term ``year-round schools'' because he said some people misinterpret that to mean that students go to school the entire year.
The 30-member panel of school administrators, teachers and parents spent two years studying the issue and made visits to three school systems in North Carolina that use some type of extended school calendars.
Buena Vista is the only school system in Virginia that has a year-round program but it differs from the North Carolina plans, Blevins said.
Roanoke County has an opportunity to become a leader in Virginia in developing a schedule that will improve schools and student learning, he said.
The committee has recommended that individual schools be encouraged and permitted to develop a plan for an extended calendar. The staff and parents at each school should decide whether they want to make the change, he said.
Blevins said he doesn't foresee any major logistical problems that would be created if some schools opt for an extended calendar while others stay on the traditional schedule.
One North Carolina school system uses a dual track system with a traditional and extended calendar offered to students in kindergarten through eighth grade in each school. Students participate by choice on either calendar.
Another uses a magnet school concept in which selected schools operate on an extended calendar.
The extended schedule seems to improve student learning by eliminating ``learning downtime'' without extending the number of school days, Blevins said.
``If real changes to the American educational system are to take place, the structure of the school calendar will have to change,'' he said. ``Old ideas die hard, but we may need to begin the long process of bringing the school calendar in line with the mainstream of American needs.''
by CNB