By Emmelie De La Cruz
At Neval Thomas Elementary School, Mayor Vincent Gray joined by Chancellor Kaya Henderson announced the winners of the Proving What’s Possible grant funds to encourage innovation and dramatically improve student achievement in public schools.
With 85 percent of the $10 million dollar going to the 40 lowest performing schools in the District, the Chancellor and Mayor are looking to use technology in a creative way, increase STEM education, and foster innovation to heavily increase student academic gains.
But perhaps the most striking among the Proving What’s Possible initiatives, is the extended school day in 13 public schools including CW Harris Elementary, Dunbar High School, Malcom X Elementary School, Kelly Miller Middle School, and Tyler Elementary School.
During the press conference, Chancellor Henderson confirmed that these schools will serve as pilot runs before taking the extended school day system-wide. According to Henderson, parents and teachers are supportive of this initiative and DCPS will work with the Washington Teachers’ Union to ensure compliance with the teachers’ contract.
The push for an extended school day according to Mayor Gray, comes from the inability to complete all education during the normal day. The extended school day will allow for other kinds of learning.
As a DCPS teacher, what do you think of the idea of an extended school day?
Share your thoughts in a comment below, on Facebook or Twitter
As a DCPS teacher, I would like to see how many teachers actually approve of extended day. I don’t approve of it. Until DCPS puts SOME responsibility of children’s learning on parents and the children, extended day and any other “hat tricks” will not be successful. Money is not going to cut it either. smh
That is an excellent point. Parents should become more involved in their children’s education and the extended day can also help academics. An interesting fact: In a recent Gates Foundation survey of 10,000 teachers nationwide, 98 percent said family involvement and support have a strong or very strong impact on improving academic achievement.
I agree 100% with you. For the longest while I was saying what is the parent doing to help. They are the ones to invest in their children’s future. Teachers among other things feel the brunt of 1. politicans some of whom do not have an inkling of what it takes 2. some of those who are at 1200 First street, many of them think that data can produce results, 3.MEs who are recuited from all over america and do not know anything about inner city kids.
It”s time to get real. Parents are their child’s first teacher. Hold them responsibleespecially those who are not gainfully employed.
The extened day is just a gimmick for the chancellor and her handlers. If a student does not take responsibility for his/her education, no additional time will help. Parents should be the ones’ to provide additional learning for his or her child. Teachers already are over burdened with Impact and the complete disrespect from some members of the public.
I already have an extended day – due to the work I do when students are NOT in school. This work includes lesson planning, grading assignments, and in my case (I’m a school librarian) having children visit the library to read, borrow, work on the computers…not to mention the administrative tasks like cataloging, circulating, shelving, and inventorying books to support the literacy needs of my students and staff in the building. I do NOT want to add to the day unless library staffing were to increase as well – something I don’t think will be happening anytime soon!
Of course, if we are given the option of an extended day for a higher salary, that would be worth considering. But wouldn’t it be politically difficult to have mixed buildings – where some teachers choose yes and others choose no?
In all honesty, as a teacher in one of the previously mentioned schools, we already perform “extended school day.” Many of my colleagues and I voluntarily stay late daily helping our students with tutoring, extracurricular activities that often begin with some sort of study hall, and planning. My work day starts at 8, but often ends at 6:30 or 7, and I do it because I really want to see my students grow academically and as people. It helps that I am young with no kids of my own, too.
Thank you Mr. Walker for this comment. We appreciate all DCPS teachers that go the extra mile for our students.
It’s quality of education, not the quantity of time spent in the classroom. There is an exorbitant amount of instructional time wasted on trying to manage one or two students who have consistent violent outbursts that disrupt instruction for everyone. Teachers receive little support from administration and the cycle of lost instructional time continues. This combined with the interim assessments, pre-interim assessments, A-Net assessments and weeks of test prep before each assessment eats up a quarter of quality instructional time during the school year. Students are learning how to test instead of content rich academics. Adding a longer day for teachers and forcing kids to do more test prep and worksheets will serve the opposite purpose. Teachers will come in less energized and prepared the next day, thus less able to inspire students and kids will learn to hate school. Cut out the teaching to the test mentality and replace it with a focus on experiential learning (so kids are exposed to the experiences and complex academic vocabularies they lack at home), support teachers with difficult students by providing a socio-emotional curriculum built into the first part of the day, provide a curriculum with lesson plans for each day that teachers can adapt and make activities and centers for and offer clubs and the arts during the extended day to inspire our children. Do this and do it well and there is no need for an enforced extended day. It will beat morale into the ground, is a waste of time, money and everybody’s energy.
There are some excellent ideas here! Thank you for your passionate comment.
DCPS is cutting out experiential learning everywhere you look. Our students will become proficient test takers but they will lack real world experiences, not have outlets to explore there passions, and will be ill-prepared for the global community in which we live. Furthermore, DCPS is also cutting back on the mental health teams located in each building. Counselors, social workers, school psychologists, and SpEd coordinators are being excessed in record amounts, therefore schools that would most benefit from social-emotional lessons, individual and group counseling, and home visits will be at a greater disadvantage because teachers will have to take more and more time away for instruction to deal with defiant and disruptive students.
What are the 13 schools?
All 13 schools have not been identified. At the press conference we attended, only the schools named above were identified as having an extended school day for next academic year.
Extending the school hours will hinder many educators like me to go fulfill duties in other volunteer-community related services that we provide for the district, particularly athletics and team sports. The students at my school get extended learning time anyway. Over 50% of our scholars participate of the afterschool program in which they get the chance to complete their reading logs and math homework. Extended day looks like less time for educators to go back to take care of their families and community duties. Let’s start the day earlier. This is the school system in the DC Metro area that probably starts the latest in the day. We have students showing up at 9am to start classes by 9:15am. My own children go to school in another public school system nearby that and they have to be in school by 8:00am. I propose to start the day with students coming into the building by 8am and end the school day at 3:15pm. That gives students an extra hour of work at the best time for the brain to be fresh and ready to produce which is early in the morning. The brain gets tired after a day of full of academic rigors. Extending the day in the afternoon does not guarantee increased learning. On the other hand teachers can be required to be in school by 7:30am and leave by 3:15pm.The earlier we start the better for all.
I like the way you think!
Will opening the gym for longer hours make people more in shape? Will keeping the public library til midnight make people read more? Will keeping a bank open 24 hours make people save more money? Will someone come in office, stand up and point the fingers at parents please!? NO, because parents vote.