School deadline has issue

By Laura Lively Charlton Special to Sand Mountain Reporter

November 11, 2003

Within the upcoming week, the State Board of Education can make hundreds of thousands of Alabama students, their parents and teachers happy by setting a reasonable guideline for starting the school year. Or, they can keep some misguided and perhaps shortsighted school boards and district administrators happy while potentially costing the state millions in federal funding for education.

It all revolves around a simple question: Should Alabama children return to class earlier than Aug. 21?

The answer is no. The start of the school year has crept closer and closer to the first of August for the past few years.

It’s been the cause of increasing concern and frustration among the public.

Last year, more than 30,000 Alabama children returned to class in July and 98 percent of students statewide were back in class before Aug. 15.

School can begin on or about Aug. 21. The first semester can still end prior to the winter break with a calendar that observes the traditional holidays.

Research shows that early school start dates don’t help academic performance.

Actually, the states with the highest average scores on the American College Test, one of the nation’s most widely used college entrance exams, began academic instruction in late August or early September.

One of the top Alabama school districts, Mountain Brook City Schools, has a steep tradition of beginning school in late August.

But parental complaints about the late July and early August school start dates are not the most compelling reasons that the State Board of Education is contemplating setting a school start date.

It is because most Alabama schools have been unable to comply with federal education guidelines outlined in the No Child Left Behind Act.

According to Dr. Joe Morton, Deputy State Superintendent of Education, we will likely lose millions of dollars in federal education funding if we don’t comply with the act.

The No Child Left Behind Act, a set of sweeping education reforms that, for the first time, recognizes the importance of parents as partners in the education system. It also recognizes that teachers cannot be expected to increase academic performance year after year without being given time to properly review test scores and make needed instructional changes.

Like it or not, standardized testing is a fact of life in our schools today. The No Child Left Behind Act requires all students to be tested, with the results compiled and presented to parents in a formal report no later than the first day of school.

The law also says teachers should have time to use that information to better their teaching curriculum and daily lesson plans.

Teachers need time to study test data from their class the previous year and from the new students starting school that year.

This way, they can make adjustments to their curriculum to play off students’ strengths and improve on their weaknesses.