07/05/01: Phila year-round school

[Freakapotimus]

Phila. school a pilot for year-round classes
By Susan Snyder INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

While most youngsters spent yesterday preparing to celebrate the Fourth of July, students at Grover Washington Jr. Middle School were back at the books - just two and a half weeks after they closed them.

At Grover Washington, the only public school in the region with a full year-round calendar, the new school term got under way.

The city school is part of a growing movement nationwide designed to cut down on summer learning loss, give struggling students help before they fall too far behind, and cope with crowded classes by making fuller use of buildings.

"Let's go! School's started. Let's go!" bellowed administrator Elton K.L. Evans 3d as a solemn-faced latecomer ambled toward the schoolhouse door shortly before 8:30 a.m.

"That extra bowl of cereal in the morning, flicking the remote - no more. Now it's getting your books together and making sure your uniform's intact," said Evans, school community-relations liaison.

Lamented eighth grader Charma Beverly: "Any other time, I get up at 11 a.m."

But for every sour one, there were just as many - if not more - students who were happy about the pre-Independence Day return.

"At school, it's fun and I get to learn more. At home, I can't do anything. I watch TV," sixth grader Samantha Mesa said.

"It's cool," said seventh grader Troye Johnson. "We've got TVs, nice computers."

"A.C. [air conditioning], too," said seventh grader Tony Trinh, who woke up at 4 a.m. with excitement and couldn't go back to sleep.

Grover Washington - a fifth-to-eighth-grade school at B Street and Olney Avenue in Olney - began its year-round program last year. All students attended on the same schedule, beginning July 31.

This year, the school has converted to a new system in which students are divided into four tracks - all on different schedules. At any time, one of the tracks is on vacation, allowing the school to expand its accommodations from 1,000 students to more than 1,300. It allowed the school to add the eighth grade this year. The plan is designed to alleviate crowding in schools and reduce the need to bus students out.

The conversion to the new schedule meant starting classes almost a month earlier than last year. Some students apparently weren't ready to comply. Attendance was only 60 percent yesterday, which disappointed principal Michael Rosenberg.

"We're going through a culture change," he said. "July 31 is a little bit different than starting off two and a half weeks after school just ended. It's certainly taking its toll."

But he pointed out that attendance was low at the beginning of last year and built to an average of 91.3 percent - higher than the district's average for middle schools of 87.8 percent.

Under the multitrack system, more than 200 students were due to start class yesterday. By tomorrow, three tracks with about 800 of the school's 1,110 students are scheduled to be in session, with the fourth track to start at the end of July.

Once in full swing, students in each track will attend classes for roughly 45 days and then have a 15-day break. Students are required to attend school the same 181 days as their counterparts elsewhere in the Philadelphia system, but those who are failing also can take classes during vacation breaks, called intersessions.

At Grover Washington, school officials said last year's intersession helped contribute to a low failure rate.

Only five of 828 students - well under 1 percent - were not promoted to the next grade, Rosenberg said. The district failure rate for middle schools is about 5 percent.

"The kids had more continuity of instruction, less stopping and starting, and the ability to receive timely support [during intersessions]," he said.

First-year standardized-test scores were not available for analysis.

All but six of the school's 48 teachers chose to remain at the school. The school also added 12 new positions with the expansion to eighth grade.

"I really like the philosophy of year-round education. There's not so much information lost," said Brenda Bodner, a returning math and science teacher.

She also likes her vacations spread throughout the year.

School officials said they would gauge the success of Grover Washington's program before deciding whether to start others.

Year-round education has been most prevalent in states such as California and growing exponentially in others, including Kentucky and North Carolina, says the San Diego-based National Association for Year-Round Education. Growth has been slowest in the Northeast.

This year, more than 3,000 schools used year-round or extended calendars of at least 200 days, said Marilyn Stenvall, the association's executive director.

Pennsylvania has 13 schools with year-round programs or extended calendars, while New Jersey has seven. That includes several charters in the region with extended school years.

Most research shows that students make academic gains on year-round calendars, and the gains are greatest in schools with students from low-income families, according to the Denver-based Education Commission of the States. At Grover Washington, about 70 percent are from low-income families.

A year-round calendar reduces the summer learning gap, which is especially important for students from homes without many educational resources, according to the commission.

But not all schools that try it retain it. Seventeen percent convert back to a traditional school year, the association reported last year. In Texas, for example, the movement has dropped sharply, said Ron Bradford of the Texas Education Agency. He said districts found no strong data linking the calendar to improved learning.

Opponents of year-round education have expressed concerns about finding day care under an unusual school schedule, the need for students to work summer jobs, and the problems created when a family has children on different calendars.

Susan Snyder's e-mail address is [e-mail].

© Philadelphia Newspapers Inc.

[shorbe]

I think it's also dodgy that people are talking as though education is like a factory, and productivity is lost, especially for younger children. I think people need to be careful they don't rob children of their childhood.

shorbe

[Slizor]

"At school, it's fun and I get to learn more. At home, I can't do anything. I watch TV," sixth grader Samantha Mesa said.

"It's cool," said seventh grader Troye Johnson. "We've got TVs, nice computers."

"A.C. [air conditioning], too," said seventh grader Tony Trinh, who woke up at 4 a.m. with excitement and couldn't go back to sleep.

As we can see Philly's youth is full of drug abusers.

[Adambomb]

Wow. that would suck. Glad I don't live in Philadelphia or go to school.

[Jonny-Alpha]

The situation in "good" old blighty is that summer holidays last around six weeks. The typical break would start around 24th July and finish around 4th September.
There has been talk of splitting this, and making it four weeks in summer and four weeks at christmas, as opposed to two. Nothing has been set in stone as yet. So looks like I'm stuck with my brother for the 6 weeks again.
Still, I know that if they'd have done it while I was at school, I'd have made the teachers life a complete misery.

[ThunderBolt2001]

I'm glad that I don't go to that school. Anyway that kind of all year round school isn't going to go over well in some places. I think that the all year round schools are going to start a wave of shootings. But hopefully they won't start shootings and they also won't make more of those schools.

[ThunderBolt2001]

P.S. I am against school shootings. I DON'T want another Colombine tradgedy. So don't think that I didn't feel bad about what happened there.

[Morextremist]

They extended the high school day by 40 minutes starting this fall. I'm glad I graduated this year.