Irving Berling wrote the song Heat Wave with the lyrics We’re having a heat wave. A tropical heat wave. The temperature is rising. It isn’t surprising.
No, it’s not surprising in Phoenix in the summer. However what is surprising, shocking actually, is that educrats seem to think it is acceptable to force children back to school in the middle of summer.
As of July 31 Phoenix had set a record of 31 consecutive days over 110° with a new excessive heat advisory being issued on Friday. The headlines are full of stories about the dangers of the extreme heat we’ve been enduring and yet our children are ordered back into school.
While I realize the school calendars were approved long before this heat wave it should be no surprise that, as Charles Barkley once stated in an interview “Phoenix is hot. Do you want the 5-day forecast? It’s hot, hot, hot, hot, hot!” Maybe it’s me but 100°+ days seem to become more oppressive in August than in June when a school year that starts in late August or early September would end.
In addition to the obvious health dangers of excessive heat, AZ law requires students in grades K-5 to have two recesses per school day for obvious reasons. One can’t help but wonder how effective recess will be when children aren’t allowed outside for days on end. What impact will corralling children inside school all day have on learning and discipline? Or worse yet, what if heaven forbid a school/district were to disregard the advisories and allows children outside for recess in this excessive heat? Well, that borders on abuse IMHO.
When my daughter began kindergarten, granted back in the 1990s, the school year began after Labor Day which was reasonable given the heat of the valley summer.
When I served on the Peoria USD governing board we had a committee, predominantly comprised of employees, to recommend annual calendars to the board. The start dates proposed for the three sample calendars brought to the board were like having a choice at Culver’s of vanilla, vanilla bean and French vanilla ice cream – virtually no difference and were moving earlier and earlier into August each time presented. The excuse at the time for the August start was so that teachers were able to take courses over the summer for their continuing education credits. Although universities’ summer schedules did not seem to substantiate that excuse – then or now.
Over the years educrats have been creeping the beginning of the school year earlier and earlier until now some districts begin in July. Chandler USD had students return to school on July 19th.
Moreover what I find disappointing is that charter schools, at least the large chains, intended to give parents alternatives from traditional government schools, are all following along with this ridiculously early start.
The $64K question is why? I have a couple theories.
The first being that perhaps for whatever reason educrats are trying to push towards a year-round calendar reducing the longer summer break for more, shorter breaks throughout the school year. Arguments have long been made about the “learning loss” that occurs over the summer. But students must first actually acquire knowledge before they can lose it. It takes nothing more than a look at the AZ School Report Cards to realize more than a majority of students overall (60% ELA; 67% Math) aren’t acquiring the requisite knowledge in the first place. Nonetheless a shorter break in the summer will still result in instructional time being designated for “review” upon return as, in all likelihood, will the more numerous breaks being added throughout a year-round schedule.
My second theory which in my opinion is more likely, is that districts are moving the start date earlier and earlier to allow for more instructional time before the state-wide testing begins. I presume with the hopes of improving the absolute abysmal test results posted by a majority of our students in virtually all districts across the state.
The testing window is open for the month of April (in 2024 it opens April 1st until April 10th for paper-based testing and until April 26th for computer based testing). It is federal and state mandated testing the results of which are used for the Feds data collection, AZ School Report Cards, School Letter Grades, may be a factor in performance pay and more. Admittedly I have never been a fan of AIMs or AZMerit or the current AASA (AZ Academic Standards Assessment) nor likely whatever the next iteration will be. I have always questioned if testing is truly designed to impact an individual student’s academic achievement or rather than to line the pockets of testing companies, publishers, education program developers and education non-profits that use their great ideas about “student improvement” for their endless fundraising.
The testing is aligned to the state standards therefore the material must be learned before the testing begins. And while educrats will not admit it, the reality is for all intent and purposes education essentially ends for the school year once the testing ends. What’s the point of teaching standards after the testing is complete? Therefore, again IMHO since it is unlikely that testing will ever be eliminated, the testing window should be during the last month of school and as close to the end of the school year as absolutely possible so to allow for as much instructional time prior to testing. Without starting school in the dead of summer or losing weeks of instruction at the end.
Rather than Heat Wave our children should be singing the lyrics to the song written by Sid Wayne and Sherman Edwards – See you in September. See you when the summer’s through.