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I've said it before and I'll continue beating my drum until the paradigm shifts, the school year needs to be all year round, with compulsory education ending at age 16. Those children who actually WANT an education and WANT to learn will continue their academic studies, those who opt for a trade, should enter an apprenticeship program with an eduction tailored toward their chosen occupation. This is what Finland does, the number one school system in the world for the past 12 years. The school year could actually begin the second week of July, go for 9 weeks, followed by a two-week break, then run another 9 weeks, followed by a 6-week break for Christmas and Thanksgiving. School would reconvene in January, run another 9 weeks, then take 2 weeks off for Spring Break, reconvene again at the end of March and run for 9 weeks, until Memorial Day weekend. Then school would take a 6-week hiatus through the 4th of July for Summer Break. With this schedule, students would be subjected to fewer breaks to interrupt their continuity, they would get much-needed breaks between semesters, and they would still get most of their major holidays off, including a 6-week Thanksgiving and Christmas break. The only real drawback would be for school like the one I teach at, which still has no air conditioning!

I wholeheartedly agree with you that adding or subtracting days from Hawaii's school year will make a difference. I live in Hawaii. The biggest problem is that it is a state run school system with an enormous bureaucracy. Change comes slowly if at all. That combined with a large immigrant population (poverty and language barriers), a large military population (transient) and a large private school presence and you have a recipe for low performance. They (the powers that be) want quick, easy fixes. They need total transformation.

Hi Maurice,
Not so long ago, it was Oregon--my home state--that was in the national spotlight for cutting school days. Our shuttered schools were the subject of jokes from late-night talk show hosts. We even got satirized in Doonesbury.
Things improved for a while, as chagrined voters and legislators found the will to improve school funding. But the current recession is putting the squeeze on school budgets all over again.
This boom-or-bust approach fails everyone. You suggest that we need to change the way our schools "greet, value, and inspire students," and that's a good start. But we also need to strengthen the bonds between school and community. Projects that connect kids and community members offer an ideal place to invest instructional time. Real-world projects give students authentic, meaningful problems to solve, and also remind community members (i.e., voters) that our young people are a resource worth supporting.

I think that you are completely correct. Seventeen more or less school days will not significantly influence an ineffective school system. You write, "It could propel those leaders to embrace the growing research on the academic benefits of student engagement, project learning, service learning, and safe and supportive school climates where teachers are empowered to be creative in their instruction while still following curriculum goals."

I could agree more. At the beginning of the Twenty First Century this kind of thinking might also consider the incredible opportunities offered by advanced technology.

Andrew Pass
http://www.pass-ed.com

Suzie, thank you for adding your constructive suggestion and making the point that while greeting, etc., is important, many more related approaches are both needed- and available- to make the kind of comprehensive change that you and others who have commented on this blog believe are needed.

Mr. Wilber (or anyone else who could possibly answer),

You mentioned some of the logistical happenings in Finnish schools, but do you know what else they are doing to achieve the number one ranking? What kind of curriculum approaches are used in schools? Idealist? Constructivist? Are parents and community members heavily involved in the schools?

I ask because I think that simply implementing a year round schedule might help some, especially initially, but wouldn't be significantly effective unless other changes are made to the inherent fundamentals of our schools.

Great post, Mr. Elias!

Shortening the school year by 17 days won't make a difference because the problem is much deeper. I lived in Hawaii for 4 years as a military spouse and at the time I was looking to get my degree in teaching. I knew right away that there was not way I would teach in Hawaii. The reason for that is because the teachers are not paid well. Of course, teachers aren't paid like they should be in any state, but Hawaii is just ridiculous. It is very expensive to live there and Hawaii has no hope of recruiting teachers to move there, or stay there if they cannot pay the teachers enough to live. I also lived there when the teachers (and nurses) went on strike. Now that should tell you something. In response to Lynne: you cannot blame immigrant students, military children or anything else. A lot of states have that type of population and they still do well.