Learning expensive and, apparently, quite transitory

In the Journal, link, this morning, a report on the proposed APS school calendar for next year.

Of significance, spring break, which usually precedes high stakes standardized testing, will take place after the testing is completed.  The logic; the longer you wait before administering the tests, the better students will do.  If anyone ever explained why the tests aren't given at the end of the year, I must have missed it.

The other rationale for testing before, as opposed to after, a break is, so much of what was "learned" will be forgotten over the week between teaching and testing, test scores will fall significantly.

Reporter Hailey Heinz wrote;

A key rationale for the change is that spring break is currently held right before the state-mandated time period for standardized testing. The idea is that students forget key content during a break ...

Role Modeling the Pillar of Respect

My impression is, that key rationale was explained to her by School Board Member and batterer Kathy Korte.

The rationale guides the decision making that places the winter break between semesters and not in front of first semester finals.

We are paying more than a billion dollars a year for learning, a significant part of which evaporates over two weeks.

It is time to rethink the paradigm.
Maybe following rigid calendars and timelines
isn't the most important thing after all.




photo Korte's Facebook