End of Feb vacay
Prospect schools (Region 16) are considering eliminating the traditional February vacation (WRA, by Emily Beaver) in an effort to improve mastery test scores.
Since the state mandated Connecticut Mastery Tests were moved to March in 2006, curriculum committee members thought February vacation was disruptive to learning prior to the test, said the board's chairman, David Byrne.I've been told by several educators that disruptions to learning (even small things such as a three day weekend) do have a noticeable detrimental impact on how well kids learn. So I think this is definitely worthy of, at least, a discussion.
Tim White
4 comments:
just shows you that its not about the kids....its about the scores...if they dont know something after a week off...did they ever have a good grasp of it? This is a prime example ofthe school needing the good scores...Dodd is offering after school classes to brush up for these tests....the better the scores, the better the admin feels about themselves...i would think with all the money we spend, they could learn everything they need during regular school times.
9:59 You're right, but I say let's get rid of Feb. vacation anyway or at least shorten it to a long weekend. Who needs all that time off with Christmas vacation and the April vacation. The teachers and kids will just have to wait until April to go to the Bahamas, etc. At least school could end early enough in June to avoid the heat.
If the Mastery tests were given in the form of a video gane I'm sure all of the liitle darlings will do well.
"just shows you that its not about the kids....its about the scores" good point. Because school should be about learning and learning how to learn... not about getting a high score on a particular mastery test.
As for vacations... skipping the point about the timing of mastery tests, I'd suggest keeping the Feb vacation and eliminating the April vacation.
Energy costs alone are a significant issue. Just this past week, I'm pretty sure that several schools closed as a result of the cold weather. So I'd say keep the Feb vacay and lose April.
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