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- Balanced calendar
Education fads have been a dime-a-dozen in recent decades, concepts like "Open
Classrooms," "the New Math, "the New New Math," "Fuzzy Math," "Brain-Based Learning,"
"Block Scheduling" "Whole Language," etc. Most were inflicted on students despite the
absence of any redeeming virtues, and most have been consigned to the scrap heap.
Now, however, another such concept looks like it may detour through Cobb on its way to
the junkyard: the "balanced calendar."
The balanced calendar is the first cousin of year-round schools and would distribute
vacation days throughout the school year rather than clumping them in the summer,
although it would have the same number of school days per year as the present calendar.
Honest people disagree on the merits of the balanced calendar, which has proponents in
Cobb school Superintendent Joe Redden and on the Cobb school board, though the three
board members who say they favor it add their support for the idea is not set in stone.
We hope not.
Advocates of year-round schools and balanced calendars argue that doing away with the
long summer learning gap would improve students' retention and end the need to spend
the first part of each school year reviewing what students forgot during the summer.
But arguments against such calendars are more persuasive.
Most importantly, there's no clear evidence that such calendars result in increased academic
performance. In fact, there's just as much documentation to show that they don't. For one
thing, punctuating the school year with numerous gaps merely increases the opportunities
for students to forget what they have just learned.
Moreover, many school systems that have switched to such calendars over the years wound
up reverting back to a traditional calendar. That has been the case in Los Angeles, Dade
County, Fla., Houston, Texas, Prince William County in suburban Washington, D.C., and
elsewhere. In fact, the national trend is away from such calendars.
Among the other problems with the idea is that utility costs would be much higher during the
hottest months of summer, and that hundreds of school buses would be spewing fumes
during the period when the area's air quality already is at its worst.
Then there are the disruptions in the local economy and on the home front. Tourism and
hospitality make up a sizeable portion of the Cobb economy, and both could be hurt by the
proposed calendar. Family travel (which is educational in its own right) would be sharply
curtailed in many instances, along with the related spending. Summer jobs would become
a thing of the past for many teens, many of who rely on their earnings to help pay their way
to college. The flip side of that coin is that many businesses that depend on teens as a
source of reliable and inexpensive seasonal labor would be hurt. An irregular school
calendar also would put more pressure on parents - especially those in middle and
lower income brackets - to come up with child care on those oddly spaced days and
weeks that school is out.
In short, such an overhaul of the school calendar is just one more fad, one more attack
on traditional tried-and-true methods of educating students. And as we reminded earlier,
very few such educational fads ever pan out. The saddest part thing about them is that
they typically do the most damage to the students who can least afford it. That is, students
from homes where education is a priority still likely will flourish. But the other kids - those
whose only chance for a better life rests on getting a good education from our public
schools - are apt to have that "last, best hope" sacrificed on the educrats' altar.
We don't doubt that Cobb educators are trying their hardest to improve our schools,
and they should be applauded for being willing to at least look at all options. But balanced
calendars look like a dud. The key to improving performance is not tinkering with the
calendar, but spending more time on the core curriculum and doing everything possible
to raise the academic bar.