Closure: Balanced calendar not coming to Ann Arbor schools any time soon
The Ann Arbor school board has washed its hands of the balanced calendar debate, abandoning a proposal to try out year-round classes with periodic breaks throughout the year.
Teacher-student interaction is key at the Scarlett-Mitchell Teaching and Learning Collaborative. Ann Arbor school board members decided not to waste any more time debating whether to enact a balanced calendar at the collaborative.
Chris Asadian I AnnArbor.com
But then, after exhausting their opinions and concurring with the administration’s hesitancy to move forward without more exploration, the trustees decided not to waste any additional time on the balanced calendar.
“I don’t want them to study it anymore,” said board President Deb Mexicotte referring to the administration. “I want them to put their efforts into these other things. … I don’t really think it’s worth heading down this path. I think we can do a lot more with instructional time right now to impact kids without the balanced calendar.
"And I’m not convinced that this level of destruction (from a new calendar) is going to give us more bang for our buck."
The balanced calendar idea was proposed back in 2010 in tandem with the Mitchell-Scarlett Teaching and Learning Collaborative, an interactive partnership between the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor’s Scarlett Middle School and Mitchell Elementary School.
The calendar originally was presented as an integral part of the collaborative’s program to improve student achievement. But since the program's launching in September, the university and AAPS staff already have seen improvements without using a balanced calendar approach, said Deputy Superintendent of Instruction Alesia Flye.
A balanced calendar, she explained, is essentially a school year with 180 days of instruction like a traditional calendar. The days just occur in a different order, eliminating the unproductive summer months.
Trustee Andy Thomas said given the information presented, it's not likely the district even could seriously consider this in the next two years, logistically or financially.
"I guess I was under the impression this was going to be cost neutral," he said, after Flye explained the significant start-up costs other schools saw with the calendar.
Flye’s recommendation to board members was if they wanted to pursue the calendar further, the district should put together a committee of administrators, teachers, support staff, union leaders, parents and students to study it and to determine whether a district-wide approach, cluster approach, school-by-school approach or an opt-in/opt-out approach would be best for all stakeholders.
Mexicotte said the board got too far away from the original concept of the calendar, which was intended solely for Mitchell and Scarlett. If the district decides to pursue a balanced calendar in the future, the concept should come back as part of the district’s strategic plan, achievement gap plan, discipline gap plan or another big-picture initiative, rather than as a single agenda item, the board decided.
"I'm not interested in it anymore," Mexicotte said. "The U-M partnership has already given us a lot of gains. They're OK with where they are at and have acknowledged it. And so (the balanced calendar) is not a hill I feel like we should die on, considering we’ve got all these other great hills to climb."
Superintendent Patricia Green was encouraged by Wednesday’s discussion, she said.
“These are the pieces that are starting to take hold and to come to life,” she said. “We are sharing the kinds of things we believe in. … There have been so many topics that have come to us from the board that we don’t have time to research and do what we want to bring forward because we are so busy doing what has come to us.”
One direction the board gave: “We have to get more time with our students if we are serious about competing with students on an international level,” Trustee Christine Stead said.
Fellow Trustee Simone Lightfoot said one way to do this would be to ensure more students have access to summer school. Thomas said another way would be to consider block scheduling at more schools and to ensure children have uninterrupted class time for reading and language arts.
Trustee Susan Baskett said although the balanced calendar report may have been a bit of a burden for the board and administration, they “owed it to the community.”
“It’s finished,” she said. “We’ve put closure on it.”
Staff reporter Danielle Arndt covers K-12 education for AnnArbor.com. Follow her on Twitter @DanielleArndt or email her at daniellearndt@annarbor.com.
Comments
thecompound
Fri, Apr 20, 2012 : 1:03 p.m.
What happened to the Roberto Clemente/school board meeting story with over 200 comments? I keep getting "page not found"??
Stephen Lange Ranzini
Fri, Apr 20, 2012 : 11:22 a.m.
Oops! Here is the website I mentioned that explains and compares the Balanced Calendar to the Traditional Calendar in one page of text and graphs: www.nayre.org/calendar_comparison.htm
Stephen Lange Ranzini
Fri, Apr 20, 2012 : 11:20 a.m.
I don't think that some of the commenters above understand what a balanced calendar is. Here is an excellent one page web page that explains the concept beautifully both with texts and great graphics. Moving to a Balanced Calendar would make a dramatic impact on low and moderate income children because scientific research indicates that their academic progress is significantly hurt by the traditional long Summer break. High income children are not impacted by it one way or the other because their parents ensure that their children receive academic enrichment outside of the classroom during the traditional long Summer break. Moving to a Balanced Calendar would significantly raise the MEAP scores of that large population of children in Ann Arbor Public Schools who are failing to pass the MEAP tests. If you are interesting in reading an excellent essay that reviews the research on this issue written in a very exciting and engaging way, just send me an email to ranzini@university-bank.com and I'll be happy to send it to you.
johnnya2
Sat, Apr 21, 2012 : 7:53 p.m.
Stop confusing them with facts and research. They are the same people who would believe the earth is flat, the sun revolves around the earth and the world was literally created in 6 days.
jns131
Fri, Apr 20, 2012 : 2:39 p.m.
I could not agree more with this post. Most parents should take a look at Arizona's balanced calendar to see how it works for them. I think there might be another state that does this as well.
jns131
Fri, Apr 20, 2012 : 9:59 a.m.
Ann Arbor parents got what they wanted. An uninterrupted summer vacation and not having to deal with their childrens education that usually is down a percentage by September. This would have been a boon to a UM community and to the children who could have really been given a edge to their counter parts who would otherwise have a summer vacation. What a shame. No mystery here, do not tread on my summer vacation.
Linda Peck
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 8:10 p.m.
Here is an idea whose time has come and I am taking advantage of it: http://www.annarbor.com/news/free-classes-university-of-michigan-to-offer-seven-online-courses-free-of-charge/
Linda Peck
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 6:41 p.m.
There is not nearly enough time off from school as it is. School is overrated. There are so many other ways of learning things, especially now. I have never been convinced that schools were efficient places for learning at all. I could learn more on my own in two hours than a whole week at school. Of course that was a very long time ago. Perhaps things have changed, but I find it is still teaching for the lowest common denominator.
jns131
Fri, Apr 20, 2012 : 10 a.m.
You sound like a home schooler. There are some of us who can't and would love to. Otherwise, I agree with most of these post. Taliban eh?
leaguebus
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 8:49 p.m.
Well, you certainly think like the Republicans. Rick Santorum should be your best buddy. I think we should stop education at the 8th grade like the Taliban. It would allow the Republican tax cuts to go on forever with no harm to schools. Maybe we could get rid of all taxes! That way the rich job creators would not have to worry about finding tax loopholes to utilize. What a plan!!!
johnnya2
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 7:29 p.m.
Yeah, i know when I learned to roll a joint I could do that out on the streets where education belongs.
Chris Blackstone
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 3:26 p.m.
Really bummed about this. New thinking is required to face the challenges of our technologically-interconnected society. It's also ridiculous that only 180 instructional days are required each year. More days would mean that students could actually take time to learn and other integrated learning opportunities could be explored.
DonBee
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 3:51 p.m.
Mr Blackstone - The balanced calendar would not have changed the 176 days that AAPS offers in instruction of students, I would have instead broken the summer break into 4 smaller breaks during the year.
jlb314159
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 3:16 p.m.
YEAH!!! That would have been a nightmare for us parents where the kids would have been on two different schedules. I am so relieved.
johnnya2
Sat, Apr 21, 2012 : 7:50 p.m.
More status quo parenting. If your kids are that close that they can not bear to be on different schedules, you really need to start separating them now. There was no proposal even brought up, because people like you run like chicken little screaming the sky is falling when people want to change anything. Facts are, almost EVERY building in the school system sits empty through the summer. That is poor planning. There could be fewer schools and they could handle larger numbers of kids if schools were year round facilities. There would be less crowding, and kids may actually learn individually from a teacher rather than having 35 kids in the class room. Of course you "defend" your position after you proved from the start it was not about your kids in your first post. The exact quote is " would have been a nightmare for us parents" . Never once did you say, this would be bad for your kids. Your first thought is, how it mattered to YOU. When you were called out on it, you didnt want to look as selfish and came up with other reasons that just dont add up. By the way, you proved how shallow your mind is, when you bring up my comment about rolling a joint. It was designed to show how stupid Linda Pecks comment was about LESS school being a good thing. If you can not understand that, then why not pull your kids out of school. Let them learn everything on the streets. Typical.
jlb314159
Fri, Apr 20, 2012 : 2:34 p.m.
@ johnnya2... OK. My convenience is one aspect of the reason I'm happy. But, hey johnnya2, are you saying that you're completely altruistic in every way? I can't believe that from someone who takes "I learned to roll a joint" as an example of education. Is the balanced calendar really the best way to educate? I did any number of searches before I formed my opinions on the proposal, and for every article that said that a balanced calendar was good, I could find one that said that it really didn't have any affect. If both our kids would have been moved to the same schedule, then I would have been unsure of the changes to the calendar, but I would have been willing to accept it and move on. I could also have seen the advantages for vacation opportunities in the off season. And, they would have had that time together rather than being apart. I was concerned with how the different time off schedule would affect our very close siblings - they would miss each other terribly while the other was in school. And also, there are other ways of learning. We engage our kids in many different manners of experiences during the summer so that they can grow. For us, summer isn't a lost season of learning. Just a different way of learning. Maybe I am typical in that I love my kids dearly, and I want what I consider to be the best for them... If that's typical, then I hope that everyone is typical, and are willing to stand up for their beliefs in what is best for their kids, whether that be FOR or against the calendar.
johnnya2
Thu, Apr 19, 2012 : 7:27 p.m.
And the very FIRST comment is not about what is good for EDUCATING their children. It is about what is good for the parents. Noting was EVER fully proposed, yet here is an example of somebody killing the idea before it was given an opportunity. Typical