Imagine if the United States completely flopped in the next Olympics. Imagine if countries like Japan and South Korea dominated the medal count and it was obvious those athletes had simply out-worked, out-practiced, and out-performed ours.
The likely results… Public outcry. Fired coaches. Promises of a quick return to athletic glory would echo across the land.
We wouldn’t stand for shrinking commitment to the Olympics.
But we’re passively allowing a shrinking school year for our kids – especially in Michigan.
The Center for Michigan’s new special report — “School Daze: Michigan’s Shrinking School Year” -- raises red flags about our state’s commitment to education. Our public school students are at risk of falling seriously behind their peers in others states and the rest of the world.
Click here to download the full report.
A summary of our findings:
School calendars are set by local districts, many of which have lengthened each school day to help compensate for lost days. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Michael Flanagan told us that phenomenon is “outrageous.”
“I think in general you’d find that districts still got raises but still went from 180 days down,” Flanagan said. “When we’re in a time-based model for most kids, you need at least 180 days. I called the (local school) superintendents out on this in September of 2007 saying it is the wrong direction. This may not be totally in their control if (local school) boards just want to get contracts done.”
Flanagan’s predecessor, Tom Watkins, said the shrinking school year is an alarming wake-up call.
“Are we going to live in the past or move boldly into the future?” Watkins said. “Reducing the time our children are in school is a move backward. This action will help bankrupt our state.”
Check how your local schools compare in the searchable spreadsheet or the appendix of the printable full report. If you don’t like what you see, ask your legislators and school board members how we can expect Michigan students to spend fewer days in school and still compete in the complex, talent-driven, global economy.
Or accept that students in the rest of the world will have the intellectual muscle to beat your kids in the race for jobs, opportunities, and prosperity.
6 Comments
While this report shows a clear link between scheduled days and actual days being shorter, upon further review, our winters in the past two years have seen more snow fall and inclement weather. This will result in fewer days as safety should always be the most important factor. However, the author does point out that shrinking budgets have forces school districts to look for creative alternatives to funding our schools systems. As far as our students falling behind the rest of the world, that piece of data is true all over the country where schools do have the 180 schedule and still boast poor results compared to other nations. So, let’s not beat up on Michigan too much, we still can hold our own even with budget constraints and harsh winters.
I have bargained four school contracts as an MEA member. Your article leaves out many of the important facts.
1. The required instructional time (face time with students) increased several times since the mid-90′s to the current 1098 hours of instruction.
2. Teachers received no additional compensation for these increases.
3. For every hour of instruction, there is roughly one hour of preparation and grading time, meaning that teachers in Michigan now work nearly 2,200 hours per year, the equivalent of working a 40 hour workweek for a full 52 weeks per year.
4. The current law allows the substitution of up to 38 hours of professional development for instructional time. Many district have used this option to require teachers to attend district organized PD.
5. Districts moved to lowering the instructional days about four years ago when the legislature prevented classes from beginning until after Labor Day. The length of the student and teacher day was extended to make up for the lower number of days.
Hello, I have been concerned about the shrinking school day since our district, Walled Lake Consolidated, cut the amount of their school days and added six minutes to each day. My son now attends International Academy in Bloomfield Hills. This school was not listed in your report. It consistently is among the highest ranked schools for MEAP scores as well as one of the top ranked public schools in the country by Newsweek and U.S. World Report. IA has an extended school year which I strongly believe helps students acheive these results.
At the same time Michigan students are attending school less, our neighbor to the south is debating phasing in a 200-day school year. That would mean Ohio students, over a thirteen year K-12 career, would end up spending upwards of 1 – 2 more YEARS in class than their Michigan counterparts.
There is certainly room for improvement when we talk about the education system in the state and while their are successes to applaud (such as IA), there are a fair number of things in the education system that should cause us to be darn-right sad or even outraged. The system is broken in some communities and children, despite the jingle, in plenty of places are being left-behind. These children are not prepared in ways which to maximize their potential or worse yet, leave them ill-prepared to participate productively in their local communities, not to mention the larger global marketplace. The reasons are complex and multi-fold. Having said that, if one were trying to piece together an action plan to try to remediate or improve what we have, committment to increased hours of instruction and increased days of attendance are 2 pieces in the puzzle which is large and intricate and could use many hands for its assembly. The education system that sprang from our society decades ago in an undeniably much less complex world is a thing of the past. I for one as 1) a beneficiary of a rich education, 2) a proponent of education in all its respects and 3) a parent, would be in favor of significant increases in the hour and day requirements. But we also need the other puzzle pieces on the table too, as without them, working on the puzzle is difficult.
The author’s initial analogy is pathetically flawed: of course, HIS first imagined response to the hypothetical “disaster” of USA going down to the Asian countries in an Olympics medal count is “public outcry” and “coaches fired;” however, there is conveniently no mentioned of the only certain response. An immediate call for truckloads of money to be thrown into the affair. And as far as the firing of coaches? Not likely. We know this because we’ve been outdone in the Winter Olympic games many times without public outcry, BUT when we have hosted or when those in power predict high viewing by Americans (like the Olympics on Vancouver), our response has been nothing more than one BIG check. We pour in the money for the best facilities, the best athletes, and the best trainers. FAT chance that anything resembling this response will ever see the light of day in education.
Second, it’s widely known that at least in countries like Germany and other European countries, their scores do not include “every” student. The low of the low are conveniently removed. Both teh German and the Japanese systems quickly track all students toward professions and social stratas. The low are weeded out and dumped into vocations–they don’t count in the statistics. Also, these Asian countries with which we’re comparing ourselves are still largely homogeneous in most respects, and therefore are more “manageable” in terms of cultural, intellectual, and social preferred norms. The melting pot that is America includes a variety of cultures, including some who can not begin to see the value of staying in school. And when I say cannot, it is not an accusation of those populations, but of our society that tends to bury the poor and isolated. THAT is not an educational issue first, but it profoundly effects what our educational system can achieve.