Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Nine-month schools score better on tests, but stats don’t tell the whole story

Sue Daellenbach, the Clark County School District's testing director, loves numbers. But there's a statistic she parts with only reluctantly.

Last year, children in nine-month elementary schools had a 10 percent higher success rate on standardized tests - as measured by the No Child Left Behind Act - than students in year-round schools.

On the face of it, Clark County's nine-month schools appear to perform better academically than year-round campuses. But those figures don't take into account the student demographics that help create gaps in achievement among schools. And that's why Daellenbach hesitates to share the stats.

Some schools have large populations of at-risk students, who historically score lower on tests, while other schools have consistent high achievers. Some schools thrive under experienced administrators who know how to motivate teachers and encourage parental involvement. Others struggle with high staff turnover and a transient student population.

These are the realities being considered by the study group organized by Superintendent Walt Rulffes to evaluate the effects of campus schedules on finances, academic achievement and families. When the group makes its final recommendations on school calendars - it is scheduled to meet Friday - plenty of teachers, parents, students and administrators will be unhappy with the results, whatever they are.

Rulffes has pledged to consider the study group's report in making his own recommendations to the School Board, which will ultimately decide whether to revise regulations for school calendars. The study group has been told that year-round schools are a fiscal necessity in the fast-growing district, where a shortage of seats makes capacity the deciding factor. If the 70,000 elementary students in year-round schools were moved to nine-month schedules today, the district would be short the equivalent of 15 campuses. An upcoming bond measure's price tag will depend heavily on how many campuses operate year-round.

But academic achievement must also be considered, with the district is under intense pressure to meet federal benchmarks. Schools that continually fail face progressive sanctions, including losing their funding.

Add to the equation parents on both sides of the debate with definite ideas on which system is best and statistics that , when manipulated in one direction or another, make a case either way. In the end, it all leads to no definitive conclusion. Or to one: Determining whether a nine-month or year-round schedule is best requires looking at each school individually and determining what's working (and what's not working) for its students.

One that seems to be working is Antonello Elementary School.

Last year, the district told Principal Linda Reese her campus would be moving from nine-month to year-round, because of an increase in enrollment.

Reese balked. Antonello had that year adopted an empowerment model, which gives principals greater autonomy and responsibility, and she argued that changing the schedule would undermine the school's momentum.

Reese had surveyed her families, many of which live in older neighborhoods surrounding the North Las Vegas campus. She found many of her students were the youngest children still at home, and most had siblings in middle school, high school and even college. Switching to a year-round schedule would wreak havoc with family vacations and extracurricular activities, and make it difficult for parents to participate as fully in school events, Reese told the district.

She isn't sure which argument carried the day, but the district reversed course and allowed Antonello to remain on the nine-month schedule.

Reese, who has been principal of Antonello for six years, remembers when the school was on a year-round schedule. Student attendance dipped sharply in the summer , and she believes low test scores reflected those absences.

"Don't kid yourself," she said, "the calendar made an impact here."

Antonello was a high-achieving school this year on standardized tests, and teacher turnover dropped sharply, accomplishments Reese attributed at least in part to the empowerment model - and the nine-month schedule.

"You can't separate out all of the factors and point to one and say, 'That's why we're succeeding,' " Reese said. "Some schools do a great job with whatever schedule they get. That's part of the problem with these kinds of debates."

For every Antonello, there is a Cozine Elementary School.

For Cozine, the switch to a year-round schedule meant extra opportunities for students to learn. Andrea Klafter-Phillips, who opened the school as principal in 2002, said the switch to year-round in the third year of operations wasn't without some problems.

The school did its best to give families their first choice of track schedule. But even when parents got them, they pulled their children out of class for family vacations.

To compensate, Klafter-Phillips began encouraging parents to bring their kids back to school during their track breaks so they could make up the work with another class already in session. The track breaks also provided an extra opportunity for remedial classes and tutoring for struggling students. Cozine made adequate progress for the 2006-07 academic year, the first time in three years.

Only two teachers left because of the switch to a year-round schedule, Klafter-Phillips said.

"The staff was committed to the school, to the children, to the programs," said Klafter-Phillips, now an assistant superintendent for the northeast region. "The schedule was less important to them than the fact that they believed in the school."

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