This page urges the Board to reject the proposal of the i220 Committee to move final exams and modify the school year calendar, and to exercise the Board’s sound judgment in declining to enter into this experiment at this time. We make this recommendation because: (1) there is insufficient evidence that the proposed changes will reduce student stress or increase student performance in any meaningful way; (2) there is no benefit to the majority of students in 220, namely those in grades K -8; (3) it is reasonable to infer that the start date of the school year will creep earlier and earlier under this proposal, based on the few districts that have implemented this plan, thereby cutting into valuable family time, outdoor time, and summer camp time in August; (4) exams before winter break will significantly increase stress for many students; (5) the process by which information was gathered was both insufficient in its failure to consider our peer schools (the top 30 in Illinois), as well as misleading in terms of the wording of the survey; (6) the proposal to move in-service days to increase the number of 5-day school weeks in the first semester can easily be achieved independent of this proposal, if the Board would like to make that change; (7) D220 will be off-kilter with our local peer schools, such as Fremd and Stevenson, which currently have no intention to undertake this calendar experiment; and (8) it has been falsely asserted that the proposal is only opposed by elementary and middle school families. ***The Administrator reserves the right to edit or delete any comments that are inappropriate or off topic, including any that constitute personal attacks.***
Posted on: Tue, 01 Oct 2013 22:53:31 +0000
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