Rochester schools Superintendent Bolgen Vargas has made longer school days a cornerstone of his strategy to improve student performance. Three schools served as pilot programs this year, and Vargas plans to have a total of 10 schools with longer days beginning this fall.
But some parents, teachers, and school board members aren’t sold on the plan. And there was confusion about the concept at a recent public forum to meet the non-incumbent candidates vying for a seat on the Rochester school board. The biggest concern: What will students do during the added time they’re in school?
Vargas frequently says city students receive less instruction time than any other students in the area, even though they have the highest needs. The administration has created a graphic to illustrate the point. (See below.)
City elementary students, for example, get 762 fewer hours of instruction per year than Rochester-area charter school students, according to the district’s analysis. And city high school students receive 242 fewer hours of instruction per year than the charter school students, the analysis says.
Greece, Brighton, and city students typically provide six hours of instruction per day, but Rochester Career Academy Charter School provides 7 hours and 15 minutes.
Longer school days and school years are often cited as reasons why some charter students are doing better academically than their city peers. Quality of instruction, parent engagement, and a highly structured learning environment are factors, too.
Longer days in city schools have been described more like surround-care programs, where students have more time for instruction, as well as more time for extracurricular activities.
Vargas has done a good job explaining the need for longer school days, but he may want to devote more time to the what and how, which aren’t as clear.
Instructional Hours Comparison 05-21-13
This article appears in May 29 – Jun 4, 2013.
With all due respect, some of us are beginning to hope that Ms. Mary Anna Towler, and the crew over at City Newspaper will seriously consider pulling Mr. Tim Macaluso off of the education beat, especially during the current, 2013 school board election campaign. The guy is obviously having problems writing clear, objective reports about the campaign, and campaigners. His steep slant is undoubtedly tilted in the direction of school board incumbents, and the Vargas Administration. This is evidenced by two recent reports, which he wrote following a May 28th school board candidates “forum to meet the non-incumbent candidates vying for a seat on the Rochester school board.” The first report, in which Mr. Macaluso discussed candidates ignoring an imagined, so-called “iceberg,” was written the day after the forum (see the link below — after clicking on the link — be sure to scroll to the bottom of the article and read comments from people who were present at the forum).
http://www.rochestercitynewspaper.com/News…
In his second article (“Questions linger about RCSD’s plan for longer days”), which was written two days after the forum took place, again Mr. Macaluso imagined that “there was confusion about the concept at a recent public forum to meet the non-incumbent candidates vying for a seat on the Rochester school board.” Other than his (Mr. Macaluso’s), there was absolutely NO “confusion” regarding the issue. The majority of candidates who addressed it said very clearly that we are skeptical (to say the least) of Vargas’s so-called “cornerstone [improvement] strategy [relative to] longer school days.” Indeed, Ron Hall and I made it crystal clear that we are very, very skeptical, and we urged parents and community members to also be very skeptical. The reason being that simply extending the school day by an hour or two, will not automatically translate into improved academic achievement, especially when considering that many of the students who are in need of more “instructional time,” are the very ones who are chronically absent under current schedules. Since district officials are not able to significantly improve attendance for thousands of students who are currently, chronically absent, what in the world would make them, or anyone believe that they will be able to successfully, automatically get the same students to come to school earlier, and/or stay later, unless of course there will be something fundamentally different about the so-called “extended day?” Therein lies the problem and issue: Vargas, nor anyone in his Administration, or the Board of Education have provided a clear, specific, comprehensive explanation as to how the so-called “extended day” will be any different than the current school day.
Thus, it is a gross understatement that Vargas “may want to devote more time to the what and how longer school days” will be any different than current arrangements. Many of us strongly suspect that he hasn’t “devoted more time” to explaining specifics because he doesn’t know. All he really seems to know for sure is that people are handing out money to implement the latest education fad (longer school days).
So again, we urge parents, and community members in general, to be very skeptical, and to insist upon specific details. Other wise, it is quite likely, and even probable that, in a year or two (when the longer-school-days-grant-money dries up (as it always does) — we will be off and running (chasing the next education-improvement-fad) — while the fundamental issues and conditions underlying the very old, pervasive, urban education crisis, never get addressed, and long-promised change and improvement never occurs. We refer to the latter phenomenon as bamboozling, posturing, and hoodwinking — literally at the costs of young lives.
We appreciate the comments by Mr. Eagle and others; the crisis of public education in Rochester is one of the most serious problems – and the unwillingness to deal with it properly is one of the region’s most serious failures. That said, we have no intention taking Tim Macaluso off of the education beat. He is without question the most thoughtful, experienced, and knowledgeable writer covering education in the Greater Rochester area. And, in fact, he has written several times about the problems in Superintendent Vargas’s extended-day plan.
Mary Anna Towler, in reference to Tim Macaluso being in your opinion “without question the most thoughtful, experienced, and knowledgeable writer covering education in the Greater Rochester area” is very disconcerting and in my opinion doesn’t say much for the quality of reporters that the Rochester area has to offer. As Howard Eagle noted, “The guy is obviously having problems writing clear, objective reports about the campaign, and campaigners. His steep slant is undoubtedly tilted in the direction of school board incumbents, and the Vargas Administration.” As a concerned parent and community member, we need unbiased information so we are able to formulate our own opinions and make the best decisions for our children based on what is actually being conveyed by the candidates themselves and not Tim Macaluso’s interpretation or opinion of what transpired.
Media Advisory
Howard Eagle & Ronald Hall Will Officially Launch Campaign To Challenge Democratic Party’s, Hand-Picked Candidates For School Board
WHAT: Press Conference
WHEN: Wednesday, June 5, 2013 … 4:00 PM … 4:00 PM
WHERE: In Front of All City High School (180 Ridgeway Avenue)
WHY: To officially launch their campaign to unseat incumbents, and help end the status-quo.
Ronald Hall was quoted as having said: “We sincerely hope that Rochester City School District parents, grandparents, guardians, and the general, tax-paying, public is ready to join us in declaring, and proving that enough is enough.”
Howard Eagle said: “We have out-worked (in the streets), and out-organized the Democratic-Party-Machine, and defeated it in the past. Indeed, we did so in 2011. It is our plan and intentions to do the job twice as well in 2013.”