WHY SHOULD AUBURN RESIDENTS BE CONCERNED?

>> There are very few long term studies of academic effects of Year-Round School. The few that exist show that you can't tell if there are any long term changes in academic performance or not with Year-Round School (i.e. there is no significant difference in performance on tests between students on the "Traditional, 9-month" calendar and those on a "Year-Round" calendar).

Academic Impact in the USA

What the research on YRS says!

>> There are no good academic reasons for changing to YRS. If there were a chance that students would learn and retain significantly more, then Year-Round School would be worth examining. The educational literature shows there is no significant academic improvement under Year-Round School.

>> Concerning why Auburn City Schools is considering Year-Round School, School Board President Ms. Pittard has said "The premise (for Year-Round School) is more continuity of learning" (OA News, 15 Sep 1998, pA5). How will lengthening the breaks in the school year preserve this? IF we have a shortened 7 - 11 week summer (Ms. Rainer's memo to all PTA and parents, 14 Sep 1998), we will lengthen the breaks during the school year. If the breaks in the school year are longer, how will we preserve "continuity of learning"? I'm all confused.

>> If remedial work is needed by some, create (fund) programs to remediate, but don't change the entire system just to make remediation more available to a few.

>> The cost of Year-Round School tends to be significantly higher than for the Tarditional 9-month calander.

Cost of YRS in the USA

>> Vincent, AL showed an improvement after one year of Year-Round School. They are still one of the worst academic schools in their county. The one year improvement is due to the "Hawthorne Effect" (any change results in a temporary improvement), a long standing principle of psychology. This has been seen in other schools that have switched to Year-Round School. After a few years test scores have returned to what they were before the change to this alternative calendar.

>> The sample summer schedule from Alex city is cited in Ms. Rainer's memo as being 9 weeks. It's actually 8 weeks. (Ms. Rainer's memo to all PTA and parents, 14 Sep 1998). Also, Alexander City schools just implemented their Year-Round calendar. It is too early to draw any conclusions from their experience.

>> 19 members of the committee are brand new (as of 1 Sep 1998). How can they be expected to get up to speed on the "facts" to make a learned decision on the Fact Sheet in less than three weeks (they weren't given the information until about 12 Sept. and have had little time to read it, ponder and search for more information).

>> Only 3% of US schools use a Year-Round calendar, yet it,s been around for 30 years. Only 1600 (1.6%) are on single track. There are about 100,000 schools in the US. There have been hundreds and hundreds of these that have tried YRS and went back to the traditional calendar that we use (see website http://www.primenet.com/~wwalker/index.html for many, many examples).

>> What's the hurry? Most parents haven't heard about our school system's consideration of YRS, nor have they had time to digest the many facts concerning this issue. Yet the YRS Committee report is due in "early November" (Dr. Martin, 1 Sep 1998) and the decision as to whether an alternative calendar will be implemented in Auburn is slated for "early December" 1998. No public meetings have been held for citizen/business/teacher/student input.

>> Why do we have time to fool around with Year-Round School, yet there are few books in two of our new elementary school libraries.

>> Teacher's can't go to college to pursue continued education in the summer if public school is session.

>> What of the seminar "Can Alabama Tourism survive YRS?" by Ms. Suzanne McCrary recently delivered at the Auburn University Conference Center? Did Dr. Martin or his staff attend this?

>> The length of the YRS meetings cited in Dr. Freeman's history of Year-Round School in Auburn is cited as 2 -2.5 hours each. The 1 Sep 1998 meeting was explicitly limited to 90 minutes by Dr. Martin. I hope the others will be long enough to accomplish the agenda.

>> More schools use YRS calendars in California than anywhere else. Yet many CA schools, when parents could vote, voted for the traditional calendar. All schools but one in Los Angeles (more than 540) returned to the traditional calendar in 1993 after YRS failed to result in significant educational improvement (see "What has been said" page).

>> Schools are going off Year-Round School, back to traditional calendar, yet the Year-Round School Committee hasn't interviewed administrators, teachers, or parents from any of these. Not one. Let's find out why they quit YRS and went back to a traditional calendar like ours.

>> This is more than an academic change - it's a lifestyle change (sports, band, vacations, summer jobs, local businesses, family life are all affected)

>> It's not new; tried in 1903 in Bluffton, IA (and rejected later)

>> Why did Dr. Martin say the reason he formed the committee in Fall 1997 was because the Auburn 2020 report required it, when the Auburn 2020 report was not reviewed, accepted and approved until Summer 1998?

>> We haven't adjusted to Block Scheduling at the Auburn High School (as Dr. Self said on September 8, 1998 at the Board meeting). Block scheduling has resulted in 1 of every 6 Auburn High School students taking a non-academic course 25% of each day. Let's take the time to determine how good or bad block scheduling is before implementing a YRS calendar. YRS is Block Scheduling for the entire school system. .

>> We've had enough recent changes (rezoning, new schools, rapid growth) in our school system. We need to take the time to determine what effects these changes will have (positive or negative) before considering a new major change such as YRS.

>> Where does the city council stand on this? the mayor elect?

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