School officials heard an argument Tuesday night for a new school schedule that has students studying year-round with short breaks between quarters.
Jamie Stidham, director of the Millsaps Career and Technology Center, discussed the flex quarter system, which is described as a multi-track year-round education system. He said that with his 30 years experience in education, he thinks this system would be good for Starkville students.
“I always say if it ain”t broke, don”t fix it. Well, I feel like it”s broke, and the reason I feel it”s broke is our test scores,” Stidham said of the current educational calendar. “We haven”t made a significant difference with all the programs we”ve purchased. I think we need to make a significant change.”
The flex quarter system would have students begin in the summer and go 45 days in class before having a 15-day break. After 30 more days of school, they would have a 5-day break for Thanksgiving, then 15 more days of classes. The Christmas holidays would fall in the next 15-day break, then 45 more days of school. A 15-day break would be given in the spring, then 45 more days of school before the 30-day summer vacation.
Retention is a problem with many students coming out of their summer breaks, Stidham said. Eliminating the long summer vacation would limit the amount of time students have to forget what they learned before school starts again. He proposed that short remediation sessions could be offered to students as needed in the first two weeks of the break between quarters.
He also said breaking the school year into nine-week pieces would be an incentive to keep students from dropping out.
“A nine-month school year is a long tunnel, but if they see a nine-week tunnel, they may decide to stick it out,” Stidham said.
Stidham asked the school board to form a committee to study this issue, possibly taking a trip to North Carolina or Florida to see schools using this system.
“I believe it would work for us. I believe it would get our scores up,” Stidham said. “There were some good things with our old system, but it”s time to change.”
Board member Pickett Wilson called the idea “definitely something we should seriously consider.” She asked if Stidham has data on how test scores in participating schools improved after the flex quarter system was implemented, but Stidham said he would like the committee to collect this data.
Wilson did ask the school district administration to form a committee to examine this idea.
Stidham said he thought there may be some initial resistance in the community to this change, but he thinks it is best for the children. He suggested the plan be implemented for the 2011 school year, but at least one board member suggested this was too ambitious a schedule even if the board liked the idea.
Superintendent Judy Couey did not take a position on the proposed idea.
“Data does show that elementary school children do lose language arts and reading skills over the summer and have a lack of retention that must be addressed each fall when they return to school,” she said.
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