A longer school year is a must in Iowa

By The Des Moines Register

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Gov. Terry Branstad's plan to reform education relies heavily on teachers, testing and innovation. After listening to suggestions at town hall meetings around the state, his administration is now considering something else: a longer school year.

The governor's final proposal to the Legislature should require students to spend more time in class, and lawmakers should vote to support such a change. If Iowa is really going to take seriously the goal of improving our schools the absurdly outdated academic schedule should be changed.

Reform presents the opportunity to do that for all Iowa students by changing state law.

Current Iowa law requires school to be held a minimum of 5.5 hours per day (and 27.5 hours over a 5-day segment) for 180 days of the year. This calendar was implemented when people were riding in horse-drawn buggies on mud roads. Kids spent summers working in the fields and milking cows. Mothers stayed home. The United States wasn't competing in a global economy then.

Today, a school day that begins in the early morning and dismisses in mid-afternoon, or earlier, doesn't make sense. Studies show that later start times are linked to improving teens' health. Children are unsupervised at home in the afternoon while parents work. With numerous days throughout the year when students are released early, it's hard for students to take school seriously.

In Des Moines, for example, schools dismiss students 90 minutes early every Wednesday. Over the course of a school year that robs them of about 50 hours of instruction - more than a week of class. It also disrupts daily schedules and inconveniences families.

Then there is summer vacation. The weeks leading up to it are frequently spent “wrapping up” the school year. During break, many kids plop themselves in front of televisions. When they finally get back to class, teachers spend valuable time reviewing the material students understandably forgot.

How does such a schedule make sense?

It doesn't. Yet there has been too little public pressure to revise this calendar. Rare discussion on the issue ends up focused on teachers' contracts, bus schedules and making sure no one misses the Iowa State Fair. It is about everything but what would be best for educating students.

Requiring students to spend more time in a learning environment could improve achievement, help kids retain information and accommodate working families. It's also the kind of change Iowa needs and families can understand and support.