Central Plans to Extend School Year to Aid Low-Income Students

In the most ambitious reform proposal so far from an individual San Diego city school, Central Elementary teachers are proposing to extend their school year by one month--24 days--as a way to boost educational achievement for their economically disadvantaged students.

The major plan, which is up for approval by school trustees today, grows from the school district’s new philosophy to give principals and teachers at schools substantial responsibility for designing curriculum and instructional methods that would benefit students.

It would allow Central to give its students more enrichment courses in science, fine arts and literature, to try hands-on and other innovative teaching methods that emphasize thinking skills, and to schedule field trips to museums and other San Diego cultural attractions that are now beyond the reach of most students.

Qualifies for Federal Aid

About half of Central’s 900 students are limited- or non-English speakers--with 20 languages--and more than half are new to the school each year. The entire student body qualifies for special federal aid to socioeconomically disadvantaged students.

Almost 34% of students are Latino, 31% Indochinese, 18% black, and 15% white. An estimated 90% are latchkey children, most come from single-parent homes, 40% of them have families on welfare, and 90% qualify for federal free lunches.

“Basically, we see our proposal as giving us more time to expand and reinforce basic skills, to approach learning in different ways, and to give our kids more options,” Mary Louise Martin, Central principal, said Monday.

In essence, under the plan the Central staff will take the six weeks of summer school now offered to two-thirds of their students--the largest summer school in the district--and disperse the days more evenly throughout the school year, which would run from early September to the end of July.

Martin said the 24 days would be divided into four regularly placed interim sessions.

“We find that our kids bottom out at times, which means that learning is not just a straight upward curve but rather a process where at times the students slow down,” Martin said. “So interim sessions will allow the kids to spend some time in a different way with material before moving onto the next level.”

A Paced Program

Basic skills instruction under a paced, structured program will be more easily meshed with enrichment and non-traditional ways of teaching to put more excitement into the curriculum, Martin said.

In addition, Martin said that using the extra days during the year means students will have their same teachers rather than new instructors as is the case during summer school. Also, the interim sessions will run for a complete school day whereas summer school is held only during morning sessions.

“The regular teachers will be teaching on the extra days and they are familiar with the students,” Martin said, “unlike some summer school teachers who do not know what it is like to teach” limited-English-speaking students who need extra hands-on instruction because of their lack of fluency.

Martin said one idea involves rotating students in two-hour blocks through four classrooms with fifth-grade teachers, each of whom has a specialty in literature, arts, math or science.

“We began thinking about new things four years ago,” second-grade teacher Jeanne Watson said. “I’ve got a file cabinet full of ideas that I never have had time to try, such as using math manipulatives, cooking in class, trying creative writing that can’t be completed in one day, reading books.” Already, Martin has bought $15,000 worth of paperback books this year for the students to take home and keep after reading them in class.

Surveys Show Strong Support

Because state law defines a school year as 180 days, the proposed extra days cannot be made mandatory for students, assistant superintendent Eloiza Cisneros said. But community surveys among parents--in five languages--show overwhelming support for the idea, Watson said.

“In my own class, all but one parent was very supportive,” Watson said.

Martin explained that because Central’s downtrodden mid-city neighborhood has no parks or planned summertime activities for children, parents look to the school for more than simply an eight-hour education. The extended plan calls for Saturday school and for supervised playground time before and after school. Martin expects more than 90% of the students to attend the interim sessions.

The Board of Education will be asked today to declare the school a special year-round facility with a unique calendar, a procedure legal under state education codes. The board also will sign off on agreements from the unions representing teachers and non-classroom personnel, which have already approved the idea. School staffers will be allowed to work either a 10- or 11-month year, although Watson said most teachers are enthusiastic about the extra month.

A special union-school administration committee set up to handle reform efforts approved the plan in May. The plan met a key ingredient of the district’s reform philosophy, which requires schools to finance as much of their projects as possible out of existing funds.