Christopher Peak File Photo
Asst. Supt. Redd-Hannans: Extended days on horizon.
A longer, in-person school day could help students who have fallen behind during the Covid-19 pandemic, the city’s assistant schools superintendent said. New Haven needs some help from the state this spring to make that catch-up successful.
Kiesha Redd-Hannans, New Haven Public Schools assistant superintendent, offered that take for the near future at a Board of Education meeting.
She said New Haven is asking the state for more money for extended-day academies, among other asks, as part of its lobbying agenda for January.
“We need more funds for this when we look at the pandemic and the amount of learning that has been lost due to being in a remote setting,” Redd-Hannans said at the meeting, held last Monday night.
“It would not just be for academic purposes but also for the socialization component. Anyone who has participated in any sports or school clubs knows that it builds confidence and builds discipline.”
So far, there’s little information about how much students have fallen behind during the Covid-19 pandemic. Estimates vary. Learning loss is expected to be greater in high-poverty districts like New Haven, where schools have adopted live, virtual classes more slowly and where students are showing up to class more inconsistently.
Roughly 11 percent of New Haven Public Schools students are missing more than one day of school every week. The most recent count found 697 students had missed every day of school during the week of Veteran’s Day.
“For the district, 89 percent [fully present] isn’t that bad. It does vary by school,” said Michele Sherban, who manages student data for the district.
However, the state is tracking the drop in participation between this year and last year for high-needs students like English learners, students with disabilities and students experiencing poverty. The gaps in participation from New Haven’s high-needs students are among the largest in the state, despite intensive efforts from the district to find students and solve the problems keeping them from school.
One-on-one tutoring and extending the school year with “acceleration academies” are two strategies research indicates could help students recover from pandemic slide.
Turning Up The Heat On Hartford
More money for extended-day academies is one piece of a state lobbying package New Haven Public Schools is focusing on this year.
Board of Education member Darnell Goldson has pushed city and school district leadership to ask for more from the state legislature. Superintendent Iline Tracey thanked him for that push on Monday and noted that she did not know much about New Haven’s lobbying efforts when she started her job.
Some of the other asks reflect new pandemic realities. NHPS wants to add health centers at more schools. One of the primary goals with this would be to expand mental health support for students, who have said that they are experiencing more stress and depression during by the pandemic.
The district also wants to ensure every home has internet access.
“We were able to distribute hot spots so internet access is not an issue — but that internet access is for a year. We need free internet access for families across entire city,” Redd-Hannans said.
Other asks draw on the draft education plans of President-Elect Joe Biden, like his promise to expand Title I funding for high-poverty school districts.
Read the draft list here.
Board member Edward Joyner lauded the list and said he wants to look for quarterly feedback on the effectiveness of these programs as well.
“Some of these things we have been doing in the district since I was a principal and a teacher,” Joyner said. “We need to make sure we have evaluation and feedback so can know in timely way whether something is working well or not.”
For children in the elementary school grades, extending the school day would be developmentally inappropriate to be sitting at desks for an extended day. It could cause a rise in behavioral issues and burnout and turn students off from school. It would be far better to extend the school year and run summer classes to make up for the disastrous 2020 spring classes shutdown and the struggling fall classes. By extending the school year, you could make up for lost instruction and not overwhelm and burnout and frustrate the students and teachers with a longer day and extra work to be done. Children are not little adults, and they lack the ability to sit still and listen and do desk work for hours on end without lots of time in between to run and play and get their energy out. Also, teachers need time outside of the classroom to develop and prep lessons, tests, grade schoolwork and meet with parents, administrators and other school related obligations, their day extends beyond the hours that class is in session. So extending the school year into summer to make up for the lost time would be better for students and teachers alike.