We got a press release today from a group -- Save California Summers -- that wants to push back school start dates to after Labor Day. It's billed as a family-friendly bid to save on energy costs.
I'm not sure how that plays in the Los Angeles area, where September is pretty much just as hot as August. Anyway, most of our local districts start school after Labor Day.
The release seeks to link academic success to uniform start dates:
One in five states in the nation currently have laws governing the start of the school year. In the past two years, legislatures in Texas, Florida and South Carolina have all passed uniform school start date laws. Since the laws were enacted, each state has reported state standardized test scores on the rise and Texas and South Carolina saw ACT college entrance exam scores at all time highs.
The groups is apparently beginning a statewide petition drive to support a later, uniform school start date.
Here's part of an email I got from a member of Save California Summers:
I just wanted to clarify that our group does not believe academic success is due to any calendar configuration or start date. What we were trying to do was show that later school start dates would not hurt test scores, something we have been told by a few administrators. We strongly believe academic success is due to talented teachers, hardworking students and involved parents.
Why not start earlier? It would help the high schoolers who take AP classes complete their class before the AP exams (or have the exams later).