Students in Lathrop, Missouri will attend school four days a week beginning next school year. Early in May, the district’s Board of Education voted to hold school Tuesday through Friday, with 45 minutes added to each day. According to the St. Joseph News-Press, district officials estimate the new schedule will save $120,000 a year.
But opponents believe the shortened week might leave students home alone and possibly hurt the quality of education. Among these opponents, one parent told the school board there would be a petition drive to seek a state audit of the district.
An Education Blogger Writes About the Pros and Cons of a Shortened School Week:
“The three-day weekend isn’t just for the occasional holiday anymore. For one hundred school districts in at least sixteen states, the school week is now only four days long because the rising cost of fuel has made busing kids too expensive. Proponents of the shorter school week (which typically has longer daily hours to make up for the lost day) say it not only saves on fuel and energy costs but also often leads to lower rates of absenteeism and, in some cases, better student performance. Schools can also put the money they save toward programs and staff that might otherwise be cut. Opponents of the four-day week argue that it places a burden on working parents, who now need to find child care on the fifth day. They also say it cuts down on time for extracurricular activities. And those who’d like to see children spend more time in school worry that this practice moves education further away from that ideal.” – Sara Ring, www.edutopia.org
Saturday, April 10, 2010 is the fourth annual Baby Kid Expo at the St. Charles Convention Center from 9 am to 4 pm and is free to all attendees. This year will be even more fun than last with games, performances, speakers, and seminars as well as hundreds of exhibitors.
Tutor Doctor St. Louis is very excited to be attending this year, it will hopefully help us introduce ourselves to people that have never heard of our company. Getting the word out about what we do is very important to us and we are dedicated to providing the best one-on-one, home-tutoring service in the St. Louis and St. Charles County areas.
If you are going to the Baby Kid Expo, but sure to look for us. We will have face painters there from 11 am to 3 pm, so come by and check us out. It should be tons of fun and we hope to get to know some new faces while we are there.
A recent article by Jane Coaston in the education section of stltoday.com touts the success of a new, local virtual tutoring site. Leo Shmuylovich, with friend Josh Salcman, founded this site called Virtual Nerd. They have won some local awards through Washington University and are off to a great start. The program itself was tested on students from Chaminade Preparatory School with some success. As written in the article, “Sam Beffa, a student who tested the service at Chaminade, said the videos gave step-by-step instructions that helped him understand the topics. ‘I had a classroom at my fingertips,’ he said.”
Right now the service is about $40 per month and provides only math help, with science help in the works. This site is a wonderful place to find basic information about certain types of math problems and certain equations, but it is still best to use a tutor, because they can help students solve new problems using the methods that are being taught in the classroom. Even Shmuylovich himself feels the site is great to supplement what is going on in the classroom. As he says in a comment below the article, “If you have the means and can find the right tutor, nothing beats one on one interaction. At Virtual Nerd we aren’t in the business of replacing tutors or teachers.”
