Dallas schools can battle COVID-19 learning losses by adding five weeks of lessons after trustees approve calendar options
Two calendar models, which would need approval by both families and staff, would extend the school year by as much as 28 days.
Dallas ISD(Shaban Athuman / Staff Photographer)
An expanded school calendar with five more weeks of classes is now possible for all Dallas ISD middle and elementary schools, depending on the interest from school staff and families.
During its monthly board meeting on Thursday, DISD trustees approved two alternate calendars for the next two school years. The variations will give campuses and their communities more flexibility to address learning loss brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
We rightly spend a lot of time on this page praising Dallas ISD for important reforms and innovative programs that have given parents at every economic level greater confidence that their children can get the best possible education in our public school system.
Reforms like the pay-for-performance Teacher Excellence Initiative and programs that have seen school choice expanded throughout the district deserve that praise.
But the reality is that, even as DISD has been reinvigorated as a school system, most of its students largely poor and minority are not excelling academically. And far too many are underperforming. As we celebrate the successes for a relatively small number of students, we have to recognize that the district and all of us who support it still have a lot of work to do to bring those left behind up to speed.
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Rough sleepers at risk of drug and alcohol misuse will be able to access extra support in Oxford, after the Government announced £584,834 in additional funding as part of a wider plan to end rough sleeping for good by 2024. Homeless people who are being provided with emergency accommodation during the pandemic as part of the Government’s ‘Everyone In’ programme, and people who are currently rough sleeping, will be eligible for the support. The funding, which comes from Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) will pay for them to access drug and alcohol treatment, including detox and rehabilitation support.