Earlier Start to School Year Made to Benefit Students

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ELLEN LI
News Editor

For most students in California, the last couple weeks of August are seen as the final opportunities to enjoy summer vacation before school begins in September. However, in the last several years, many schools throughout the state have been transitioning to an earlier start and end date for their school years.
Recently, the Alhambra Unified School District (AUSD) decided that for the 2012-2013 school year, students will be starting school on Aug. 21 and ending on May 31, with two days off for Thanksgiving break.
For the 2013-2014 school year, school will begin on Aug. 14 and end on May 30, with a one week break for Thanksgiving.
This decision was a result of a culmination of discussions between certificated and non-certificated staff throughout the district about the advantages of beginning and ending school earlier; three key reasons were brought up.
Oftentimes, when graduating seniors do not pass writing tests with high enough scores to enroll in college English classes, they are offered remediation courses in the summer. However, those remediation courses begin before AHS students end the school year in mid-June, but that problem would be eliminated with the earlier start date. Furthermore, many educational institutions across the country offer Advanced Placement (AP) classes that allow high school students to earn college credits if the students pass the AP exams that are offered in May. Schools with earlier start dates have an advantage as they have several more weeks to prepare for the tests.
The last reason is that seniors often look for jobs after graduation. Those who are on break earlier have an edge; they are able to search for jobs earlier, as well as start working earlier, so employers tend to hire them first.
“It’s been discussed all year,” Alhambra Teacher Association (ATA) AHS Segment Director and English teacher Kathleen Tarr said. “Ultimately, it was driven to help students.”
Many students agreed that this change would be beneficial to them in the long run. However, some expressed difficulties adjusting to a temporarily shortened summer and different end month for the school year.
“I’m happy that an earlier start would mean more time to prepare for the AP exams, but I’m not sure I could adjust to going to school in August because I’m used to having all of August [to] relax,” junior Mabel Wong said.