Spoke with my niece earlier in the week. She is a freshman at Glastonbury High school in Connecticut. I was surprised to see that their Holiday break did not begin until December 24th (Thursday of this week). Bend’s break began on Monday of this week (December 21st).
This got me to thinking, how do the public school schedules of Bend compare to those of Glastonbury? (Note, I consider Glastonbury’s schedule to be typical of most Northeast High schools. The schedule at Glastonbury is very similar to Staples High School in Westport, CT — a school that I taught at). Surprisingly, Bend students are in school 13 days less per year than students at Glastonbury High School. Or after 13 years of schooling (K – 12) Bend students are nearly one full school year behind Glastonbury students. OUCH!!
Which brings me back to one of my primary themes in regard to education in Bend – as a parent you need to supplement your student’s education throughout the year – during the school year and during summer break. I will provide more information on how to do this in follow-on posts.
The numbers:
Bend school days: 176
Glastonbury school days: 180
However, Bend students have a shortened schedule by 2 hours on Wednesday. But … Wednesday’s are counted as a full school day by the state. There are 32 early release Wednesdays in the year. At 2 hours per Wednesday this gives 64 hours less of school time. Figure that a regular school day has 7 hours of instruction time, this is 9 lost days.
4 less days of school + 9 days equivalent for early release Wednesdays = 13 less days of school for Bend students
13 days by 13 years (K – 12) is 169 days => nearly one full school year.
References:
You can take a look at the schedules here:
Bend Schools
Glastonbury schools
