PRESS RELEASE
Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Office of Media Relations
3424 Wilshire Blvd., Los Angeles, CA 90010 Phone: (213) 637-7215 Fax: (213) 637-6215
CONTACT: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tod M. Tamberg, Director JANUARY 27, 2011
Cell: (213) 216-8395
Carolina Guevara, Assoc. Dir.
Cell: (213) 276-2272
CARDINAL ROGER MAHONY ANNOUNCES THAT L.A. CATHOLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM WILL BE FIRST IN STATE TO ADOPT 200-DAY SCHOOL YEAR
Surrounded by elementary school students, Cardinal Roger Mahony announced today that the Los Angeles Archdiocese’s elementary school system will be the first school system in California, private or public, to add 20 days to the academic year.
“The relationship between more substantive, effective time in an academic setting and increased student performance is clear, and the elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles are responding to this critical national issue in order that our students grow up to be successful leaders in the global workforce,” said Cardinal Mahony, who spoke at a morning press conference at Nativity School in South Los Angeles.
At a time when school systems throughout California have cut or are contemplating cutting their academic calendars, the Archdiocese’s 210 elementary schools will begin to adopt a 200-day academic calendar this coming fall. More than 52,000 students attend Catholic schools in the Archdiocese’s three-county area (Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara Counties).
“Our students consistently rank high in academic achievement and our graduation rates are among the highest in the nation,” Cardinal Mahony added. “I am confident that this additional month of instructional time will enhance the already strong academic and moral foundation provided to our Catholic school students.”
The move to a 200-day academic calendar represents an 11 percent increase over the 180-day calendar mandated by the federal government, said Dr. Kevin Baxter, superintendent of elementary schools for the Archdiocese. He noted that even though summer break is shortened, “it is still nearly two months in length…[providing] a break from the rigors of the school year.”
He said that the goal is “to have as many elementary schools as possible move to the 200-day academic year for the 2011-2012 academic calendar. Local school sites will still have flexibility with regard to start and end dates, but it is expected that the vast majority of schools will move to an extended calendar for the 2011-2012 school year….The length of the school year in Catholic high schools will remain the same.”
Dr. Baxter added that the increase in the school year will result in slightly higher teacher salaries
(10 percent) and tuition costs, the increase of which will vary from location to location. He pledged that the Archdiocese would work with low-income families to address possible financial challenges. “We want to ensure that no family leaves any Catholic school because of the increase in tuition.”
Nativity School, the inner city school in South Los Angeles where today’s press conference took place, adopted an extended calendar year eight years ago.
“Before we extended the school year, every September, teachers were concerned because their students had forgotten so much during the long summer break,” said Nativity School principal, Sister Judy Flahavan. “Now that we have 11 months of school, students have less time to forget, and teachers have more time to train students in class routines, review, and then move ahead, able to teach more in the longer year.”
And for the students at Nativity, who come mostly from low-income families and enter school needing to learn English, the impact of the longer school year has been astounding, Sister Flahavan said.
“Students make continual steady progress in their language and other skills until when they are in seventh grade, they have a language grade equivalent of eighth grade. And when they are in eighth grade, they have the grade equivalent of high school freshmen, and in the subject of language, of high school juniors,” she said.