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Opinion

‘Year-round’ school in Garland begins next year. Other Texas districts should follow its lead

It's the best chance to try to address long-standing learning gaps

With so much still undecided about the upcoming school year because of concerns about COVID-19, you might have overlooked a major step by the Garland Independent School District that holds promise to finally help close the achievement gap for low-income and minority students.

Last week, Garland was one of the few Texas districts to smartly approve intersessional calendars for the next two school years. The calendars account for more interruptions in classes because of spikes in COVID-19. But most important, they build in extra school weeks to provide remedial help for students throughout the year to help those who have fallen way behind because of last year’s school closings and the usual summer slide.

Intersessional weeks will be added in October, March and June for remediation, acceleration or enrichment, and the district will move from a six-week to a nine-week grading cycle.

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Changes in school calendars are tough for parents, teachers and students accustomed to building vacations and other activities around traditional breaks. But Garland ISD administrators say it is their best chance to try to address long-standing learning gaps that are expected to widen in this pandemic.

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Garland — where 60% of its 54,000 students are poor — mirrors dozens of other Texas districts looking for solutions to close vexing achievement gaps between white students and Black and Hispanic students even before COVID-19 hit. About 50% of its students are Hispanic, 19% white and 17% Black.

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Officials estimate that because of learning lost over the summer, some low-income students have fallen behind by three grade levels by 5th grade. Then, because of COVID and the scramble for distance learning and solutions to technology challenges last school year, some students will return an additional year behind.

When you consider that Hispanic and Black students were lagging their white counterparts by double-digit percentage points in reading at the end of the 2019 school year, it’s clear why the district could no longer maintain the status quo.

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Most school districts across the state are still awaiting guidelines from Texas education commissioner Mike Morath to make final decisions on their calendars and what the school year will look like next year. We continue to be concerned that Morath has declared schools “safe” to open for in-person instruction next year while cases surge in the pandemic. But the state won’t require the masks, shields or COVID-19 tests that science tells us reduces the spread of the virus.

It’s why Garland, Fort Worth, Frisco and other districts are giving parents the choice of in-person or distance learning for their kids. We’ve pushed for that, and districts say that more planning will make distance learning more robust, accessible and accountable than it was in the spring.

That’s critical since a TEA report showed that 600,000 of the state’s 5 million students either didn’t complete assignments or didn’t respond to teacher outreach for some period of time this spring.

That won’t cut it if we have any hope of creating equity in Texas and improving student performance.

We believe Garland is on to a sound strategy that could make a big difference. We hope other districts follow its lead.

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