Bruno said the school uses its Title 1 money, federal financing aimed at boosting achievement among

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The students at Robert Russa Moton Charter School were in a groove. Fifth-graders opened books, and dived in. Third-graders worked on addition tables, obediently complying when a teacher asked, "Let me see whose finger is on the right spot."
But at Moton, and an increasing number of schools throughout the city, opening week has taken on a whole new meaning. The unstructured free time that was once a rite of childhood summers is no more for many New Orleans public-school students. Increasingly, schools have added weeks on to the school year or adopted costa rica vacation rentals year-round schedules, so students never spend much more than a few weeks outside of class.
Jennifer Zdon/The Times-Picayune Destiny Dupree does a math exercise on the board in her third-grade classroom at Robert Russa Moton Charter School, which operates on a schedule of nine weeks on and three weeks off.
Studies back up what Meinig says. And the academic regression tends to be more common among poorer children, who are less apt to be exposed to activities that exercise the brain: trips to libraries costa rica vacation rentals and museums, for instance.
Nationally, KIPP -- short for the Knowledge costa rica vacation rentals is Power Program -- spends about $1,200 per student each year to add time to the school day and year, according to a new report by the education consulting costa rica vacation rentals company Cross & Joftus. The report notes that as growing numbers of schools across the country expand classroom hours, most are relying on private dollars costa rica vacation rentals or community partnerships to help pay for it.
In New Orleans, where a majority of the schools are now independent charters, schools have more autonomy to set their own calendars, and several have aggressively pursued costa rica vacation rentals private and grant money to enrich their offerings, including by adding more time. The state-run Recovery School District has also added instructional time for its students, lengthening the school day, among other things.
Moton was an early pioneer in the effort, fighting during the past 20 years for a schedule that kept students in school year-round. But since Katrina, New Orleans public schools with long summer breaks -- more than six or seven weeks -- are becoming the exception rather than the norm.
The format and length of the extended year varies. At Moton, students spend nine weeks in school, and then three weeks off. KIPP Believe has shortened its summer so students start the academic year in mid-July instead of the traditional August opening. And more than 20 public schools advertise a mandatory extended school year in the New Orleans Parents' Guide to Public Schools, with several costa rica vacation rentals others offering "optional" summer programs.
Advocates say the two- to three-month summer break has its roots in an agrarian calendar that holds little relevance today. While wealthier families often use the time to send their children to summer camps or enrichment courses, low-income families have fewer options.
costa rica vacation rentals "I think (extended year) is driven by a recognition that if we are going to close the achievement gap, we need to give kids more time to learn, " said Gina Warner, executive director of the Greater New Orleans costa rica vacation rentals Afterschool Partnership. "That's really the premise costa rica vacation rentals of after-school and summer learning."
One study by Karl Alexander, a sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University, found that two-thirds of the achievement gap between "disadvantaged youngsters and their more advantaged peers" can be explained by summer habits. Middle-class students with more educated parents, he said, were more likely to take their children to museums, the library or summer classes.
Warner supports longer school years if educators consider the scheduling impact on working families and try to incorporate enrichment activities that are less common during the traditional school year, like summer nature camps.
"It provides a service to families, " said Michael costa rica vacation rentals Richard, director of Pride College Prep, a charter school opening next month. "I'm doing home visits now, and the parents are thrilled. I have yet to meet a negative reaction."
Jennifer Zdon/The Times-Picayune Fourth-grade teacher Brenda Irvin helps her students costa rica vacation rentals with a reading exercise at Robert Russa Moton Charter School. Since Katrina, New Orleans public schools with long summer breaks are becoming the exception rather than the norm.
Yvette Martin, whose daughter attends KIPP Believe College Prep, said the middle-schooler does not mind the three-week August summer session used to introduce new students to the KIPP culture and re-introduce all of them to academics.
"When he complained I told him, 'You're competing against costa rica vacation rentals kids going to the Ivy League who've been exposed to the best education money can buy, ' " she said. "You have to work twice as hard. You have to study twice as hard. Once he started going, he gave 100 percent."
Immediately, the school started to get results, recalls Principal Paulette Bruno. In the first quarter of the year, only seven students were suspended, compared with more than 50 a year earlier. Bruno said the "children weren't out of school long enough to get into problems."
In the early 1990s, however, the Orleans Parish School Board told Moton it no longer had the money to pay for a longer school year, Bruno said. At that point, costa rica vacation rentals the school switched to a year-round schedule -- with the traditional number of school days spaced evenly around the school year. During costa rica vacation rentals the three-week breaks, students have the option of attending morning classes at Moton, which feature elective offerings like cooking in addition to core academic fare.
Bruno said the school uses its Title 1 money, federal financing aimed at boosting achievement among low-income students, to pay teachers to work during those breaks, when nearly 75 percent of the families choose to come to school. Today, Moton is one of the highest-performing open-enrollment public schools costa rica vacation rentals in the city.