How Much Leeway Should Parents Give to Schools At the End of the Year?

Everyone seems to accept that emphasis on academics will taper off during the closing weeks of the school year. Teachers and students will qualify statements with, “but the year is almost over, so…” Parents often give in as well, figuring little of any value will be accomplished during the final few weeks and days. Aside from final exams, most people involved recognize the school year as ending well before it does. Should they?

To begin, this tapering isn’t true for all schools. The degree of tapering will vary within schools based on particular programs and certain teachers. Some administrators will insist on academic rigor until the final bell with teachers in those schools following suite. Students frequently find themselves working until the final day to complete summative projects. Those students who face heavily weighted finals at the end of each year certainly don’t feel like school shuts down early.

At many schools, however, a sense of everything winding down will begin several weeks before the last student day. Assignments will slow to a trickle. Classwork will become minimal. Teachers will adopt a laissez faire attitude towards classroom management. Everything will begin to feel loose and will stay that way until students exit the building for the summer break.

This is understandable, to an extent. Special events saved for the end of the school year such as talent shows, proms, and class trips have a way of breaking up the week and interfering with consistent instruction. Pushing on with instruction against the steady stream of interruptions can feel futile and some teachers essentially give up. Students give up, too. They can feel exhausted by the end of the year and might not have much left to give. Those who know their grades are more or less secure—especially seniors—might call it a year before the final marking period even begins.

Other factors influence the choice to back off with instruction. Teachers often exhale in relief after state assessments are completed in the spring. Administrators sometimes look the other way, considering instruction to be over after the assessments. Additionally, many schools face huge drops in attendance during the final days. Planning and delivery can become tricky for those teachers wishing to move forward. The scope and sequence of some curricula account for these expected barriers and reserve the final weeks for review or extension activities. Even attempting to implement any of this can feel pointless when teachers see their colleagues phoning it in during the closing weeks.

Should parents accept all this? The tapering described above is akin to shortening the school year. It adds up to a marking period or two of missed instruction after just a few years. The detrimental effects are difficult to gauge, because finding counter examples in comparative schools is difficult. What is clear is instructional time is lost. This seems like something that should be at least a bit concerning to parents.

The trouble for concerned parents is how to actually do anything about it. The first intervention would be seeking a school that uses shorter summer breaks or even trimesters and thus reduces the feeling of finality associated with the spring. Barring this option, parents might wish to preemptively approach teachers about end of the year plans as a means of showing interest and of feeling out each teacher’s intentions. Should rigor seem to take a dive prematurely, parents can diplomatically raise the issue with teachers, or perhaps raise it not-so-diplomatically with administrators. Whether or not actions will result in any change would depend greatly on the school and on specific personnel. In any case, a collective voice among parents might work best.

The other possibility is that perhaps doing anything about it isn’t worth the effort. Maybe pushing students to continue producing until the last period of the last day wouldn’t be effective anyway. Giving somewhat of a release at the end of the year might be beneficial to each school’s climate and to each student’s psychological wellbeing. This might sound like a copout, but it might have some merit.

Yes, parents should address issues of gross professional negligence or any lack of supervision that might affect safety. Yes, parents should approach the school if the end-of-the-year tapering begins too far in advance. However, there could be some sense to leaving well-enough alone in less extreme cases. Parents should expect schools to deliver a rigorous curriculum that rightly challenges students. They should have high expectations for what schools deliver. They should expect schools to maintain high expectations for students all year. Picking battles might be prudent, though. The end of the traditional school year might be the time for everyone to cut their proverbial losses, focus on the successes of the year, and invest energy into what will happen the following year.

Written by Jeff Hartman