SEASONS, SCHOOLS CALENDAR, AND CURRICULA EXECUTION IN BENIN EFL CLASSES

The present study explores seasons, schools calendar, and programs execution in Benin EFL classes. Seasons, schools calendar, and Programs execution may impact learners’ achievement. It is demonstrated by many scholars that both Seasons and School Calendars help stakeholders to be more productive in their daily work and to schedule their activity. This study was conducted in three regions of Benin schools: north, the center, and the south. An overall of fourteen schools were randomly selected coupled with twenty EFL teachers into the study. Questionnaires were administered to the teachers. Similarly, interviews were conducted among learners and Schools administrators. The results revealed a necessity for schools specialists to redesign curriculum division. Moreover, there was a significant need to combine curricula contents that really fit Season's constraints. Finally, the findings show that Program execution in the South and Center part of Benin show more stability whereas they remained unstable in the northern part.

How teachers experienced the COVID-19 transition to remote instruction

The COVID-19 viral pandemic affected all facets of life, including schooling. In March 2020, schools abruptly ended face-to-face instruction and transitioned to emergency remote instruction. David Marshall, David Shannon, and Savanna Love surveyed teachers nationally between mid-March and early April 2020 to understand their experiences during this time. Teachers found all aspects of teaching more challenging during remote instruction and shared a range of experiences related to training opportunities, barriers to student learning, as well as support for English learners and students with special needs. Based on the teachers’ comments, the authors recommend incorporating digital learning days in future school calendars and putting clear plans in place for future emergencies.

Are All Four-Day School Weeks Created Equal? A National Assessment of Four-Day School Week Policy Adoption and Implementation

Four-day school weeks are used in over 1,600 schools across 24 states, but little is known about adoption and implementation of these types of school calendars. Through examinations of school calendars and correspondence with school districts, we have compiled the most complete four-day school week dataset to date. We use this unique database to conduct a comprehensive analysis of four-day school week policy adoption and implementation. We find adoption of four-day school weeks is often financially-motivated and has generally remained a small, rural district phenomenon. These schedules feature a day off once a week – often Friday – with increased time in school on each of the remaining four school days that, on average, is nearly an hour longer than the national average among five-day schools. Four-day school week schedules average only 148 yearly school days, yielding yearly time in school that is below the national average for five-day schools despite the longer school days. Substantial heterogeneity exists in the structure of these schedules across states, which may help explain differential four-day school week effects on student outcomes across institutional settings in the previous literature.

Multi-Track Year-Round Schooling as Cost Saving Reform: Not Just a Matter of Time

In the face of school crowding and fears about inequality-inducing summer learning loss, many schools have started to adopt multi-track year-round school calendars, which keep the same number of school days, but spread them more evenly across the calendar year. This change allows schools to support a larger student population by rotating which students are on break at any point in time. While year-round schooling can save money, the impact on academic achievement is uncertain and only recently have large-scale studies become available for policy makers. This brief examines research on the effects of multi-track year-round schooling, focusing on two rigorously executed case studies. This research gives little support for claims that year-round schooling will boost student achievement. Except as a remedy for highly over-crowded schools, year-round schooling seems to have little impact on achievement, and has even been shown to decrease achievement, especially among the most high-risk student populations.