SHREVEPORT, La. (KTAL/KMSS) – Elementary and middle school students in Caddo Parish could see an extra five days added to their academic calendar for the 2022-2023 school year to make up for lost learning time due to COVID if proposed revisions are approved.
“We all know the impacts that COVID-19 has had on all of society, certainly not just schools but one of the main concerns we have is the amount of lost learning that our students have been impacted with due to, not only with the distraction of COVID, but also a large number of absenteeism from staff as well as students,” said Chief Academic Officer Keith Burton.
That is why Burton says they are asking the Caddo Parish School Board to consider five additional days beginning August 3, 2022, for all elementary and middle school students.
Burton says the added days are needed to give teachers the time to complete beginning of the year diagnostics and student learning targets as well as give students time to learn foundational skills.
“We’ve worked cooperatively with the department of education to have dialog around what truly is best and we have created a plan that is focused around three things,” Burton explained. “It’s focused on ensuring that we are providing teachers all the resources that they need to be successful. We are providing training to teachers to ensure that they are prepared to teach students every day, and the third component of our plan is time ensuring that we are maximizing not only the time during the day, but also looking at calendar and schedules to ensure we are adding the days needed.”
“And again the only reason why we are doing that is to help students be more successful and attack that learning loss that happened due to COVID-19,” Burton added.
Although high school students will be starting school a week later, summer learning camps will be available to those who need them.
The school board will present the added school days in a special session on March 1.
