Nevada school chief says longer school year not a silver bullet to reform

By STEVE TETREAULT

STEPHENS WASHINGTON BUREAU

WASHINGTON -- Nevada's education chief welcomed President Barack Obama's call to lengthen the school year, but said it's just one factor to improve student learning.

"From our perspective it would be something we would be very supportive of," said state Superintendent Keith Rheault. "Because of all the higher standards, the teachers and districts are saying they don't have enough time to teach what we are asking. The only way you can do it is to buy more time which would be by more school days."

Rheault said the state Legislature in several sessions, most recently in 2005, considered adding anywhere from one to 10 days to the 180-day school calendar. It would have cost about $8 million per additional day, with about 80 percent of the cost attributed to personnel, he said.

The change wasn't adopted because of a lack of expert consensus that a longer school year in and of itself would improve student achievement, Rheault said. The president's opinion notwithstanding, there probably still is lack of consensus whether more school days automatically equals better schools, he added.

"It is just one of the pieces," he said. "But if a state doesn't for example, pay its teachers enough to retain the best and keep them in place, that has a bigger factor than the amount of instructional time. Just the quality of the staff, the leadership of the administrators in the schools, all of that plays into it."

Clark County teachers union President Ruben Murillo applauded Obama's call for a longer school year, but said "that is not the only answer."

"There has to be a look at what is the root cause of all students not succeeding," he said. He suggested that kindergarten class sizes be reduced.

Also, he said, "give teachers the freedom to teach what they need to teach, and not be so proscriptive in what they teach."

Contact Stephens Washington Bureau Chief Steve Tetreault at stetreault@stephensmedia.com or 202-783-1760.