Michigan districts experiment with replacing snow days
Snow days are times of great excitement for children, but parents and teachers often have a different view. Parents may plan on getting some work done from home, only to find that a short break outside has turned into a full morning or afternoon gone. Meanwhile, teachers and school administrators have to plan for make-up days and any fallout that may result.One Ohio school districtMississinawa Valleyis experimenting with turning those snow days into make-up days themselves, thanks to the power of the Internet. The plan is referred to as “e-days,” and is currently being tested in Mississinawa before possibly growing across the state and country. As part of the project, teachers prepare stand-alone lessons related to class skills in advance. If and when a snow day hits, students with Internet access log on and complete the lesson. Those students without Internet access have two weeks to make up the assignment, and can use the school’s computers to do so if necessary.The main criticisms of the “e-days” program are the loss of snow days and the requirement of Internet access to complete the assignments. As stated above, educators have already made exceptions for those students who can’t get online during a snow day, helping to minimize the second complaint. As for the first, there is likely to be a lot of discussion in other districts if the program does prove successful. While some parents will argue that these “e-days” take away an important part of childhood, others will appreciate the new option.Another factor that parents may not consider is the cost to schools of implementing regular make-up days. Depending on the specific school district, the number of supported make-up days may be much less than the actual amount of days that are missed. “E-days” would help to meet state laws for hours of instruction at a lower cost.Online lessons are nothing new at higher levels of education, with some programs being entirely computer-based, and others simply offering students the option to add more credits to their schedule. Will such a program catch on in more “mainstream” school districts? 2011 may be the year we find out.