Maryland State Senator Paul Pinsky, Chair of the Education, Health and Environmental Affairs Committee would like the State to consider year-round school, comprising four quarters and seasonal breaks.

Although Governor Larry Hogan announced the start of the process of reopening Maryland, there is no certainty what students return to school holds or when it will occur. As previously reported, teachers favor starting the next school year as normally occurs, giving more targeted help to students who need it, while administrators tend to favor starting with concepts lost during the COVID-19 closures.

Senator Pinsky believes the right option for continuing education in Maryland could be year-round school. The Maryland State Education Association stated that the idea “clearly has major legislative, budgetary, and other legal angles that would all need to be considered, analyzed, and addressed as part of an inclusive policy conversation about what is best for our students.”

From CBS Baltimore:

The “summer slide” in which students typically lose some ground during their break is expected to be far worse next fall, with projections by the nonprofit Northwest Evaluation Association suggesting some students could be as much as a year behind in math.

“Students with worse educational opportunity will have worse outcomes and it occurs fairly rapidly,” Andre Perry, a fellow at the Brookings Institution, said. “A month away can have a dramatic impact on outcomes, so six months will certainly show up in the classroom in the fall.”

Other states, such as Ohio are considering Saturday classes in some districts. Any steps taken for remediation would also be complicated by future social distancing mandates as well as budget cuts due to revenues shortfalls.