Time is a critical resource for education. In the United States, the traditional academic year is based on an agrarian calendar with school recessing in the summer to allow children to help in the fields (Heinzman, n.d.). The school calendar is a reflection of the community calendar. For instance, in Kentucky, the school year is altered to support the Kentucky Derby. Generally, students attend school for 180 to 200 days in the academic year (Schlechty, 1990). In year-round schools, students attend classes the same number of days as in the traditional calendar. The difference is in how those days are spread through out the year. Year-round school continues to gain support in the United States. Everhart reports that

"Over the past fifteen years there has been a 544 percent increase in the number of public schools that have implemented year-round education in the United States. For the 2003-2003 school year, 46 states, 3,181 schools and more than 2.3 million students are participating in year-round schools. (2003, p.1)."

How is Year-Round Schooling Structured?

Instead of a long summer break, in year-round schools have several short breaks throughout the year. One pattern has 45 days of instruction followed by 15 days of vacation. This is repeated four times during the year (Knesse, 2000). In other variations of the calendar, students go to school for 60 days followed by a 20 day vacation or 90 days followed by a 30 day vacation. (Everhart, 2003). 45/15 is the most popular method of dividing the school year and is used by 39.6 percent of year-round schools. (Palmer and Beimis, 200).

Each school can either participate in a single or multi-track program. In a single-track program, all the students in the school follow the same schedule. In a multi-track program, while one group of students is on vacation, another group attends the school. In essence, students are always using the school. (Kneese, 2000)

What are the Advantages of Year-Round School?

The best reason to change to year-round school would be if it improved student learning. Research suggests that students forget less over several short breaks rather than over the school year (Harp, 2000; Everhart 2003). White goes further to say that

The three-month summer break is a particular hardship for younger children who are just beginning to build foundational skills and for students whose parents can’t afford fancy vacations or summer camp (White, 2000, p. 15).

Year-round school also works well with students who have special needs (Everhart, 2000). The calendar makes the most of learning time. Frequent breaks also provide time for remedial teaching that may allow those students who learn at a slower rate to keep up with the remainder of the class (Carroll, 1997). Year-round schools benefit students learning English as a second language by providing consistent year-round English language exposure and instruction (Haser and Nasser, 2003; Opheim, Mohajer, and Read, 2001).

Steve Jongewaard, a professor of education at Hamline University in St. Paul, Minnesota…adds, [year-round schooling is] especially beneficial for students who fall below the poverty line, who have special learning and language barriers, and whose parent need help with day care (White, 2000, p 16)

Teachers feel quality of instruction is better in year-round school because of the continuity (Kneese, 2000). Heinzman concurs saying that

the year-round program is the most effective way of teaching concepts. At the end of each nine weeks, the learning has taken place, you send home the report cards and when you come back you are ready to start a whole new unit of learning (Heinzman, n.d., p. 4) .

The intercession between instructional periods is popular when the schools have optional classes during the breaks (White, 2000). In some schools intersession courses are free and in other where there is a minimal cost, financial aid is available for those who can’t pay the fee. (Haser and Nasser, 2003). Intersession classes allow for creative enrichment instruction in areas of interest not just academic subjects (Atalig, 2003). Intercession classes range from "Math Magic" to hobbies and sports.

Faculty members and students have higher morale because of the frequent breaks. (Atalig, 2003). Haser and Nasser found that,

innovative, supportive school administers combined with the flexible work opportunities and period breaks crate by the year-round calendar are a powerful combination to improve teacher retention and job satisfaction (2003 p 66).

Teachers can also choose to work intersession for extra money and for the satisfaction of teaching a different course perhaps on a loved hobby. (Haser and Nasser, 2003). Teachers who want to work extra days and receive extra pay have that opportunity during intersession. Teachers in multi-track schools can also earn extra pay by substituting or by signing 12-month contracts (Kneese, 2000).

Teacher absenteeism declines in year-round school since with frequent breaks, there is not a need to take mental health days. Also, teachers schedule appointments during intersession when they are not in class (Haser and Nasser, 2003). There is more time for teaching reflection due to the regular breaks. You also have the opportunity to plan your teaching in smaller increments due to the breaks (Kneese, 2000). The breaks can also be used to do minor classroom improvements like rearranging the classroom, in single track schools (Nasser and Haser, 2003).

Year-round school is also touted as a way to reduce the cost of building more schools. If multi-tracking is used, you can reduce the number of school buildings required by one-fourth (Heinzman, n.d., p.2). With multi-track year-round school you can have up to four virtual schools in the same building.

Some families enjoy vacation choices other than summer (Heinzman, n.d.). In Douglas County Colorado, "’People tell us they like having a chance to take a family vacation to see the leaves in the fall. And a lot of people say Disneyland is much better in October’" (Harp, 1996, p 2). Most families do not continue the tradition of summer vacations as a long family outing. Child-care arrangements, if required, are very complicated in the summer (Opheim, Mohajer, and Read 2001). Having shorter summer breaks simplifies child-care and allows family vacations at multiple times during the school year.

What Are the Disadvantages of Year-Round School?

For those arguments that support year-round school, there are counter arguments to oppose year-round school. The first counter-argument is the impact year-round school has on family life. The contention is that year-round calendars disrupt family life. This is especially true if not all schools in the neighborhood are following the year-round calendar. For instance, a family could have one child in high school following a traditional calendar and another in elementary school following a year-round calendar. The children’s’ breaks would fall at different times making it difficult to have a family vacation without one child missing school. Teachers to can have their family time impacted as well when their children are following a different school calendar. This disruption of family life is why Seminole County, Florida school district ended year-round school (Harp, 1996).

A related issue to scheduling conflict is the schedule of extracurricular activities. Both the teachers who sponsor or coach and the students who participate in extracurricular activities are impacted by the year-round schedule. As a student athlete, event if your school track is not in session, you must attend practice to stay on the team. As a coach, you too must continue with coaching duties even if you are not teaching at that time (Kneese, 2000). In fact, "problems in coordinating extracurricular activities for secondary student is one of the primary reasons that a majority of year-round schools are elementary schools" (Opheim, Mohajer, and Read, 2001).

While the frequent breaks allow time for the teachers to renew and reflect, the lack of a long summer break makes it difficult for teachers to attend graduate and professional development courses required to maintain certification (Atalig, 2003). The year-round schedule also makes it difficult to provide teacher in-service training time without using intersession since teachers are not all on the same calendar (Atalig, 2003; Kneese, 2000).

Furthermore, administrators work without a summer break (Atalig, 2003). While the teachers have time off, the administrators continue to work the scheduling challenge of regular academic classes as well as the intersession courses. Administrators in multi-track system face even more challenges as they try and track different set of children in the same school at different times (Opheim, Mohajer, and Read, 2001).

In multi-track schools, one classroom can be shared by as many as four teachers. This means that teachers pack up their classrooms every intersession (Kneese, 2000). As you might imagine, frequent movement of supplies can lead to loss of equipment. In addition, the classroom must be set up again prior to the start of the next class session.

Other facilities issues exist as well, particularly for multi-track year-round schools. There are additional costs to maintain the school buildings with the increased use of the structure. Summer is no longer available to be used for major school upgrades without disturbing classes (Opheim, Mohajer, and Read, 2001). Also summer is one of the most expensive times to pay for building utilities. The biggest expense is the need for more maintenance personnel, teachers and administrative staff to support the increased number of classes taught in the school (Carter, 1999).

Conclusion

The data about the results of year-round is inconclusive. It is difficult to isolate the calendar as the sole cause of benefits to the student. For example, in Minnesota, student performance in the year-round Minnesota Center School has improved. However, the classes are 20 to 22 students versus 29 to 31 students in the regular school. Also, there are more classroom teachers at the Minnesota Center, which increases individual attention. Lastly the amount of parent support is greater than in the traditional schools (Heinzman, n.d.). Class size and parental involvement can improve student performance regardless of the school calendar.

Despite the fact that student achievement, one of the primary reasons to support year-round school, is not significantly higher than in traditional school (McMillen, 2001; Palmer and Bemis, 1999), year-round education does provide benefits for children who need extra remediation. However, because of it’s impact to extracurricular activities in high school, I think it works best for elementary and middle schools. High school students also use summer to work for college funding as well as trying out potential careers. The work experience cannot be replicated in school and therefore longer summers should be retained for high school students.

Multi-track year-round school appears to be a viable option for short term school overcrowding. So, if a new school is being build, multi-track year-round schooling can provide a temporary fix. The stress to the school, the administration and the cumulative additional resource costs makes multi-track year-round schooling cost more than building a new school over the long term.

At elementary and middle school year-round school remains an option for school improvement. Like smaller class size, year-round school is a technique that can improve learning. Implementation of year-round schooling needs to be coordinated across the school district to ensure full support of the parents and the local community. Without parental and community support, year-round school, like any school will not succeed.

REFLECTION

There are many factors that make a successful school.  The school calendar is only a piece of the puzzle.  Of more importance is the support the school receives from the community at large. 

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Last Update:  Tuesday, July 10, 2007

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