A Lexicon of Learning

What Educators Mean When They Say...

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Y

year-round schooling

Replacing the conventional school year of 9–10 months and a long summer break with a continuous school year with breaks at other times. Advocates say the traditional school calendar reflects a society that needed children home in the summer to work on farms. In today's society, children are frequently left home alone in the summer with little to do.

School systems have devised several different year-round models. In the single-track approach, the lengthy summer vacation is replaced by several shorter breaks that are scattered throughout the calendar year. In one such plan, known as 45-15, the school year consists of four 45-day sessions separated by breaks of approximately 15 days each. 

The advantage is that students retain more information than they would over a long break and need less review, so can continue learning more readily. The breaks give both students and teachers more frequent opportunities to relax. Some schools offer minicourses and enrichment classes during breaks.

In a multitrack approach, most often used in rapidly growing communities, school is always in session, but only a portion of the students attend at any one time so that there is enough room to accommodate everyone. A school built to accommodate 750 students can be used to educate 1,000 students if, at any given time, 250 of them are on vacation. 

The multitrack method saves money that would otherwise have to be spent for school construction, although costs are incurred for the additional salaries, maintenance, and air conditioning (as needed). Families often resist both single-track and multitrack year-round schooling plans because they disrupt schedules and interfere with vacation plans, at least initially. Breaks at nontraditional times of the year, however, may allow families to enjoy less expensive, less crowded vacations.

A different version of year-round schooling, seldom used because it is expensive, extends the school year from the conventional 180 days to as many as 247 school days.

This document contains some material that was previously published in The Language of Learning: A Guide to Educational Terms, edited by J. Lynn McBrien and Ronald Brandt, 1997, ASCD.