Issue

Year-round education (YRE) is not the cure-all that some claim. Multi-track YRE is operationally much more expensive than a traditional schedule—about $130,000 a year per elementary school.Some claim that year-round schedules boost students' academic achievement. No valid study documents any improvement in this area. The so-called "summer learning loss" is another excuse for YRE, but most people, including children, have far greater memory loss in the short term (say, two to three weeks). The YRE schedules, with their many two- to four-week breaks throughout the year, not only maximize forgetting, but require teachers to spend far more time on reacclimating students to school routine than does a traditional schedule.In addition, YRE puts children in hot classrooms during the dog days of summer and out playing during November and February. In most climates, this schedule makes little sense.Finally, multi-track YRE might be needed as the absolutely last option for space in some communities that can't build the needed schools. This premise must be understood and accepted by the vast majority of the community, or YRE won't work.—Donald Patterson is a school board member in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

The advantages of year-round education far outweigh the disadvantages. Financially, it avoids the building of additional schools and allows more efficient use of the present buildings. Teacher morale is improved 100 percent, because teachers get two vacations instead of one. Faculty members come back to school refreshed and ready to work.Educationally, two shorter breaks per year are beneficial. Students forget less and need less review. Intersession offerings allow students to make up work as well as take enrichment courses. Moreover, students are serviced all year. Facilities such as the library and professional help from the school psychologist, counselors, career advisor, and nurse are available year round. When students are off track, they can concentrate on other activities, such as their Advanced Placement classes, athletic teams, orchestra, and band, without having to worry about homework, tests, and the regular demands made by classroom teachers.Flexibility is probably the greatest asset of this type of calendar. There are innumerable options for students and programs, because courses and services are offered year round. Students tap into these resources often and in creative ways.Despite all these advantages, however, there are some disadvantages. Communication with the off-track students and teachers is very difficult to maintain. Administrative burnout is another problem. Administrators really need to take vacation time to renew themselves. Nevertheless, a year-round calendar is a wonderful boon to the education of our students.—Maria Tostado is principal of James A. Garfield High School in Los Angeles, California.

There is no blanket answer, as each situation must be decided on its own merits. Is YRE being considered for educational reasons, financial/space reasons, or a combination of both? If finances are key, then the number of students in a school and the extent of program diversity become major criteria for making decisions. In a multi-track system, the more program choices available, the harder it is to meet course enrollment expectations, and the greater the likelihood that families will feel that their curriculum choices are threatened.If educational advantages are desired, students' backgrounds can be important determiners. Among the most consistent research findings is that ESL students and others who are at risk show higher achievement gains when they experience a better balance of instructional and vacation days than that offered by the traditional calendar. Educational advantages are not as clear-cut with students in the average and above-average ability ranges.The bottom line about year-round schooling is how people react to change in their lifestyle. The traditional school calendar is all that most of us have experienced, and many of our social institutions have grown toward the light of that calendar. Discussions about year-round schooling generally get framed around the personal passions that this topic evokes.—Joel Weiss is a faculty member at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto. He has studied policy-making around school calendars.

Unhesitatingly, I answer yes. With 20 years as a year-round teacher and principal, and another 15 years in traditional-calendar schools, I know that year-round education has advantages unavailable to nine-month schools.Year-round education encourages staff members to rethink delivery of the instructional program and to work in groups in positive ways that were not feasible in the traditional setting. It enhances the teaching/learning process by reducing summer learning loss and promoting creative intersession programs of remediation and enrichment. It clearly fits the needs of students learning a new language and those students for whom an 18-week semester course is just too long for sustained attention. Instructional time is focused because of year-round education's rhythmic cycle of learning periods and vacations.The National Education Commission on Time and Learning urged districts to heed the educational principle that students learn at different rates. In Prisoners of Time, the commissioners urged districts with multiple schools to offer parents and students choices of school day and year calendars, a pattern not available in most U.S. school districts. Educational leaders should begin immediately to explore and to offer time options.—Don Jeffries is program specialist with the National Association for Year-Round Education (NAYRE).