Year-Round School Calendar
- MelodiousOne Studios
- Mar 31, 2022
- 2 min read
Updated: Mar 27
Students, parents, and teachers who participate in a year-round school tend to have positive attitudes about the experience.
After the long, lazy days of summer, students traditionally return to school to repeat the process of acclimating to new teachers, new classmates, and new classroom procedures. Students also struggle to remember skills and content they often have not used for several months.
To combat this summer learning loss, many schools have implemented year-round schooling. The National Association for Year-Round Education reported in 2007 that 3,000 year-round schools enrolled more than 2 million students in the United States. But does the research show that year-round schooling raises student achievement?
...when year-round schooling has resulted in higher academic achievement, the schools in question are usually doing more than just rearranging the school calendar.
Research indicates that summer learning loss is a real problem for students—especially for economically disadvantaged students. In one study, Alexander, Entwisle, and Olson (2007) found that low-income students made similar achievement gains to other students during the school year; the widening of the achievement gap between the two groups occurred over the summer. Another study found that summer learning loss is more pronounced for math facts, spelling, and other academic material that is concrete rather than conceptual (Cooper, Nye, Charlton, Lindsay & Greathouse, 1996).
Students in year-round schools do as well or slightly better in terms of academic achievement than students in traditional schools.
Year-round education may be particularly beneficial for students from low-income families.
Students, parents, and teachers who participate in a year-round school tend to have positive attitudes about the experience.
The research also indicates that when year-round schooling has resulted in higher academic achievement, the schools in question are usually doing more than just rearranging the school calendar. These schools are also providing remediation and enrichment for students during the breaks so that students have opportunities to relearn material, practice skills, catch up, or experience nonacademic enrichment activities continuously throughout the year (McMillen, 2001).
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