School Calendars

Time for a change? It’s September and everyone is finally back to school, While many parents are celebrating, some are asking the question… “why the long summer breaks versus year-round school?” This is a debate that has been going on for as long as I can remember. As we talk about learning being 24/7, the phasing out of the Carnegie Unit in favor of mastery, and the changes we are seeing in teaching and learning, we also need to talk about the school calendar. The traditional school calendar was developed for the agrarian age, which made sense at the time. Unfortunately, that time has passed and we need to decide if keeping with the traditional school calendar is about learning – or logistics.

Critics contend that research on the academic benefits of year-round education is inconclusive and that extracurricular programs will suffer. Supporters contend that shorter times away from school will improve student retention, eliminating the need to reteach for weeks after a long summer break. They believe remediation can occur, when needed, during the school year — not as a “punishment” forcing a student to go to summer school. The same is true for enrichment programs.

In our August e-newsletter we asked the question, “Is it a school’s job to address not only what happens in the classroom, but also social and economic issues in the community?” A majority of you who answered our poll said “yes.” If that is what we truly believe, we need to encourage disadvantaged communities to consider year-round and community schools for the sake of their students and their families. While opportunities exist for those in the middle-class for out-of-school learning activities, the same is not true for students living in poverty. Schools provide them with a safe place, a hot meal and activities to keep them engaged. For many of these students, summer is time lost.

Year-round education also affects space planning and school facilities. Depending on the district’s year-round plan (45-15, 60-20 and 90-30) and if they operate single-track or multi-track, building use can be optimized to help relieve overcrowding and serve more students. Plus… school buildings don’t need a summer vacation, except for the summer maintenance and construction projects.

With all of the changes we have seen in the past few years in educational delivery and school design, we would be remiss if we did not look at the school calendar again. Making a change may feel like moving a mountain, but I can’t imagine 24/7 or life-long learning with the tagline “except for the months of June, July and August.”

This article originally appeared in the issue of .

Featured

  • Springfield Breaks Ground on $53.7M Pipkin Middle School Rebuild

    Construction is underway on a new, state-of-the-art Pipkin Middle School in Springfield, Mo., a major step in Springfield Public Schools’ (SPS) long-term facility improvement plan, according to local news. The $53.7-million project officially broke ground in early June, following years of planning and community input aimed at modernizing aging infrastructure and addressing student capacity concerns.

  • ProTeam Launches GoFit 6 HEPA Backpack Vacuum

    Technology leader Emerson recently introduced the new ProTeam GoFit 6 HEPA backpack vacuum, according to a news release. The vacuum was designed to capture 99.97% of particulates down to 0.3 microns—including atmospheric hazards like lead dust, mold spores, and other particulates—through an advanced filtration system.

  • California High School Starts Construction on New CTE Building

    Analy High School, part of the West Sonoma County Union High School District (WSCUHSD) in Sebastopol, Calif., recently broke ground on a new Career Technical Education (CTE) Building, according to a news release. The 15,000-square-foot facility will offer specialized facilities for students in engineering, welding, culinary arts, agricultural sciences, and design thinking.

  • modern college building with circuit and brain motifs

    Anthropic Introduces Claude for Education

    Anthropic has launched a version of its Claude AI assistant tailored for higher education institutions. Claude for Education "gives academic institutions secure, reliable AI access for their entire community," the company said, to enable colleges and universities to develop and implement AI-enabled approaches across teaching, learning, and administration.

Digital Edition