Year-round school: The best thing since sliced bread

Childhood Education, 1995 by Warrick-Harris, Elaine

Teachers, I ask you two questions. How many of your students helped to harvest crops last year? And how many mothers of students in your classroom stayed at home? It is true that some communities still depend heavily on agriculture, but modern farming's sophistication is such that children no longer carry the responsibilities that they once did. Fewer family situations today include a stay-at-home mother. Most teachers would probably answer the above questions by saying "none" or "very few." Therefore, a reasonable follow-up question would be, "Why do we continue to organize learning schedules for students based on the agricultural practices of 100 years ago?"

The outdated and agriculturally sensitive school calendar has other disadvantages. For example, vandalism to empty school buildings, especially over the summer months, is a growing problem. Students who have nothing to do during summer too often turn to mischief, or worse. On the other hand, Brekke (1984) and Ballinger (1987) indicate that schools operating on a year-round schedule have been able to reduce the incidence of vandalism and burglary.

Year-Round Education (YRE) is an excellent solution to the problems of vandalism, loss of productive learning time and unsupervised children. The term "year-round" is actually misleading. Other more descriptive terms might be "continuous learning," "all-seasons learning" or even "four-seasons school." "Year-round school" is the term most frequently associated with the organizational system that uses the school facility during every season. The year-round school is not, however, an alternative curriculum for learning. Quinlan, George and Emmett (1987) define YRE as a reorganization of the school calendar into instructional blocks and vacations distributed across the calendar year to ensure continuous learning. The single-track schedule, for example, offers nine weeks of instruction followed by a three-week break.

Traditional curriculum content continues to be used within the yearly round schedule. Students' learning in a year-round school, however, can progress with less of an interruption during the summer months. Students retain more information during four short breaks than they would after the normal ten-week summer vacation. This continuity of instruction, along with remedial reviews offered during the breaks, helps reduce the number of students who must be retained in grade.

In addition, the year-round schedule leads to less teacher stress and burnout. Rather than the feast-or-famine break schedule practiced by most schools, teachers benefit from a cycle of evenly spaced vacations. Parents, too, gain from YRE. Families have more options for arranging vacations and can enjoy off-season rates and less-crowded vacation sites. In addition, many working parents favor a YRE schedule because it provides them with an opportunity for child care most of the year.

With so many benefits associated with YRE, it is logical to ask, "Why doesn't everyone have year-round school?"

One School's Story

Tradition is one reason why more schools have not adopted a year-round schedule. It is not easy to replace a practice that has been in place for decades with an alternative that could disrupt teachers' and parents' social and familial patterns. Usually, a change this drastic is associated with broader and potentially problematic circumstances. The initiation of YRE at Balfour Elementary School, in Asheboro, North Carolina, fits this description.

Five years ago, Balfour Elementary School, built in 1926, was representative of the small community school of long ago. The majority of the 312 students walked to school and only one bus was needed. By 1989, however, the school's enrollment and costs were both spiraling out of control. Essentially, the building was too old and too small.

A successful school bond referendum enabled the Board of Education to fund construction of a spacious new school within a mile of the old structure. During the planning stage for the new school, the system superintendent challenged Balfour's principal and staff to explore the concept of year-round education. They visited other year-round schools in North Carolina and read published research on YRE. One report in particular (Ballinger, Kirschembaum & Poimbeauf, 1987), had great impact as it indicated that the continued flow of learning engendered by YRE was beneficial to students at all levels. These researchers found that no year-round school had reported a drop in academic achievement; in fact, all showed a higher gain in academic scores when compared to schools following the August-Tune structure. It seemed apparent that this new schedule would benefit Balfour's students. The faculty voted to accept the year-round plan.

After much exploration, discussion and debate, the Board of Education unanimously voted to offer the plan as an option. Part of the school would continue on the traditional August-June schedule, and an alternate path would be established for year-round school. Parents could choose from either option.