Think year-round school calendars increase achievement? Think again.
Well-meaning parents and school superintendents often advocate for a change to a year-round school calendar. But this won't increase achievement.
Every year around this time, news outlets run stories on “year-round” school calendars. That’s because year-round calendars have a short summer break and start the school year in late July or early August. But the shorter summer vacation of the year-round calendar doesn’t help students to learn. Unfortunately, many school leaders don’t know that.
Year-round calendars are not a new idea. The National Association for Year-Round Education, which promotes year-round calendars, was founded in 1972. Since the 1990s, thousands of schools have tried year-round calendars in hopes that they would raise student achievement as supporters eagerly promise. Those promises have not been fulfilled.
Year-round schedules don't improve test scores
In California, where nearly a thousand schools switched calendars between 1998 and 2005, schools that switched to a year-round calendar did not see test scores rise, and schools that switched back to a traditional calendar did not see scores fall. The USA’s most populous state, where 1 in 5 schools used year-round calendars in the late 1990s, now uses a year-round calendar in only 1 out of 20.
Outside of California, large districts that have tried the year-round calendar include Oklahoma City, greater Raleigh NC, greater Las Vegas, and Indianapolis. None have seen tests scores rise. Yet each year, school boards across the country debate the merits of changing their calendars, often without the evidence from research and other states.
More:Netflix can't be trusted. Its choice of content proves it has turned its back on families.
Why I'm starting the first computer science middle school in Washington, DC
Don't divert taxpayer money to vouchers. It does much more good at public schools.
Why don’t year-round calendars raise test scores? Because year-round calendars don’t actually increase time in the classroom. Although year-round schools take a shorter summer break, they compensate with longer-than-usual breaks in the fall and spring. The total number of school days — typically 170 to 180 — is no greater on a year-round calendar than on a traditional calendar. The total amount learned is no greater, either.
Where year-round calendars have been popular, they were often meant not to increase achievement, but to handle crowding. A crowded school can try a “multi-track” year-round calendar on which different groups of students attend school at different times — with some students on break while others are in session. Since not all students need to be in the building at the same time, schools can handle more students on a multi-track calendar than on a traditional calendar. Crowding is why multi-track calendars were once popular in California, and why they are used in greater Las Vegas and Raleigh today.
Multi-track calendars give parents a headache
But multi-track calendars can cause problems of their own. Parents find it harder to juggle schedules and childcare when their children’s breaks are scattered throughout the year and not concentrated during summer, when camps are typically available. This is complicated further if children within the same family are on different schedules — for example, with one child at a year-round school and one on a traditional calendar. When districts start using year-round calendars, mothers of school-age children work less, and property values decline — two signs that parents prefer the predictability of a traditional calendar.
Few parents or school superintendents know the history or evidence on year-round schools, so well-meaning school leaders often adopt a year-round calendar with unrealistic hopes that are dashed within a few years. Both Oklahoma City and Indianapolis have gone down this path in recent years. Neither was especially crowded, and neither increased achievement.
Let’s break the cycle of disappointment. Year-round calendars aren’t new and haven’t delivered on their promises. While some year-round calendars can be motivated on the cost savings they provide, it is important that policymakers stop selling them to the public on academic benefits that don’t materialize.
Jennifer Graves is an associate professor of economics at the Autonomous University of Madrid, and Paul von Hippel is an associate professor of public policy at the University of Texas, Austin.