Dive Brief:
- According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the number of year-round public schools increased 26% between 2002 and 2012.
- In total, about 4% of public schools (or 3,700 nationwide) operate year-round, while about one in ten year-round schools is a charter school.
- The switch can come with extra costs, including transportation, but the biggest is often air-conditioning for the hot summer months.
Dive Insight:
The benefits of year-round schooling include higher attendance rates for both students and teachers, more frequent opportunities for remediation, and less summer learning loss.
“If you have kids who are at risk and not making the achievement gains you wanted, you can look at eliminating the traditional calendar to eliminate learning loss,” Joshua Talison, superintendent of Michigan's Beecher Community School District, told District Administration.
But it’s not universally popular, and some say that the schedule is unsustainable and lacks a research backing. “From what we’ve seen, these schools usually go for a few years, and then the district goes back to the traditional calendar,” said Tina Bruno, executive director of the Coalition for a Traditional School Year.