Year-round school in the United States

This sign for Morrisville Elementary School in North Carolina includes flashing lights to alert drivers that students may be on the roadways even during summer months.

Year-Round School is the scheduling of educational institutions so that students take class throughout the entire calendar year. A motivation is that higher student throughput is accomplished via more effective scheduling of school resources. Year round schedules deliver the same number of total days of classroom education and vacation as traditional calendars, distributed differently throughout the year. Funding considerations favor multi-tracking students, which allows more students to use the same number of classrooms, instead of constructing entirely new schools.

Advocates claim that year-round calendars help students achieve higher and allow teachers to provide more effective education. Reports from the California State Department Of Education show that standardized test scores increased an average increase of 13.3% in reading scores. Conversely, opponents insist that year-round education is detrimental to student learning. Some school board officials and studies indicate negative impacts of schedule changes and year-round education. Lawsuits have even been filed against various school districts, citing year-round schools as being "harmful to students."

Front view of a year-round school in Morrisville. Here is this school's Academic Calendar for 2006–2007. Morrisville has been a year-round school since its construction; it is part of a program that has been running for more than 16 years to implement year-round schools.

Proponents of year-round school cite:

• Educational
  • Surveys in year-round districts indicate that between 60% to 90% of teachers prefer year-round education.
  • Prevention of student and teacher burnout
  • Decrease of teacher and student absences due to shorter instructional cycles

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Criticisms

Opposition to year round schools can be fervent. Wake County, North Carolina, parents opposed to their children being assigned to schools with a year round schedule took their case to the North Carolina Supreme Court.