Can a Year-Round Calendar Improve Achievement?
A year-round schedule involves distributing the same number of school days as in the traditional calendar (180) but structuring the “breaks” at more intervals that are shorter than the traditional summer break. The most common year-round schedule has a recurring pattern of 60 days of school followed by 20 days off. In California over 1.3 million students (22 percent of students) attend schools on a year-round calendar. This calendar could have several potential benefits: • Reduced Summer Fall-Off Effect. Researchers often discuss the possibility that students forget less when given shorter breaks than the traditional three-month summer break. While there is an intuitive logic to the argument, we have not found empirical evidence to verify or disprove this hypothesis. • Improved Remediation Opportunities. A year-round schedule offers students more frequent opportunities for remediation. Under the traditional school calendar, students often have to wait the entire school year to be provi
