Why Year-round Schools Work

Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap

American Sociological Review

Published in April, 2007, this study offers new insights as to why low-income children lag behind their more privileged classmates in high school graduation rates and college attendance. The study contends that there is a summer learning gap between lower- and higher-income children and it begins during elementary school.

Download the study HERE

Extended Year-Round Schooling, Extended Success

by Jeanette Wat
Naperville, Illinois

Meet John and Jane. Both are high school students; John is from Naperville, Illinois, and Jane is from Shanghai, China. Each school day throughout the year, John always feels stressed with a crunched learning time and accumulating loads of homework. He must either relinquish in-depth learning or cut sleeping time in order to accommodate the workload. When June approaches, John is first excited, as the long-awaited summer break finally arrives, and he can rest. But his brief excitement soon disintegrates into boredom by the too long summer break. He is overjoyed when school finally starts again after the long break, only to discover that he has forgotten much of the material he learned before the break. John is a student of a traditional school that provides 9 months of education and 10 weeks to 3 months of summer break every year….READ MORE

Teachers see benefits in year-round schools.  Some students, staff thrive on schedule

By Chris Kenning
ckenning@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal, Monday, July 17, 2006

Roosevelt-Perry Elementary teacher Julie Donlon used to spend four to six weeks each fall reviewing material she’d taught the year before — along with class rules and procedures. But today she spends only two weeks reviewing thanks to the school’s alternative “year-round” calendar, where a six week summer allows for a two-week break in the fall and another break in winter…READ MORE