Rogue Reform 2: Year-Round School

Last week I proposed the Block Schedule. This week we’re discussing the Year-Round Schedule which would pair quite well with the Block Schedule.

Year-Round school is just as it sounds. Students attend school year-round with several mini-breaks scattered throughout instead of one long 2+ month break in the summer. This proposed schedule solves several issues. Academically, it supports students more consistently and reduces the traditional “summer backslide” which regularly means September and October are spent reteaching things forgotten over the summer. With a year-round schedule, teachers and support staff can offer intervention and remediation in flow, instead of backtracking.

Socially, school has become a place for students to receive hot meals and community care. In a year-round situation, students would have access to these benefits more consistently.

Economically, year-round schools keep school buildings in full use instead of just sitting mostly vacant through the summer months.

Teachers benefit profoundly from this schedule. The joke is that teachers only work part of the year and get summer and winter breaks. The truth is that teachers are simply cramming a full year’s worth of work into 10 months. And then working extra jobs in the summer to make ends meet. A proposed year-round schedule would allow teachers to breathe. They could have more prep time during their prime hours of the day, because they would still work some of the time the students are on break. Lessons and collaboration would be much stronger.

The most common year-round schedules are the 45-15 plan or the 60-20. Students attend school for 45 days and then have three weeks off. Or sixty days on, one month off. But there are many ways a district could organize it. The usual holidays are worked into these plans. The important thing about year-round school is that it must be adopted by the entire district to be most effective for families.

The Year-Round Schedule would also pair well with Project-Based-Learning. Instead of specific classes, students could design projects with mentor teachers and work on several projects in different areas throughout the year. More on that next week.

Comment below with your thoughts on year-round school. Pros? Cons? Success stories?