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By Joshua Benton/Staff Writer Dallas Morning News
A decade ago, it was the wave of the future. Now, the year-round calendar is
becoming a thing of the past, at least in Texas.
The idea was simple: Sharply cut back on the traditional summer break, and
students will forget less and learn more. For a time in the 1990s, it was hard
to find a large school district that wasn't at least considering a move to year-
round schooling. But in the last four years, more than two-thirds of the Texas
schools that had adopted year-round calendars switched back. Nearly every
major school district in the Dallas-Fort Worth area has joined in the retreat,
and many educators aren't sad to see the year-round calendar go.
"I'm happy about it," said Lucy Davila-Hakemack, principal at Reagan
Elementary in Oak Cliff, one of six DISD schools switching back to the
traditional calendar this fall. One charter school, Allen Elementary in West
Dallas, will remain on the schedule. "There was no proof it helped with test
scores, or attendance, or anything."
The number of year-round schools in Texas peaked at 359 in 1996-97. By
last fall, there were 126.
It appears the number will be lower when the new school year begins. In
addition to the Dallas schools changing back, a move approved by the
school board in March, Denton ISD eliminated its only year-round program
last fall Last month, Austin ISD decided its eight year-round schools would
revert next year.
Year-round schedules have remained somewhat popular with schools
targeting specialized populations, such as charter schools or campuses
that serve the severely disabled. But it appears that by fall, there will be only
a handful of mainstream campuses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area on a year-
round schedule.
In some ways, to even call the remaining campuses "year-round" is a bit of
a misnomer. In Texas, schools that have a calendar only slightly longer than
the traditional one - say, one that starts school a couple of weeks earlier and
ends it a couple of weeks later - are considered "year-round," even if it still
has a summer break of two months or more. Dallas' remaining year-round
campuses finished school Thursday.
For those who promote year-round education, the gains it promises are
substantial: better student performance, higher morale for teachers and
fewer weeks spent re-teaching material learned the year before.
Year-round schedules generally feature multiweek breaks, usually in
November and March. During those breaks, students having academic
difficulties can be kept in class for an extra week or two of tutoring and
instruction.
"The improvements seen have been substantial," said Marilyn Stenvall,
executive director of the National Association for Year-Round Education.
While the numbers have tailed off in Texas, year-round education continues
to grow in popularity nationwide, she said, with more than 3,000 schools
on the new calendar. Ms. Stenvall said she didn't know why Texas, which
had been on the vanguard of the trend, was pulling back.
Some Texas schools have found success with the longer schedules.
Socorro ISD in El Paso has all its schools on a year-round calendar and
has been named a "Recognized" district by the Texas Education Agency,
despite a largely disadvantaged student population.
Socorro went year-round in 1991, in part to use buildings more efficiently
by rotating students in and out on staggered schedules. But the academic
benefits became clear within a few years, officials say.
"We were not considered a strong academic school district in the early
1990s," said Sue Shook, the district's associate superintendent for
instructional services. "Today, the TAAS scores are high, more kids are
going to university, and we're considered the premier district in the county."
The success has helped the district pass a bond issue to build schools,
making the old rotating year-round calendar unnecessary. The district has
no plans to move away from the longer schedule.
"It's done a great deal for our community," Dr. Shook said. "We're in an area
with a lot of poverty, and there aren't a lot of activities available for children
outside of school. Parents like knowing the school is providing quality activities
for a longer portion of the year."
But most districts have come to see year-round calendars as more trouble
than they are worth. Ms. Davila-Hakemack, the Reagan principal, said there
was never evidence that the schedule helped students learn more
The longer schedule was more expensive than the traditional one, she
said, in part because the school had to be air-conditioned for longer in the
hotter months.
If the longer calendar had meant students were being taught on more days,
it might have done some good, she said. But Dallas' year-round calendar
doesn't include more instructional days - the days are just more spread out.
Another problem: Because the two school calendars in DISD ended at
different times, students in year-round schools could not attend summer
school.
"I begged and pleaded to try to get a summer-school session for some of
our students, but we couldn't," Ms. Davila-Hakemack said.
That lack of coordination with traditional schools is one of the reasons Fort
Worth schools switched back most year-round schools a year ago.
"Quite frankly, year-round education is a good concept, but regrettably, it
never caught on to the extent that nearly all schools could do it," said
Superintendent Tom Tocco. "I think it's very important to have virtually all
of your schools on the same calendar.
"We almost had to have two different staff development schedules, for
example. And because they were the smaller group, the year-round schools
always felt they were receiving second-rate professional services from
the district."
In Austin, officials on each of the district's eight year-round campuses
made the decision to switch calendars this spring. One of the biggest
reasons, officials said, was that the Texas Education Agency plans to
change the time of year students on year-round campuses take the
Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS).
This spring, as in previous years, students on year-round campuses
could take the TAAS several weeks later than those on traditional
campuses. But starting in 2002, the special year-round date will be
eliminated as part of the move to the next generation of TAAS testing.
That would have left fewer days of test preparation for students in
Austin's year-round schools.
But those drawbacks aren't nearly enough to overcome the worth of a
longer calendar, according to the principal of one of North Texas' few
remaining year-round schools
"The extra time for learning reinforcement can have a big effect,"
said Alice Clark, principal of Motley Elementary in Mesquite. Motley
has been repeatedly rated exemplary by the TEA, despite a student
population that is 54 percent economically disadvantaged.
Ms. Clark said that teachers like the midsemester breaks the longer
schedule allows. Tutoring during those breaks allows weaker
students to succeed, she said.
"Our parents like the year-round schedule," she said.
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