Year-round school

Year-round schooling (YRS) has been present from the 1900s. YRS first appeared in urban areas, because they were not tied to the agriculture cycle. The first towns that implemented YRS were Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Buffalo, and Detroit. These towns had schools sessions for 48 or more weeks at a time. The types of school schedules that were used were the 12-1 (12 weeks in school with 1 week break between the 12 weeks, which was more popular) and 12-4 (4 weeks off in August and school ran continuous after). The first summer school was introduced in 1865 at the First Church of Boston, MA. In 1916 there would be 200 elementary schools offering summer school. In 1971, a survey showed that 84% of the surveyed educational authorities predicted that all United States schools would be year-round within 15 years. In 1973, states that provided year-round schooling options were: Washington, Nevada, California, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Illinois, Michigan, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Florida, Vermont, and Kentucky.

Some businesses dislike year-round calendars, because there is more competition for students trying to get jobs on their vacations since not all students have the same vacation time. Businesses also find it easier to provide jobs on a year-round basis instead of having many in the summer for students. Year-round schools also allow for students to graduate at different times, allowing for a decrease in unemployment when compared to all students graduating together and trying to get the few jobs that are open during that time. Businesses also do not have the trouble of having a large volume of employees trying to take off the same vacation time for children getting out of school for winter, since the children would have different vacations. Schools that adopt YRS are also better for industries that have a high volume of people in a short amount of time, because the different vacations allow for students to be open for employment more readily and vacationers to be more spread out instead of all at once. Some tourist destinations that are very popular in colder months would benefit from this.

Several different studies have been conducted to learn more about the attitudes of students who attend year-round schools. The majority of these studies show that students' attitudes towards school did significantly improve as they spent more time on a year-round schedule. Students who attend year-round school say that calendar is more balanced than their peers who have a typical school calendar.

Students who attend year-round schools typically do as well as or slightly better in school than their peers who attend a traditionally scheduled school.

At-risk students are those who come from a low-income family, have a disability, are of an ethnic minority, or are influenced by something else that may cause them to perform poorly in school. In 1994, a study of three year-round schools showed a substantial gain in academic achievement for at-risk, low performing students. More frequent, short breaks provide struggling students more time for help. These breaks can be used for remedial courses, tutoring, and enrichment, if needed.

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