What is a traditional school calendar?

In our opinion, a traditional school calendar is a calendar in which academic instruction begins in late-August or early-September and ends in late-May or the beginning of June.

Mistakenly, proponents of year-round school calendars usually refer to the traditional calendar as the agrarian calendar. Research by Dr. Kenneth Gold, City University of New York, showed that the calendar most commonly used during agrarian times was the year-round school calendar of today and that the traditional calendar was ushered in with urbanization.

Research in other states has shown us that the calendar configuration does not impact academic success, but can increase non-instructional costs. This means less of our taxpayer dollars goes into classroom instruction and teacher salaries. We care about keeping our kids out of school in the summer because summer not only is the hottest time to cool our schools, but we understand it is much easier for families to find quality child care during summer months.
It is also beneficial for teachers to have a full summer vacation. Allowing them time to pursue advanced degrees, without taking time away from their classrooms and shorting their time with their families during the school year, achieve national teaching certification, work a summer job to supplement their income (often allowing teachers to remain in the field), or simply enjoy some much needed time off is beneficial for teachers and students alike.

Regardless of the school calendar, our children receive the same number of instructional days – as mandated by our legislature. The only difference is many schools have created a bloated school calendar by adding many one and two day holidays into the school year. This adds more days from the first day of school to the last, but doesn’t add one moment of instructional time to the mix

Yes. Post Labor Day and late-August school start dates often necessitate ending the first semester after the winter break. There is no academic detriment that has been shown for schools ending the first semester after the winter break. Actually, the majority of the top 10 academic states in the nation, according to four different ranking systems, began the school year in late-August or early-September and administered end-of-semester exams after the winter break.
The "Spacing Effect," which is referred to in several studies in psychology literature and journals supports the idea that exams after the winter break could be more beneficial to our students long-term retention of the material presented. The Spacing Effect holds that "Review of material increases long-term memory best when there is more time between introduction and review of material." In other words, if students learn something, and then review what they have learned again at a later date, they are more likely to remember the lesson. So if exams are administered after a break rather than before, students should benefit academically given that there was a review before the exams.

If the days were simply swapped, yes. But….if we reduced the number of one and two-day holidays and compacted the school year we could start later and end earlier.

No.Teachers would still be teaching the same number of days. The only difference would be how the holidays were scheduled into the calendar year.

August is typically one of the two hottest months of the year. If we removed the need to cool the schools, with students in the classrooms, during this time our non-instructional costs would be reduced. It is not as expensive to cool schools in May and June – due to demand and usage charges.
For example, Tulsa Public Schools (Oklahoma) pushed back its school start date from August 19 to post-Labor Day and experienced a savings of approximately $500,000 – as reported in the November 17, 2002 Tulsa World article, "Late opening of schools saved money". A recent report by the Texas Comptroller says, "As I stated in my original report, Saving Summer: Lessons Learned, the academic benefits of stretching the school year have not been proved; what we do know – it’s costing Texans $790 million annually,"
With limited dollars to spend on academic programming and teacher salaries, we feel it is important to save money where we can without compromising the quality of our education system.

Ask how much it costs to cool the school on a daily basis in August. Suggest that moving the start date back a week or so will save money and thus allow more money to follow into classrooms and teacher supplies.

Enlist the help of other parents by starting a petition drive or simply talking to your neighbors and friends.

Don’t sit back and expect someone else to fight for what is right for your child. Most importantly, become involved. Volunteering at your child’s school not only emphasizes the importance of education, but allows you to better understand the needs of the school. Remember, everyone has the best interest of the child at heart…we just sometimes disagree about the best calendar approach.