Looking back over the years, the school calendar seems baked into our yearly rhythms. We’ve come to expect its pacing: the 180-day public school year, the five-day week, the periodic holidays and extended weekends, the stretches without breaks, and, of course, the summer vacation. Many independent schools, of course, diverge from the public school calendar, for instance, by having their winter break in March. There are dramatic variations out there, but in our experience, these are rare exceptions. The school year calendar is one of those elements of schooling that remains unquestioned. Realizing this, one of our schools challenged its own assumptions and asked whether changes in their calendar, even minor ones, could improve student performance. As a result, they are conducting a small experiment by adding some carefully-placed days off, making up for these days at the beginning and end of the year. Read on to learn more. We’re curious what you think and what your experience with this issue tells you.
Until next time,
Paul Stein
Executive Director
Seaport Academy Experiments with its School Calendar
Anyone familiar with the public school calendar in Massachusetts knows that after eight to ten weeks of summer vacation, the academic year begins somewhere around Labor Day, continues with a few long weekends and full-week breaks in December, February, and April, and concludes in mid-June, depending on how much winter snow flies. The school year is then followed again with eight to ten, sometimes eleven, weeks of summer vacation.
For some, those eight to eleven weeks may be a relaxing and welcome break, filled with beach chairs, cookouts, and family road trips. For others – students in need of structure, and parents in need of childcare – summer vacation can be excruciatingly long. Furthermore, this calendar features what some experience as a protracted, burnout-inducing span between the end of February vacation and Marathon Monday, with not a holiday in sight.
To address these issues, Seaport Academy recently implemented changes to their school calendar.
“The school year is long for our students, and we were looking at the large uninterrupted period between February and April,” said Alex Tsonas, LICSW, Director of Seaport Academy. “[With] burnout – emotional, social, and academic – for both students and staff, we thought it would be a good idea to take an emotional break midway through March. A week may be too long, so we did three days. On top of that, we extended Memorial Day [weekend] by a day [to provide] a longer break, and for people who travel, it gives them a day.”
These changes are far from drastic compared with the year-round school calendars seen in other regions, which, in addition to reducing burnout, are said to prevent summer slide – the learning loss associated with months-long summer breaks.
Even so, this relatively minor accommodation, when first piloted this year, received very positive feedback from Seaport’s staff and students alike. Given how well it went, next year’s schedule will be further adjusted such that (in comparison to the traditional calendar) an additional day off will be added to both the Indigenous Peoples and Memorial Day holiday weekends, a half-day will be added to the Thanksgiving weekend and four days will be added in March. In order to make up for the loss of these 6 1/2 days off — and to reduce the length of summer vacation — Seaport will extend the year by adding school days in August and June.
The degree to which such change makes a difference, whether emotionally or academically, is too early to tell at this point. Yet, with potentially significant long-term benefits for student well-being in store, we are convinced that creative adjustments to the school year calendar are well worth the try.