Revisiting the issue of year-round schools

But I know that that debate will continue, but we’re going to leave it to school districts and to schools to decide that, parents to decide that, students to decide that, and hopefully they make the right one for the educational potential of the kids. [...] Opponents to the balanced calendar argue that there is no substantial increase in academic student achievement when students are on a year- round schedule as opposed to a traditional schedule and that the research proposing the benefits of a balanced calendar is limited and inadequate. [...] While they noted limitations linked to the small number of schools involved, they found positive teacher perceptions and higher achievement in Grade 7 Math, but no impact in terms of achievement on grades 2 and 5. At this stage in BC the focus appears to be on single-track schools, with the purported goal of reducing summer learning loss and increasing student learning. [...] As the graph below illustrates, the declining student enrolment, which has been a feature in the last ten years, is about to end, and a sustained and substantial growth period in terms of student enrolment is about to begin. [...] Cuban (2008) argued that the calendar was actually developed to suit the needs of middle-class parents in the early part of the last century—perhaps one reason why it’s hard to shift today as many in the middle class have rarely taken kindly to major changes in scheduling, and many YRS schools in the USA are located in lower socio-economic status (SES) communities: There is a homespun myth, treate