From: JIM.DIXON@f240.n353.z1.fidonet.org (JIM DIXON)
Newsgroups: k12.chat.elementary
Subject: YRS_3 1/2
Date: Wed, 19 Aug 92 14:39:00 PST
Organization: FidoNet node 1:353/240 - The Polish Connecti, Westbank BC

               UNSUCCESSFUL EXPERIMENTS with YEAR-ROUND or
                        EXTENDED YEAR SCHOOLS
               ...........................................

Chesterfield County, Virginia:(1)
.............................
Anticipating years of development and population growth, this Richmond-area
community considered year-round schools to relieve overcrowding.
Public hearings began October, 1990, following several recommendations for
yesr-round schools. A vocal coalition of community members and parents
opposed year-round schools saying they did not have enough information and
the issue was being forced upon them.

In July, following significant study and debate, the 1500 Chesterfield
County residents who attended the nine public forums voted down year-round
schools. They chose instead to build additional schools, believing this to
be the only solution to overcrowding.

Soon after, the school superintendent was fired. The 'Richmond Times-
Dispatch' noted "some people never forgave Dr. Davis for suggesting
disruptive alternatives like year-round schools." <sups, boards, take note>

Jefferson County, Colorado:(1)
..........................
This Denver.area school districty put half of its schools . approximately
50 . on a year.round calendar in 1974 to relieve overcrowding.

The district completed the conversion back to the traditional calendar in
1988-immediately after a bond referendum passed to build new schools.

The district saw no educational improvement or increase in test scores in
the year-round schools. In fact, the decline of test scores in a high
school was one factor that prompted the move _back_ to the traditional
calendar.


Louisiana:(1)
...........................
In June, 1991, the Louisiana House of Representatives killed a bill to
lengthen the school year from 175 - 180 days. The extension would cost up
to $30 million a year.

Two Louisiana elementary schools now operate on an 11-month school
calendar, which is the longest school year in the county. The extra two
months costs almost $900,000.

The longer school year has had little effect, if not negative, impact on
academic achievement.  Although third graders made slight gains on
standardized test scores, fifth graders slipped further behind.(2)


Houston, Texas:(1)
...........................
The Houston Independent School District began operating on a twelve.month
calendar during the 1983.1984 term in one elementary school. The program
increased to 25 schools during the 1985-1986 and decreased to 4 schools by
1988.

The year-round program was cut because of budget constraints and general
consensus among school administrators that too much money was spent for
little or no educational benefit.  In addition, year-round programming did
_not_ ease overcrowding and, in the case of intersessions (classes during
the break), actually created additional crowding problems.

Although the Houston experiment proved far too costly to operate, Houston
and area school districts are again implementing several year-round
programs.  The Conroe year-round schools report that improvements in
academic achievement have not beenn dramatic. Conroe will continue the
year-round program although the assistant schools superintendent concedes
"The results did not show major improvements as we had hoped." (3)

Romeoville, Illinois:(1)
...........................
Romeoville, Il, a Chicago suburb, implemented a multi.track year.round
program in oneof its districts during the 1970s to ease overcrowding. The
district discontinued year-round schools in 1980 when new school
construction and slower population growth solved the overcrowding problem.

Mel Heller and Max Bailey, professors in the Scholl of Education at
Chicogo's Loyola University, conducted many of the state-funded feasibility
studies of year-round schools and recommended that districts _not_ change
from traditional calendars.


continued in YRS_3 2/2

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