The end of summer came early for 90,000 Chicago public school students. The 2009-10 academic year started Monday at the 132 campuses that are on the district’s Track E, or year-round, schedule this year. That’s up from 41 year-round schools last year and just 18 two years ago.
The change, we think, is a good one. The year-round schedule — the same number of school days but with more and shorter vacation breaks — helps children who are most challenged better retain what they learn from one grade to the next. It keeps children off the streets for much of August, when street violence tends to be high. And it may ease the burnout that teachers and students alike feel as the traditional nine-month school year ends.
And there is some evidence of improvement in students’ academic performance. A 2007 study by Ohio State University sociologist Paul von Hippel found that over a 12-month period, the test scores at year-round schools were less than 1 percent higher than those at traditional nine-month schools. According to the Chicago Public Schools, though, data from the Illinois Standards Achievement Test suggest a 3.1 percent improvement for students at year-round schools. Traditional schools had a 2 percent improvement.
Von Hippel found that the poorest children may benefit the most. “There may be a slight advantage for students from the poorest families in attending year-round schools, at least when it comes to improving their reading,” he told sciencedaily.com in 2007.
That said, moving students to a year-round schedule isn’t a panacea. It doesn’t automatically increase test scores, boost graduation rates or turn underachievers into superstars. It also doesn’t raise learning time in classrooms: Students attend school for the same number of days. And their school day, per the public schools’ 232-page contract with the Chicago Teachers Union, remains fixed in length. Meaning Chicago children continue to be disadvantaged by some of the shortest school days in the U.S.
We hope Chicago’s growing embrace of year-round schools eventually helps reduce that handicap: Students would benefit from more instructional time each day and more school days each year. Those are fixes the district must insist upon in its next round of contract talks with teachers. That opportunity, however, won’t arrive until 2012.
Not everyone likes the year-round calendar. It disrupts some families’ vacation plans. But the change is locally driven: Schools interested in moving to a year-round schedule had to petition the district to make the move. Parents, teachers and principals were involved in the decision, so they should feel ownership of the schedule.
Every Chicagoan should be proud to see 90,000 students back in school, polishing yesterday’s skills and building tomorrow’s. Those students — not any adults — are the Chicago Public Schools’ most important constituents. What helps them ultimately helps us all.
