Local opinion: School calendar survey prompts more questions than answers

Ever since my oldest child started kindergarten in 2015, his yearly routine has looked more or less the same: school five days a week, no classes on weekends or holidays, and a 2-3 month summer break. This schedule has been so predictable that I did a double-take last month when I received two surveys — one as an employee and one as a parent — requesting feedback on a potential Tucson Unified School District 2027-28 school calendar. While the traditional calendar was still listed as an option, so were two other calendars that could dramatically change when and how the district serves students.

The first unexpected option was a year-round or modified balanced calendar. This model is followed by ten percent of U.S. schools, including those in the Vail Unified School District. Under this format, students receive the same number of instructional days as traditional calendars, but breaks are spread throughout the year. Even more shocking was a four-day school week option, which has been adopted by districts like Bisbee Unified. Students following this schedule receive similar breaks as districts with traditional calendars but typically attend school for longer each day.

Not surprisingly, districts often are forced to consider non-traditional calendars due to budget cuts. A declining national birth rate means that public and private schools will likely see a 6% enrollment decrease from 2020- 2030. As enrollment decreases, public schools receive less state funding to keep campuses running, which leads some to consider calendar modifications to lower expenses. Other districts adopt non-traditional calendars to stay competitive with charter schools that offer flexible or hybrid learning opportunities. Whatever their motives, districts are wise to consider which calendars might best suit their students, staff, and communities.

Which brings me back to the survey. I’ll admit, my first instinct was to vote for a four-day week without even examining the other options. After all, what educator wouldn’t love having a few Fridays off each month? This calendar also could allow families to spend more time together, and allow older students to study, work part-time, or volunteer over the long weekend. It almost sounded too good to be true.

It turns out, that was my high schooler’s exact thought when I mentioned this calendar. He worried that teachers would treat Fridays as “student work-from-home days,” assigning all the lessons they couldn’t squeeze into an abbreviated schedule. As a junior, he also wondered how the short week would affect AP classes and ACT test preparation.

Whoa. I hadn’t expected a teenager to push back on the four-day week. Maybe this choice wasn’t so clear-cut after all. I turned my attention to the year-round calendar. In talking with friends who teach under this model, many said the multi-week breaks throughout the year help them avoid burnout. Additionally, they said students retain more information over the shorter summer vacation, and some schools offer remediation classes for struggling students during breaks.

But I wondered, doesn’t holding school during these intentionally scheduled breaks cancel out their positive effects? Plus, with both the four-day and year-round calendars, wouldn’t many parents have to spend time and money arranging childcare during breaks that don’t align with traditional school schedules?

Feeling less sure by the minute, I finally turned to the experts for guidance. A meta-study of year-round schools showed that while parents and staff generally viewed the calendar positively, students showed only slight academic gains compared to schools with traditional calendars. Additionally, researchers couldn’t prove whether these gains were due to the schedule itself or the extra classes offered during breaks. As for four-day weeks, one multi-state study concluded that this calendar resulted in significant negative effects on students’ math and reading scores. Another study, however, found that four-day schools with higher amounts of daily instructional time mitigated these negative effects.

In other words, it seemed almost any of the calendars could succeed or falter depending on how they were implemented. Realizing there was no single correct answer, I took a final look through the choices, ranked them, and pressed send. If you are a TUSD staff member or parent, I encourage you to return your own survey via email by the end of July. I know which option I selected. Which will you choose?