Arlington, Va. – While it’s the start of the school year for most U.S. students, children at Barcroft Elementary have been at their desks for nearly a month, and they’re fine with that.
The school is among 3,000 across the nation that have tossed aside the traditional calendar for one with a shorter summer break and more time off during the rest of the year.
The goal: preventing kids from forgetting what they have learned.
Principal Miriam Hughey-Guy pushed for the new calendar in hopes of boosting student achievement. She had read studies showing the toll a long summer break takes on what students remember.
Tests given to kids in the spring and fall show children generally slide in math and reading during the traditional summer break lasting 10 to 12 weeks, says Harris Cooper, director of the education program at Duke University. Both poor students and their wealthier counterparts lose math skills, and kids from low-income families also decline in reading. More than half of Barcroft’s students are poor.
There hasn’t been rigorous research into whether students at schools where summer breaks are short do better than kids attending other schools. But existing comparisons suggest the modified calendars have a small positive effect. The impact appears to be somewhat bigger for low-income children.
Ron Fairchild, executive director of the Center for Summer Learning at Johns Hopkins University, says reconfiguring the school calendar simply makes sense.
“You would expect an athlete or a musician’s performance to suffer if they didn’t practice,” Fairchild said.
