Back to School, Already?! Many Districts Are Starting Classes in Early August – Even July

By William Spalding - July 31, 2009

The barbeque grills and other summer gear share space with the “Back-to-School” section at Target and other retailers nowadays, as parents stock up on new Jonas Brothers backpacks, pencil cases, and binders.  The smell of burnt gunpowder from Independence Day celebrations has barely left the nostrils when kids are forced to start getting up early for the first week of classes – trundling off to school on days when many inland communities will see the thermometer go over 100 degrees.

It didn’t used to be this way.  Traditionally, the school year began on the Tuesday after Labor Day, and ended in early June.  That meant most school districts had nearly three solid months of summer break -- ample time for summer school, visits with Grandma, play time, and family trips to escape the heat.

Yet more and more districts have opted -- even in a quasi-traditional calendar (not year-round) -- to begin school in early to mid-August, with some even beginning in July.  Increasingly, it’s likely that Memorial Day will herald the beginning of summer, and that the new school year will start several weeks before Labor Day.  Some school districts work a variation on this trend, beginning their classes in August and ending their school year June, but with longer vacation breaks during the middle portion of the school year.

There is no consensus on why there has been such a shift to an early start academic year, but the conventional wisdom suggests a variety of purposes.  Among them:

1. Allowing for more time during the Winter Break to accommodate students whose families return to Mexico to visit family over the traditional Christmas season.
2. Extending the Thanksgiving Break to a full week.  Many districts have found a significant drop-off in attendance (students and employees) when school is held on the Monday and Tuesday of Thanksgiving week.
3. Extending the Spring Break to two weeks as is increasingly negotiated from the “calendar committee.”
4. In school districts with high schools, the desire to cleanly end the first semester (with final exams and all) before everyone goes home for Winter Break, rather than holding finals during the early part of January (after Winter Break).
5. An earlier STAR testing window, presumably to put more instructional time before the tests and to test during a time in spring when kids and teachers are “fresher” than in later months.

The Woodland Joint Unified School District, northwest of Sacramento, is starting classes on August 13 this year -- one week earlier than last year. Mike Stevens, Associate Superintendent for Human Resource Services, told EdBrief that Woodland hopes to accomplish several goals with the earlier start:

 “We are able to complete the first semester prior to Winter Break,” Stevens said. Students will no longer be taking tests right after they return from a vacation.

 “We have the entire week of Thanksgiving off,” Stevens said.

 “We provide a three-week Winter Break” covering Christmas and New Year’s, with classes resuming on January 11. “This has been shown to improve attendance rates in January,” Stevens said.  (Nearly 50 percent of Woodland’s students come from a Latino background; a significant number of families travel to Mexico for the holidays.)

Many educators have come to accept this new trend in the school calendar, but there is a backlash.  “Save California Summers!” – a grass-roots parent, teacher, and community members organization – is fighting this trend and is mounting an effort to convince state legislators to return to a traditional school calendar and uniform start date in September.  They maintain that students with shorter summers are less refreshed and enthusiastic come fall, and teachers are robbed of valuable training and preparation time by a school year that starts too early.  The group also cites other problems, like abbreviated summer job opportunities for students, and child care issues that can make life difficult for parents, as reasons that they oppose early start school calendars.

Currently, there is no legislation pending in California dealing with a uniform start to a school year.  The recently adopted California state budget did give local districts the option (pending negotiation with bargaining units) to shorten the school year by 5 days in the wake of severe cuts.

Given tight financial times, prudence dictates greater study of the effects of the school year calendar, particularly as it relates to cost, climate, and attendance.  Calendar committees have long determined the school calendar in local school districts, including start dates and end dates, and at times those local decisions have reflected individual or collective preferences rather than fiscal or academic determinations.  As with many other educational initiatives, research and data should drive decisions on calendars for school districts.  Possible considerations should include:

1. Local climate conditions, including the cost of heating and cooling at various times of the year.  Is an early start more expensive in areas where high temperatures require constant cooling?  In the snowy areas of California, is an extended break during chilly winter months more cost effective?
2. Attendance patterns throughout the year, especially migratory patterns in the winter months and school attendance over summer months.  Does it make more financial sense to release students for extended breaks in late December and early January?  Do enough students actually return to school in July and August?
3. What is our experience with student performance with early state testing, or with a high school semester that concludes before a Winter Break?  Can we use comparative data to determine if there is an academic advantage to changes in the school calendar?

Obviously, there will always be community and employee desires and preferences for particular configurations to the school calendar.  But like everything else, financial considerations will have to weigh in on these decisions as well.

Editor's Note: William Spalding is Director of Educational Program Development for the educational consulting firm, Total School Solutions.