Word: year-round
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...most objective measure, test scores, year-round education seems to be working. Before switching to its new schedule, Socorro schools had some of the lowest test scores in the county. Now Socorro students outscore the state average on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills. One Socorro school, Campestre Elementary, sits just 200 yards from the Rio Grande; two-thirds of its predominantly Hispanic students have limited English proficiency. Yet 87% of Campestre's third-, fourth- and fifth-graders passed the state's achievement exam, compared with 67% before the school started its year-round schedule four years...
...Year-round schools can also be a way to use facilities more efficiently. Some overcrowded schools stagger students into different tracks, ensuring that a fraction of the student body will be away during every grading period. Socorro schools were able to serve 2,000 more children during the 1993-94 academic year because of its multitrack calendar, a great help in a district that grows by 1,500 kids a year...
...advantages, however, converting to year-round schooling can be difficult and expensive. To endure the summer heat, many schools must install air conditioning. Teachers' salaries may go up, since they usually work more weeks, and there is limited time off for administrators. Some schools, unable to afford the extra expense, have returned to traditional terms...
...calendar is too deeply embedded in me," says Debbie Lanier of Mooresville. "We live on a lake, and we couldn't enjoy it in other months." But other parents find the life-style change beneficial. Says Robin Andrews, a landscape designer in Mooresville who has two children in the year-round program: "We can take the kids on vacations that are less crowded and less expensive because we don't go during peak periods...
Parents can also take comfort in the biggest surprise of all: children who attend year-round schools actually seem to like them. Melissa Hill, a fifth- grader at Socorro's O'Shea Keleher School, had her initial doubts about year-round schooling. "But now I like it a lot," she says. "When I used to wake up in the morning, I felt like I wanted to crawl back in bed. I think it encourages kids to go to school because you always know that you're going to be on break soon." Mireya Reyes, a fifth-grader at Campestre, doesn...