More Schools Ditching Multitrack Schedules

Liberated by slowing enrollment growth and the construction of new campuses, California schools are beginning to turn away from a practice that eases crowding but is loathed by teachers, parents and students: overlapping “multitrack” schedules.

But the move, which gained momentum this year, does not necessarily mean a return to the long days of summer fun for students. Among schools reverting to single tracks, many are keeping year-round schedules that some experts say improve learning.

“The traditional calendar is no longer sacrosanct,” said Tom Payne, who monitors year-round programs for the state. “People have realized that there are advantages to the year-round schedule.”

Used primarily in elementary and middle schools, multitrack schedules make the most of classroom space by running year-round, with students divided into three or four groups that operate on staggered schedules. Because some students and teachers are always on vacation, the convoluted schedule creates logistical nightmares: Administrators struggle to schedule staff training sessions, students become isolated from one another, and teachers find collaboration difficult or impossible.

“The sense of school and community is challenged” with multitrack schedules, said Cheryl Cohen, assistant superintendent at the Orange Unified School District, which is eliminating multitrack at several schools. “It was a solution for certain circumstances, but clearly was not ideal.”

In a three-decade battle against persistent overcrowding, California has relied on the strategy far more heavily than any other state in the country, education experts say. Multitrack schedules proliferated in the early 1970s, and then again throughout the 1990s, when enrollments surged.

During the recent wave, the number of multitrack schools in California soared as the enrollment crunch was compounded by a shortage of money for school construction. State lawmakers encouraged the trend by giving priority for construction funds to districts that agreed to open year-round schools.

Dependence on multitrack programs peaked in 1998, when 1,027 schools used them. More than 1 million California students -- about 16% of the state total -- were affected.

The tide turned after voters approved a series of bonds for school construction -- most recently a $12.3-billion initiative in March -- and enrollment growth slowed.

What began as a slow decline in multitrack schedules accelerated dramatically last year, when 142 schools eliminated them. Only 39 schools -- 11 from the same the district -- added multitrack schedules.

Some districts -- especially Los Angeles Unified -- continue to struggle with crowding and are unable to drop their multitrack programs. And education officials are quick to point out that future enrollment gains could force districts back onto the plan. But Payne, with the California Department of Education, said he expected the trend to continue at least over the next five years as enrollment in elementary and middle schools declines.

Tiny Magnolia School District in the Anaheim area, for example, has eliminated multitrack calendars at three of its four year-round elementary schools for the coming year. Nearby Orange Unified will do the same at five of seven schools that use multitrack scheduling. Both districts hope to eliminate multitrack schedules at remaining schools as soon as possible.

Carol McGown, a first-grade teacher at Magnolia’s Mattie Lou Maxwell Elementary, said she was eager to start on a single schedule in a few weeks.

“When you can collaborate with all the other teachers and everyone is on the same page, it is a big benefit for the children,” she said.

But the change does not mean that McGown’s students, or those at Orange Unified, are free to frolic until September. Like many districts around the state, Magnolia and Orange Unified chose to keep their schools on a year-round schedule, but without the hassle of multiple tracks.

Instead of the typical 10-week summer break, school will start Aug. 9 for the Magnolia schools and July 26 in Orange. Students will have three nearly monthlong vacations in summer, winter and spring.

Year-round supporters said the evenly spaced vacations are better for students. “Kids do forget some of what they’ve learned over the summer,” said Harris Cooper, director of the program in education at Duke University and a leading researcher on year-round schooling.

Research indicates that students lose about a month of learning during a 10-week summer holiday, Cooper said -- twice as much as those on year-round schedules.

Summer’s detrimental effect is especially pronounced, educators said, at schools such as Maxwell, where more than two-thirds of the students are English-learners who often spend summer months speaking their native language.

The monthlong winter break in year-round schedules also can accommodate the traditional exodus of Latino pupils to home countries over Christmas, while the short holiday break on traditional calendars leads to absences and the loss of attendance-based funding.

The new schedule “is the best of both worlds,” said Maxwell Principal Kristin Lasher. “Everyone is here at the same time ... and we don’t waste classroom time reteaching what students have already learned.”

Year-round calendars, proponents said, also allow more opportunities for teachers to help struggling students without having to wait several months for summer school. Year-round schools typically offer remedial classes and tutoring during vacations.

Joanna Zug, president of the Magnolia PTA, said nearly all parents had embraced the decision to stick with a year-round schedule at the elementary schools.

“I think year-round works best for everybody -- teachers and students,” Zug said. “There is an element of momentum and routine. The schedule gives everyone a nice rest, but then they’re right back, and it is not such a huge deal to gear the kids back up to go to school.”

Not everyone agrees. Billee Bussard, who heads a national anti-year-round advocacy group, Summer Matters, said she was skeptical about research on the disadvantages of summer vacation. Summers, she said, give students the chance to pursue extracurricular interests.

“The long break provides opportunities for learning that kids do not get in the classroom,” she said.

Indeed, nearly two-thirds of the schools that dropped multitrack schedules this year opted to return to a traditional calendar.

Among districts that favor the traditional school year is Los Angeles Unified -- which has by far the largest number of year-round students in California. LAUSD plans to return to a traditional calendar school by school as overcrowding eases enough to drop multitrack schedules.

Ronnie Ephraim, chief instruction officer for the district, said the long summer break provides a needed opportunity for students to repeat failed classes. But more than anything, Ephraim said, echoing several other educators, the preference for the old-style schedule comes from ingrained rites of summer, such as camp, sports leagues and family vacations.

“The whole community prepares itself for the kids in the summer. They will just accept [the traditional schedule] better,” Ephraim said. “A lot of it is habit.”

Though education officials disagree over whether year-round schedules will ever become the norm, one thing is certain: Few will miss the days of the multitrack.

“No one ever chooses a multitrack program for educational reasons,” said Priscilla Wohlstetter, director of the education governance program at USC.

“Districts do it out of necessity.”