Position Paper           School Calendars and Academic Success     To suggest academic performance could be impacted by a simple change in the school calendar configuration is ludicrous.  To suggest when exams are administered impacts what a child has learned is laughable.  Research shows that the calendar configuration in no way impacts academic performance….but a calendar with early-August school start dates can, and often does, take valuable tax dollars out of our classrooms and away from educational programming and teacher salaries while increasing non-instructional costs; such as operational and cooling costs.   Regardless of how the calendar is arranged school children in each state receive the same number of days and hours of instruction per academic year.   According to Dr. Gene V. Glass, Arizona State University Professor and world-renowned education researcher, changes to the calendar configuration are very unlikely to yield higher levels of pupil achievement. To paraphrase a famous poet, ‘180 days is 180 days is 180 days’ he says.   Glass adds, that in terms of pupil achievement, “it matters not at all whether those 180 days are interrupted by one long recess or four short ones.”   University of South Carolina Dean of the College of Education, Les Sternberg, says when breaks occur and when tests are administered is irrelevant to test results.  Sternberg says he knows of no solid data proving that school start dates affect test scores – either for better or worse.   In addition, data collections and newspaper article reviews also show that late August or early September school-start dates do not adversely impact academic performance.  For example, when examining four nationally accepted ranking systems of state education systems we learn that the top 10 states in each ranking system, for the most part, start school near the end of August or beginning of September and the majority administer end-of-semester exams after the winter break.    Does this data show that school calendars impact academic performance?  Absolutely not.  It simply shows that when the school doors open does not impede academic success.   In the past five years, Tulsa Public Schools have operated under school start dates as early as August 15 and as late as post-Labor Day. District spokesperson John Hamill says, “state test scores stayed the same.”  He added, neither calendar seemed to make a difference academically.    Newspaper reports show the post Labor Day school start date saved the district around $500,000 – money that could be used for supplemental educational programming or simply more classroom supplies.    Opponents of traditional school calendars often say a shorter summer reduces the summer learning losses.  Research does not support this claim and those making the claims have yet to release credible research proving their point.  To the contrary, in 2002 the National Association of Year Round Education listing of schools operating under a year round school calendar dropped by 15 percent.    If year round school calendars or balanced school calendars (as they like to be called now) were really has helpful to academic performance as promoters claim wouldn’t the numbers continue to go up as new schools try the concept?  Why do so many school districts try to experimental concept for a few years and then return to traditional school calendars? According to newspaper reports and interviews with superintendents because the non-instructional costs were greater, academic success was no different and parents and staff did not like the experimental balanced calendar.   Another fallacy often presented as fact is that early-August school start dates provide more days of instruction prior to the administration of the state sponsored standardized test.  A quick review of school calendars in most states show that regardless of the school start date most districts complete the first semester prior to the winter break.  The only difference is how many days off students and teachers have from the beginning of the semester to the end.  Regardless of how early you start the school year, as of January, everyone is basically on the same page.   As the school calendar debate continues, it is our sincere hope that those in support of early August school start dates will stop insulting our great teachers and hard working students by suggesting that mid to late-August school start dates will hamper students ability to do well on standardized tests and end-of-semester exams.   Deep down in our hearts I think we all know that academic success is due to quality programming in the classroom, dedicated teachers, involved parents, hardworking students and as much of our tax dollars being directed to the classroom as possible.   As education historian and professor Dr. Kenneth Gold said in his latest book on the history of summer vacation, “If parents, educators and policy-makers know that summer vacations were conscious creations, not natural byproducts of an agrarian economy then they can reconstruct summers that balance academic goals with other activities that may have more lasting importance.”