Year Round School Considered

{West Virginia}...The West Virginia Department of Education has formed an internal committee to study whether year-round school would work. Betty Jordan, executive assistant to the state superintendent, said the group is reviewing literature and research to determine what concerns would be raised if this schedule were implemented. Jordan says they believe a balanced calendar more accurately reflects the work and the direction in that we take our existing 180 days and we create a calendar that really does balance the amount of instructional time and then time when students are in breaks so that it's more evenly distributed throughout the year. Jordan says, with the current calendar, students are out of school about eight to 10 weeks in the summer. That creates a learning slide where they forget some of what they learned during the previous school year.