Year-Round Education Calendars

Year-round education is an alternative way to construct a school's calendar so that students have blocks of instruction separated by short vacation periods. Students attend shorter academic schedules of 45, 60, or 90 days interspersed by vacations of 15, 20, or 30 days.

Characteristics	Traditional	45/15 Multitrack	60/20 Multitrack	90/30 Multitrack	Orchard
Number of Tracks	1	4	4	4	5
Number of Instructional periods	2-4	4	3	2	3
Length of periods	45-90 days	45 days	60 days	90 days	60 days
Number of Instructional days	180	180	180	180	180
Length of vacations	3 days-3 months	15 days	20 days	30 days	3/15 days 1/20 days
Number of vacations	1 long	4	3	2	4
Maximum capacity gain (percent)	0	33	33	33	25
Features	Long instructional blocks, long vacation	Frequent vacations	Long instructional blocks	Long instructional blocks, long vacation	Teachers and students on vacation at the same time