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Year-Round Education Calendars

Characteristics of various 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

Questions:   Bryan Boyd | bboyd@cde.ca.gov | 916-445-4889
Last Reviewed: Wednesday, May 28, 2025
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