NAYRE Background
The National Association for Year-Round Education is a Year-Round School advocacy group sponsoring conferences and conventions for school administrators, board members, teachers and other individuals. These persons, or the schools they represent, pay fees to attend. NAYRE also provides, for a fee, consultants who work with local school systems to encourage communities to embrace Year-Round Schools and then assist the schools in making the transition to Year-Round Education. In 1997, NAYRE financial statements showed support and revenues of $735,834, with $2,536 of that coming in the form of voluntary contributions. The $733,298 balance was from dues, fees, convention registration, sales, consulting, interest income and miscellaneous sources.
Dr. Charles Ballinger is the founder of NAYRE and was for many years employed as NAYRE's Executive Director. According to the IRS Form 990 filed by NAYRE for 1998, Dr. Ballinger worked 40 hours per week with NAYRE and received compensation of $70,657, in addition to a $10,076 Director's Honorarium.
Dr. Ballinger was at the same time employed by the San Diego County Office of Education as the Director of their Year-Round Education Unit. It is not stated how many hours a week he worked there while at NAYRE. Of the 591 schools in Dr. Ballinger's San Diego County system in the late 1990's, only 176 were on any type of year-round calendar. (Click on the names above to see the current figures.) When the San Diego City school system's own Office of Assessment and Evaluation evaluated the 1993 NAYRE Review of Year-Round Education by Dr. Leslie Six they characterized it as having "a tendency toward advocacy research (finding what you are looking for)". Read more about NAYRE's research methodology at the British Columbia Teachers' Federation Website by clicking on their name.
As NAYRE is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization, a copy of their current financial statement is available to the public. It can be requested by calling them at (619)276-5296. Click on their name below to visit their website.
Sometimes those who support changing a school's traditional standard calendar will assert that implementing their proposed change will not actually create a Year-Round School. As the largest and most active organization supporting Year-Round School in the United States, NAYRE has itself defined the different types of Year-Round Calendars. The following is quoted directly from the National Association for Year-Round Education Website:
"Calendars
There are as many different ways of implementing year-round education as there are year-round schools. The following are some of the more common year-round calendars:
45-15 Single-Track Plan - Currently the most popular of the year-round calendars. The year is divided into four nine-week terms, separated by four three-week vacations or intersessions. Students and teachers attend school for nine weeks (45 days), then take a three-week vacation (15 days). This sequence of sessions and vacations repeats four times each year, thus providing the usual 36 weeks or 180 days of school. Four additional weeks each year are allocated to winter holidays, spring vacation, and national, state, or local holidays.
45-15 Multi-Track Plan - Students are normally divided into four groups. While groups A, B, C, are in school, D is on vacation. When D returns, A goes on vacation. The rotation continues every three weeks, thus providing for 33 percent additional space in the school. Each track has its own 45-15 schedule of nine weeks in school and three weeks on vacation. Teachers usually follow the track schedule of their students, but can be assigned to another track, thereby lengthening their contract year and earning a larger salary, they are often called "rainbow teachers," classes with students from all tracks are "rainbow" classes.
60-20 Plan - Students attend school for 60 days and vacation for 20 days. Students rotate through the year until they have had three 60 day terms and three 20-day vacations. The 60-20 Plan can be varied to take into account holidays and state attendance regulations. It can be conducted in either a single-track or multiple-track format.
60-15 Plan - This plan borrows from both the 45-15 and 60-20 in that the instructional period is 60 days and the vacation period is 15 days. By rearranging the instructional days, a common summer vacation of three to four weeks can be given to all students and faculty. It is usually implemented with five tracks available to students. The Orchard Plan is a variation where teachers keep their own classrooms and teach a 225-day contract. One-fifth of the students are always on vacation.
90-30 Plan - The two 90-day semesters are separated by a 30 day vacation period twice a year, schools are closed during the traditional winter holiday period and spring vacation. This calendar can be conducted as either a single-track or a multi-track plan. Quarter Plan - The calendar is divided into four 12-week periods: fall, winter, spring, and summer. Students may select, or be assigned to, any combination of three of the four quarters. They may attend the fourth quarter on a voluntary basis, either on or off campus. The curriculum is organized so that each quarter is a separate entity. A course begins and ends with each 12-week period. For example, social studies and English programs may offer a series of separated but related courses. Subject areas requiring annual sequential treatment such as mathematics are offered in each of the four quarters to complete a year of work.
Quinmester Plan - The school year is divided into five "quins", with students required to attend four of the five. This calendar is most often used at the secondary level of grades nine through 12 but can be effective K-8 too. The school year may range up to 220 days, with vacation periods averaging seven weeks. The quinmester plan often operates on a single-track pattern.
Five-Track, Five-Term Plan - The school year is divided into five terms of 45 days each. There are five terms in each track. Students attend four of the five for a total of 180 days of instructional use annually. This plan is usually used on a multi-track basis. It provides for a common summer break of approximately three weeks for all students.
Concept 6 Plan - This plan is particularly useful when there is a lack of space. It requires that students be divided into three groups, with one group always on vacation, thus releasing a considerable amount of space (up to 50 percent) for instructional use. There are six terms of approximately 43 days each. Students attend four of the six terms but must attend two of their four terms consecutively. Group A begins in July for its first 43 day term; it is then joined by Group B for another 43 days. Group C enters, but Group A, having completed its 86 days, goes on vacation for 43 days.
Flexible All-Year Plan - School is open for instruction approximately 240 days per year, although theoretically a school year could be longer in states where Saturday and Sunday are now legal school days. Students are required to attend the minimum number of days designated by each state. To operate this plan, teachers must be willing to individualize learning. Students have three choices:
1) they may attend all days the school is open for additional learning opportunities, even though only 180 days may be required;
2) they may attend only the required 175-180 days and spread these days over the 240 that instruction is available; or
3) if a family needs or insists on the traditional nine-month calendar, the student can start by a set date in September and finish in June, completing 180 days after the student's program has begun."
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