Academic Calendar

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Balanced Calendar

“Recent education reports suggests that policymakers and educators must consider changing learning time policies and programs. Indeed, it may be time to seriously evaluate more current and viable alternatives to traditional school calendars, leaving nothing off the table to improve the achievement of an increasingly diverse student population.” 
~ Silva Report (2007) 

When formal schooling was first established, the school calendar the school calendar was standardized to fit the needs of the 85% of Americans (and students) involved in agriculture. Today, about 3% of Americans are involved in agriculture, and school reform has called for a change in school calendars to better meet the educational needs of today’s students. 

At the Honors Academy of Literature, we follow a Balanced Calendar and here is why: 

• Research suggests a correlation between the Balanced Calendar and improved test scores. 
• Consistently, research demonstrates a dramatic increase in attendance attributed to families having more opportunities to plan vacations during breaks and students having a better resistance to illnesses. 
• Additional studies also show a dramatic decrease in discipline referrals. 
• Finally, research studies revealed that the drop-off in student retention over long summer breaks averaged a loss of 2.6 months of grade level equivalency in Math, and 2.0 in Reading, when students follow Traditional calendars in comparison to 1.0 and .8 months, respectively, within Balanced models. 

While Washoe County School district also follows a Balanced Calendar, there are some important differences to note. At the Honors Academy of Literature, we offer 184 days of instruction vs. 181 with district schools. For this reason, we generally start a few days earlier than the district. We also protect the two week break in October, which is consistent with the Balanced Calendars used in the empirical research presented above. 

Daily Schedule

Middle school scholars start at 8:45 and primary and elementary start at 9:00.  The rest of the morning includes a short recess, Literacy/Social Studies Applications, Mathematics, Math/Science Applications, and lunch time depending on the group.

First elective starts at 1 pm.  Primary Scholars (K-2) are dismissed at 2 pm, and the remaining scholars take a break for recess or writing block.  They begin their second elective at 2:30 pm, ending their day at 3:30 pm.

On Friday, all scholars meet with their Academic Mentor groups at 1 pm and are dismissed at 2 pm.