The growth of year-round education: three months wasted in the learning process. (National Assn for Year-Round Education Exec Dir Charles Ballinger's speech)

THREE MONTHS WASTED IN THE LEARNING PROCESS

Address by CHARLES BALLINGER, Executive Director, National Association for Year-Round Education

Delivered to the National Association for Year-Round Education Twenty-Ninth Conference of the Association, Houston, Texas, February 17, 1998

The National Association for Year-Round Education's 29th annual meeting provides me the opportunity to bring a positive report to you for the seventeenth year in a row. The data which I am about to share comes from data the Association collects from 2,807 schools in 560 school districts enrolling 1,970,462 students.

Current Statistics

Of the 41 states in the United States offering YRE, California continues to lead dramatically in numbers with 1,455 schools and 1,237,624 students. However, significant growth continues in other states. For example, during the past nine years, Texas has increased its listing from 3 to 384 schools, making it second to California. During the same period, North Carolina increased from 1 to 122, Arizona from 0 to 121, and Kentucky from 0 to 98.

Canadian YRE schools and students have tripled in number over the past two years. Four provinces now have YRE schools: British Columbia, Alberta. Manitoba and Ontario. We welcome this interest in Canada and hope that the numbers continue to grow over the next several years.

Private YRE schools grew as well. Over 15,000 students now attend them. We welcome this trend, and we encourage other private schools to initiate YRE. Of the 71 private YRE schools in the U.S., 52 or 73% of them are church-related. Denominational listings include Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Baptist, Seventh-Day Adventist, and unaffiliated Christian.

Likewise, year-round education has continued to expand throughout the Pacific. With seven YRE schools in Guam, 13 in Saipan and four in Pohnpei, a total of 24, we look forward to further expansion in this region.

Eighty-five percent of year-round schools in the U.S. continue to be west of the Mississippi, a western predominance that is similarly manifested among Canadian and private schools. However, in 1997-98 we note the growth of YRE schools east of the Mississippi - for example, in Kentucky, Ohio, Illinois, North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, and New …