Possibly Due to “District of Innovation” Flexibility
Year-Round Calendars Become More Popular
The latest report reflects that of the 497 campuses operating YRE calendars in 2020-21, 387 of them were new to the list. The 2019-20 report listed only 114 campuses.
For the same time span, the number of ISDs and charters with at least one campus with a YRE calendar increased from 23 in 2019-20 to 68 in 2020-21.
The report speculates that the fact that more districts are choosing to offer YRE calendars could be rooted in ISDs choosing to operate as a district of innovation (DOI), which offers scheduling flexibility in terms of setting the first and last days of instruction.
As of the 2020-21 school year, 913 ISDs are operating as DOIs, the report says.
In the several prior years that the TEA has been producing the report, the El Paso-area Soccoro ISD has traditionally had the most YRE campuses (about 50).
That’s changed as of this latest report, with several districts far surpassing that number. El Paso ISD, for instance, has about 80 campuses listed with YRE calendars.
The data was based on the TEA’s analysis of school calendar submissions via PEIMS.
The report notes that because state law does not prescribe what constitutes a year-round calendar, the TEA considers a campus to be operating on a YRE basis if the calendar meets one of three defined criteria — such as instruction being reported as occurring in all 12 calendar months.