When the Calendar Shapes Attendance

For superintendents looking for practical, scalable solutions, calendar design deserves a closer look.

In Anne Arundel County Public Schools in Maryland, simply shifting the end-of-term schedule led to more students showing up.

When the school district replaced two end-of-term early-dismissal days with a full instructional day followed by a nonstudent professional day, attendance improved. Attendance for marking period 2 went up nearly 2 percentage points, and marking period 3 went up about 0.5 percentage points.

At district scale, that meant thousands more students in class without adding programs, staff or incentives.