Two years ago, 4CD asked the the UF to consider changing from our current 18-week semesters to 16-week semesters.  This would allow for a Winter Intersession, as well as an expanded Summer Intersession.  In our Tentative Agreement for 2016-2017, UF and 4CD agreed to begin the shift to 16-week semesters, to begin fall 2018.  Here is some of the information we collected as we were researching the subject at the start of negotiations.

Here is a list of California Community Colleges that have moved to a 16-week semester:

Colleges on Alternative Calendars

This next document shows how a 16-week calendar might look in terms of scheduling different class (1-day; 2-day; etc.):

REDACTED Application for Approval of Compressed Calendar 10 10 14

Here is a summary of issues and considerations that came up the last time compressed calendar was discussed in our district (in 2006).  This summary was compiled by management just to clarify the issues.  Some of what’s listed here may be out of date or have changed.

Compressed Calendar Study Exec Summary

Here is the full document that District Management created reviewing issues in 2006.

Compressed Calendar doc -latest revision 5-10-06

Here is a 2010 study exploring the relationship between course length and student performance at community colleges:

research compressed calendar – santa monica college

Here is a fairly recent study on student success rates with a compressed calendar by San Joaquin Delta College

2008 l San Joaquin Delta College l Compressed Calendar Research

Here is the result of a student and faculty survey on the compressed calendar at Porterville College:

2002 l Porterville College l Compressed Calendar Study

Here is a study on the subject from Chaffey College.  They looked at success and retention rates over three years.

2005 l Chaffey College Study l Statewide Retention and Success of Compressed Calendar

Here are some FAQs from Long Beach related to compressed calendars:

2008 l Long Beach

Here are FAQs from Southwestern College, which recently moved to a 16-week calendar.

2015 l Southwestern College

Here is a CCCCD financial study conducted in 2006 on the concept of a winter session (and the FTES a winter session could generate):

Compressed Calendar – Intersessions

Here is a CCCCD financial study on the overall impact of compressing the calendar.  It too is from 2006, and some of its assumptions may be a bit outdated.

Financial Report

Here is an article related to compressed calendar.

2001 l Article in the Perspective by Tom Tyner l Compressed Calendar

More will come soon.