By  Colton Elsen  |  Jan 4, 2026     SaveTheTrimesters.org

What Council Grove Can Learn Before Making a Permanent Change

For years, Council Grove High School has operated on a trimester schedule, one of only two schools left in Kansas to do so. Recently, however, district leadership has strongly pushed to switch to a traditional semester system. Before making a decision that would permanently alter how students learn, it’s important to ask a simple but critical question:

How do trimesters and semesters compare when it comes to student performance—especially test scores?

This article looks at how scheduling impacts learning, retention, and outcomes, and why the data suggests trimesters deserve serious consideration.

How the Two Systems Work

At a basic level, the difference between trimesters and semesters comes down to time structure.

Trimester system

• Three terms per school year

• Longer class lengths

• Students take more courses over the year

• More frequent assessments and finals

Traditional Semester system

• Two terms per school year

• Shorter classes

• Fewer courses per year

• Fewer major assessment cycles

At Council Grove, students and teachers have adapted to the trimester system over many years. Any comparison of performance must take into account how deeply embedded this structure already is. Changing it in any way could cause huge problems with outcomes.

Why Schedule Structure Affects Test Scores

Test scores don’t exist in a vacuum. They’re influenced by several factors tied directly to scheduling:

• Retention: Shorter terms reduce the time between instruction and assessment.

• Focus: Students concentrate on fewer subjects at a time.

• Feedback: Teachers can identify gaps and intervene sooner.

• Stress distribution: Exams are spread out rather than concentrated in long, high-pressure semesters.

Under trimesters, students are tested closer to when they learn material, something educational research consistently shows improves recall and performance.

What the Data Shows

Below, I have attached the results of my research on 2024 State Assessment scores using data from KansasOpenGov. Level 1 means below grade level. Level 2 means grade level, but needs remedial training. Levels 3 and 4 mean above-grade-level/proficient. For each school, I included all available information I could find regarding their academic schedule. Any schools with blank entries reflect cases where I was unable to locate reliable information about that school’s schedule. However, even in those cases, each of these schools still operates under some form of a semester-based schedule.