There are many types of year-round school.
Single-track schooling is the most popular kind of year-round education; ninety percent of year-round schools operate on this track. It costs the same as a traditional school year and the students attend school for the same amount of days, but the breaks are rearranged to prevent learning loss.
Multitrack schooling is usually used in overcrowded districts in order to avoid building more schools. The students are split into groups that have different vacations.
Extended year schooling lengthens the school year by around the desired amount of days. Although it costs more money to employ the staff longer, it pays off because students learn and retain more information.
Some year-round schools go by a specific attendance model. The most common among these is the 45-15 model (45 days in
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Well over 3,000 schools in America operate year-round. “The number of public year-round schools increased by 26 percent, to 3,700 from 2006-07 to 2011-12, according to the latest data available from the National Center for Education Statistics.” ("Popularity Grows Anew for Year-Round Schooling").
In a parent survey sent out in a North Carolina school district, 90% of parents approved of a year-round schedule.
In the last 5 years, the amount of year-round schools has increased 18%. “According to Market Data Retrieval, Inc., 2,964 public schools operate twelve months a year, which is a 3 percent increase over last year” ("Year-round schools are on the rise. (Trends)").
Year-round school helps students retain information better than schools on a traditional schedule.
Year-round school eliminates summer learning loss. Low-income students specifically benefit from year-round education for this reason.
One study found that math scores at year-round schools were significantly higher than those at schools with a traditional schedule.
Many year-round schools offer optional enrichment courses during
Schools financially benefit from becoming year-round. According to Jaclyn Zubrzycki there are several programs such as School Improvement grant, that offer financial incentives. Also in a traditional school year the facilities are not being used unlike when you have a balanced calendar the facilities and equipment are being put to more use. Not only do schools finacially benifit from year round schools but so do the parents. “Families' budgets might benefit from the reduced costs associated with being be able to travel in off-season times,” wrote Amy Pearson , from Settle
In order to accommodate the year round calendar, there are several forms of year round education. The first form follows a single track calendar. This is the most popular type of calendar (Shields, 2000). A single track year is usually implemented to “provide a more balanced and enriched education program or to accommodate the special scheduling needs of a community” (Glines, 2002, 2699). A single track calendar takes on a 45/15 design. This is where students go to school for forty-five days in a row, and then have a fifteen day break. It is a continuous cycle. Schools usually begin in early August, and follow this pattern four times to complete the school year (Glines, 2002). The three week break in between is called an intersession. During this time, students can choose to take additional educational courses through “remedial,
Year-round schools have gained popularity among the United States, being a very communicated topic within middle class communities. These schools are generally argued about by whether they are beneficial or not. While there are many advantages to year-round schools, there are some disadvantages as well. A few of these disadvantages include the expenses of the schools, the schedules the schools provide, the involvement within the schools, and the actual effectiveness of these schools.
Imagine a school year that never ends. A year without summer, relaxation, and vacations with family. Summer is the time of year that every student cannot wait arrive. But what if the playful time filled with friends, smiles, and laughter did not exist? What if school remained in session year-round? This is happening in 3,181 schools across America and is gradually increasing (edweek.org). The government calls it: Year-Round School. There are both many pros and cons to this controversial issue in today’s education; however, Year-Round School is not a good decision because of the social outcomes, the financial costs, and the academic effects that Year-Round School burdens on the students.
This shows that year-round school is at least as good as the traditional schedule in helping students learn. Year-round school also allows more time for remedial classes during the breaks, which can help students who are falling behind during the school year catch back up. This is in contrast with summer school, which only occurs after school is over and students are finished with the curriculum, making students have to start a totally new class just to catch up. Remedial classes reinforce material that is fresh in students’ minds instead of forcing them to recall something they may have learned half a year ago and probably forgotten. This once again cuts down on the time it takes to bring students up to speed with their classes.
Have you ever thought about how year-round schooling can be beneficial to students? In today’s society, many school districts have been switching from a standard school year to year-round schooling. Year-round schools follow the basic 180 day school year, but the days are more spread out throughout the year following the 45-15 method. Forty five days of school, followed by fifteen day breaks. Year-round schooling is beneficial to many because it prevents students from gaining unwanted weight and causes less stress for teachers and students.
The average school period is one hundred and eighty days with small breaks in between and a three-month break during summer to ease students’ minds and let them relax. The Board of Education should make all schools in the United States year-round to increase educational time and decrease the loss of knowledge over the breaks. It gives students the same time to relax and plan family vacations periodically throughout the year, but never creates the stress of changing sleep schedules that summer break changes. Not only is it a good way to enhance education, but it also is better for planning family events, positive effects on budget, academic achievement, and could decrease the absence rate of students.
Does year round school truly have a positive impact in the lives of students? Various studies do suggest that year round school is helpful. There are some disadvantages to this type of schooling that are preventing all schools from switching to this type of scheduling. In earlier times schools were only teaching throughout half of the year so that school would be out of session when it was time to work in the fields. This type of scheduling is still common today even though only a small portion of agriculture is tied into education and kids are no longer required to work. “In 1994, the National Education Commission on Time and Learning (1994) urged school districts to develop school calendars that acknowledged (a) differences in student learning and (b) the major changes taking place in American society. The report reflected growing concern about how the school calendar relates to students at risk for academic failure” (Cooper, Nye, Charlton, James, & Greathouse). As a result. many are fighting for year-round school. Year-round school has proven to be beneficial in the lives of students and has lead to greater success in the classroom. Although, there are some downfalls to year-round schooling.
Single-track schools, which can make up as much as 87% of year-round schools in areas such as North Carolina, “cost as much or more than traditional school programs” (McMillen 68). The expenses that contribute to this are costs such as the salaries for auxiliary educators to replace those who have chosen to go on break (California Department of Education). While teachers are on break, other educators will most likely be using the classroom, leaving teachers struggling to find ways to store larger educational tools such as posters, student work from previous years, etc. and end up looking to the school to provide storage accommodations. In conjunction with these regular payments, there would also be lengthier maintenance work, which would be very challenging to carry out when there are constantly students in session (California Department of Education). Additional expenses could also include temperature control and food costs, which would be greater due to full year usage. The monetary effects of year round school could also be significant on a moderately broader scale. “In 2000, Texas found the economic costs of starting school in early August totaled US$370 million in lost summer employment, lowered tourism spending, and additional air conditioning costs.” (“Leave Those Kids” 5). Loss of tourism and summer employment
Year-round schooling is the same number of days as a normal day at school, just split up with short breaks. They would go for 60 days and then get a 20-day break. More popular plans include 45-15 and 80-40. Some Pros for Year-round schooling: kids can suffer from the long summer break, year-round schools can replace summer school, teachers normally spend weeks reviewing things from the year before, but year-round schooling can prevent that. The cons to year-round schooling: There are higher demands on staff, cafeteria, and maintenance workers, it’s is harder to plan graduations and parent conferences, working parents can have a hard time finding transportation, and parents with kids in other schools can have a hard time planning vacations. More than 2 million kids came to year-round schools in
More information that backs up the economic argument for year round schooling is that instead of buying a new building because of overcrowded schools, that cost can be avoided because year round schooling helps to alleviate crowded buildings. Academics is the one thing that year round schooling has proven without a doubt to help increase. Students have less time to lose the information, and also have more time for the information to be reinforced throughout the year.
Year round school helps with the complications of childcare issues. Parents won 't have to worry about paying for their child to go to a daycare or a summer camp. Child care can be very expenses and the child might even be upset about going to daycare everyday of the summer. Another child care issue is that if families have older children they could get stuck with watching their younger siblings. Then most of teenagers summer are spent watching their younger siblings when they could be enjoy their summer the way they want.
Articles also say that by going to an year round school it will improve test scores. (The
Jaclyn Zubrzycki explains how year-round schooling is simply breaking up the academic year with several two-to-three-week vacations. The length of breaks and schedules are different for each school. For some, the students have 45-day academic sessions followed by 15-day breaks, for others it’s 60-day sessions then 20-day breaks, and for many it’s 90-days of classes followed by 30-days of break. In the 2011-12 school year, 4% of schools were on a year-round schedule. That’s 3,700 schools, and 400 of those were charters. The number of year-round schools increased by 26% from 2006-07 to 2011-12. According to the Congressional Research Service, the average year-round school is open 189 days a year, which is 9 more days than a traditional school
Some schools with year-round schooling utilize something called the “multi-track” system. Essentially, the school is divided into four or five different “tracks.” Vacations are staggered between the tracks in such as way so that while three out four tracks are currently in school, the other track is on vacation. When one track returns, another track goes on vacation. By staggering vacations, overcrowded schools can alleviate some of the stress of having too many students.