Instructional Calendar Analysis

Have you ever wondered what the difference between traditional schooling and year-round education is? Maybe you didn’t know that there are more than one type of year-round education. A year-round school schedule can benefit educators, students, and even families. Year-round schooling is where the breaks in school are on a balanced schedule. Instead of having a three month summer break, there would be 60 days off and then the students would be back to school. If on a multi track schedule, teachers could use their off time to substitute at their school on a different track or at another school to get paid more. For students, the shorter breaks away from school increase retention rates, therefore reducing the amount of review necessary at

In “Year-Round Schooling Explained” by Jaclyn Zubrzycki, I support year-round school versus standard school because of the benefits of impacts from the new school timeline. It impresses me that such a drastic change of school arrangement can “stem summer learning loss,

Many schools across the country are choosing to change their school calendar from a traditional schedule to a more nontraditional schedule changing the school year to a year round calendar. Schools are choosing to change up their calendars for many different reasons. Some schools are choosing to change the calendar to help maintain instruction and improve academic achievement. Some are trying to save money and prevent overcrowding in the school. I agree with making the nontraditional school year and the reasoning of why the school district would change their calendar years.

The idea of having a year round school schedule has been thought about at the state level throughout the country for many years, especially in the past two decades. The driving idea behind the argument is that if year round school is put into place, there would be an increase in academic performance because students will not forget what they learned so easily. This change of schedule will obviously have a lasting effect on society, with child care, vacations, regular living, and social life would have a major change on every family. Other operations would have a dramatic change if summer vacation would be taken away. Federal and state government, churches, businesses, the school’s community, and public

Imagine a place, and in this place, you got out of school. Then you had to go back to school one month later. Sounds like a nightmare, right? Like some of you reading this right now, if anybody is, is like what the heck, this can be real, are you sure you’re not just messing with me, or pranking me. Unfortunately, it’s true. There are schools across the U.S that have year-round school, and their breaks are shorter, especially the summer break, the best break of all. And because of this, we should not have year round school because it affects the kids, it affects the parents, and it affects the teachers.

The NSLA took a survey of educators and it confirmed that teachers who work in a school that follows the traditional schedule spend between three to six weeks re-teaching material from the previous school year (Source C). Along with this survey it is believed by most of districts who have implemented year-round school that it is academically necessary because it helps students with retention rates, if students are never out on break for months at a time they will be less likely to forgot the information leaving teachers with more time to teach new information without fearing the old information has gone away. While some teachers dislike the new schedule because it leaves them little time to prepare from the end of one school year to the beginning of the next, the educational time it saves in the long run outweighs the loss of planning time consequently making year-round school an essential change to the educational system in America (Source

Could you imagine attending school year-round with not having a summer break? Even some schools in Des Moines are heading towards rather if they are over populated or so that the schools can be better academically. You can see this more common in metro schools to let everyone attend that school without the class sizes being too large. Today I will be persuading you why year-round school isn’t such a good thing. By first I will be discussing the problems with year-round schools then second how some schools benefit from year-round schools and finally I will be discussing why the traditional school year is perfect the way it is.

As of 2014, over 3000 schools in the United States are year-round. Instead of having one longer summer break, these schools take several shorter breaks throughout the year (Scholastic 15). With so many advantages and very few disadvantages of year-round schooling, it is not surprising that these schools chose to exchange their excessively long summer breaks for shorter, more frequent breaks. Not only can year-round schooling improve the academic performance of students, but it can also economically benefit all aspects of society. Schools should adopt a year-round calendar, causing one to question the perils of year-round schooling.

Schoolboards make claims that some holidays are more important than others. The days out of school for those not in year round school, are in a longer period of time, but it can create stress and anxiety problems at the start of the year. If year round school laws were put into effect, this would increase the number of vacations and minimize the risk of stress issues. Stress can become a huge factor in bad grades which if not corrected could damage the students personal record.

During summer, many students forget what they learned the year before, and teachers must review material done last year. People in year-round schools believe that because of the shorter breaks, teachers have to spend less time reviewing material, and can move forward in their teaching. According to the National Education Association, “one of the main reasons for switching to year-round schools is to improve with student academics.” Although there is no proof, many schools believe a year-round schedule helps improve students academic skills.

However it can be argued that the more frequent breaks throughout the year will leave students feeling refreshed and ready to continue learning when they get back. In the proposition detailed above, students will have a series of breaks throughout the school year, with the longest being three weeks over the winter holidays. This gives ample amounts of time for families to vacation and celebrate together and hopefully leave the students feeling refreshed and ready to learn when they get back. It was also indicated by administrators that “renewed motivation and continuous injection of new ideas maintained a higher level of enthusiasm than [students] had experienced in their previous traditional calendar schools” and that they fully believed this was a critical factor in improving student performance throughout the year (Shields). It should also be noted that the vast majority of jobs offered globally do not have a summer break, and by shortening summers from 13 weeks to 7, students will be more prepared to enter the work force once out of school, and should have an easier time transitioning into the year round life as opposed to students used to taking 10 to 13 weeks off at

The idea of year round school is becoming an increasingly popular idea as this calendar is beneficial to both students and teachers. Under this new calendar, students attend school twelve months rather than nine months. Instead of having a long summer break, which can cause learning loss, students have frequent short breaks throughout the year. The effect of constantly learning throughout the year causes students to improve in test taking. When there is a long summer break, not all students have the same opportunities, creating a gap in achievements. Furthermore, teachers have more time to prepare lessons and teach them. Ultimately, students are more likely to excel in school with this new calendar.

I don't think classes should be held year-round. Everyone needs a vacation from school, work, daily chores, etc. This is a time when a lot of families plan activities together. To take this important family bonding time away would be detrimental to the family as a whole. With everyone's busy lifestyles anymore, this is the "down time" that we all look forward to. (PRO & CON). Others too believe every family has different needs, ... but I love having time with my kids over the summer, and they have time to do things they choose to do," Quinn said. Hunter and Parker have kept busy with summer school, sports, vacation Bible school and other camps. (Martin). Kids need that time off to socialize and explore their wants outside of their everyday routine and that summer break gives kids just

It is October 15th. Normally, students would be at school, working for hours on end at math, communication arts, and science. But this year is different. This year your school has now entered into the year-round calendar system. At home, you can enjoy the season of fall with pumpkins, Halloween, and beautiful weather. The idea of year round school has most commonly been pushed aside because of the misconception that it is too much school, or an on-going cycle of learning. However, those who declare this, do not understand the year-round school concept. Year-round school provides the same number of days as the traditional calendar. The difference, which will change our society and the achievement rate of our students in the future, is that the days are reordered into intersessions. The mechanisms of year round school include students attending school for a nine week period, then following this is a three week break. This rotation occurs year-round with a slightly longer summer break. Consequently, Though many people agree with keeping tradition with the popular school calendar, new evidence and testimony proves that year-round school provides the better avenue because the world is evolving, it benefits low income students, and intersessions are more effective than summer break.

“A long summer vacation in which students forget much of what they have learned is far from ideal for learning” (Shields et al.). Many educators are beginning to realize the benefits of year-round schooling. Even though year-round education is not traditional, year-round schooling should be implemented because year-round education increases academic achievement, frequent breaks allow students and teachers to recharge, and track plans relieve overcrowding. Year-round students still retain school holidays, but these holidays are distributed throughout the year. These breaks created are called intersessions. Year-round education comes in many