New Jersey Proposed Pilot Program to Extending School Days and Hours: A Progressive Idea or Exhausting

Year round education (YRE) is implemented in 436 U.S. school districts with very few complaints. In fact, school districts that have been participating in YRE and extended school days (ESD) are raving about the benefits in pupil's achievement level, their new found enthusiasm in learning, as well as the many programs that exist in the extended day promoting the decline in latch key children.

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.

Suzanne Tobias wrote the article “The struggle over longer school days” that is on The Wichita Eagle. In her article, she has the viewpoints of families, teachers and school board members. One family that is brought up a lot, is the Biggs family. Rachel and Doug Biggs talk about how longer school days have impacted their family, especially their first-grade son, Liam.

Industries such as business and medicine depend on extreme methods and forward thinking ideas. To be a successful enterprise, one must be willing to take risks and try new things. Within the last century, education has attempted to take a leap of faith by completely flipping the traditional school schedule and idea of summer vacation upside down. Just as with any idea, there are advantages and disadvantages as well as supporters and opponents. Each district must look at their own individual needs and evaluate the trials from schools that have gone before them to decide if year-round schooling would benefit their school.

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.

“The U.S. research challenges one of the main arguments for abandoning conventional schedules: year- round schooling improves achievement because it prevents students from falling behind during the summer and because it does not waste precious time reviewing past years’ lessons”

Most schools in America today follow the traditional 180-day schooling system. This system was started in the 19th century when schooling for children began. There was a 10-week summer vacation for the students to help their families on the farm for harvesting. In March of 2009, President Barak Obama suggested to the public his Race to the Top program. The program is to extend the school hours or extend the school days. “We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day,” he says. His reason is the students of school today will not be equipped for the 21st century if we continue to use the traditional

Many schools across the America have tried implementing year-round education. However, some school districts that tried YRE go back to the 180- day schedule (Sardo-Brown, Deborah, and Michael Rooney 1). When year-round education is proposed most of the time opposition is met. In 1992, parents of a possible pilot school were surveyed on their thoughts. 59% of the parents responded. There was an overwhelming amount of rejection. Just 10% of those surveyed favored YRE where 83% were against (Sardo-Brown, Deborah, and Michael Rooney 1).

Summer breaks enable families to vacation, go to theme parks, and spend days at the beach. As Care.com states "American families have become accustomed to the traditional long summer vacation. Parents may find it difficult to schedule vacations and family reunions." Since there is less time off for kids they are goanna find it hard or more difficult to go anywhere or do anything with their kids. Lynch says, “The most obvious downside of year-round school is the effect it can have on families. Quality family time is important to the emotional and developmental well being of a child”. Schools forget children need to do something with their family’s some times and they need to see cousins and grandparents and if they do year round school schedule parents will find it nearly impossible to schedule any time with other relatives. Kids need to see their grandparents and cousins once in a while with year round schooling that will be a hard task to

To the counter-argument, Ballenger & Kneese say it best: “Of what value is there to a community of having most of its classrooms unused for fully 25% of the possible school days each year, when America 's students need more, rather than less, education?” As it stands, concerns concerning loss of learning over the extended summer break remain prevalent. Changing to a year-long school schedule would close that learning gap, allowing students higher retention. However, as Gabrieli states in Koonce (2015), even schools that add “25 percent more time each year – or the equivalent of three extra years of school for students” (p. 236) can achieve this increase merely by extending the school day with no adjustment in summer breaks. Expanded hours and days “can ensure at risk students keep up academically; develop attachment to school through such activities as sports, arts, and drama; and develop the beliefs and behaviors consistent with success” (p.236). The proponents of expanded learning time (ELT) may attest that “the greatest opportunity that expanded learning time offers for improving academic achievement comes from being able to better individualize instruction—putting the right teachers with the right students and focusing on the right skills” (Koonce, 2015). ELT allows students to learn that “through hard work, they can excel through the odds, but that [success] requires time” (Koonce, 2015). Supporters of expanded learning time argue that there is a sizeable benefit from

Intensifying pre-kinder is a major concerns after the 2011 Texas Legislation eliminated all grants for full-day programs. It is said that success made in pre-K lasts a lifetime, and children with a high quality pre-K program begin school with more advanced skills in comprehension and problem solving. If programs to elongate school days do not pass the next option would be to increase the number of days students attend school. With smaller amount of schools along with estimated population growth Texas educators have put a lot of thought into this option.

The overall logistics run much smoother in schools that have four day weeks compared to the five day week. “Some districts had experienced a decline in dropout rates, decreased disciplinary referrals, improved attendance, fewer class interruptions, more positive attitudes about school, and better staff development” (Yarbrough and Gilman 81). Another logistical benefit to having four day school week is that students have more time to get involved in extracurricular activities due to more availability

According to a report from the New York City district, a school that received funds for longer days fared better on standardized tests. This school had seven percent more students scoring at or above grade level in reading, when two other schools had increases of five and six percent. In math, three percent of students scored at or above grade level in a school with a longer day, compared with one percent for a low performing school and an average of one percent for other schools (Brett 1). This information is one example of many studies that illustrate that long school days have a great positive impact on school performance. The main school goals are improving students’ knowledge and building different skills that will help them in the future. Therefore, if longer school days support these educational goals, people should be concerned about improving schools by lengthening the day.

Students often wonder how fun it would be if they had a three-week break every nine weeks, as opposed to one long summer break. Changing summer break into much shorter, but more frequent breaks would be beneficial for many reasons. Just think, most students lose up to one month of knowledge over the summer. Although most students could go to a learning camp over the summer, lower income students cannot afford this as summer break is financially taxing on them. Finally, while lower income and higher income students may have their differences, all students stay up late over summer break. Staying up late causes these students to get out of their school routine. It is a wonder why the US education system hasn’t already turned summer break into