School Year Looping

Imagine if you had a 3 week vacation every 8 weeks. This is what happens during year round schooling. Whether or not Florida schools should convert to year round schooling is a recent problem. Florida schools should convert to year round schooling because it keeps the learning process going and gives students/staff breaks throughout the year. Many people believe it may cause problems with other schools but the benefits outweigh the problems and Florida needs to switch to year round school.

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.

Summer break is supposed to be a time of rest and rejuvenation for students. After nine months of hard work and challenging classes, one would think such a long break could do nothing but good for students; however, this is not the best way for young minds to learn. A three month break is far too long for children to go without proper education and supervision. Instead of a long three month break at the end of each school year, why not give students the same number of days off but spread them out more frequently throughout the year? Year-round education is a more efficient, globally competitive, and fair alternative to the traditional nine month school year.

A large portion of the knowledge gained during the last school year is lost over the long idle months and must be retaught for weeks, which wastes a lot of time that could be spent learning new material. This puts students behind in that year’s curriculum, and over many summers, can add up to students being months or years behind where they would be if no learning was lost. There is a solution to this

Some advantages of year-round schooling include improved achievement, improved attendance by both teachers and students, reduced discipline problems, lower teacher stress, increased motivation due to frequent breaks, and increased opportunities for enrichment (Palmer and Bemis). During the two week breaks in between school sessions, students have the opportunity to take classes on karate, ballet, photography, cooking, and swimming. This intersession provides time for hands-on, big project classes that get kids involved in topics that interest them. Intersession can also be used as an intervention for students who are falling behind. “Karl Alexander, sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University, studied 800 students for more than 20 years in Baltimore’s elementary schools. He found that by ninth grade, low-income students had fallen 3 ½ grade levels behind their middle-class peers. And most of that gap was attributable to learning lost over the long traditional summer” (Schulte, 2009). The biggest driving force and proponent of year-round schooling is the effect of the “summer slide.” Students lose two months of achievement in math skills and students from low-income families lose more than two months in reading achievement according to the national Summer Learning

One way students could benefit is that this schooling could provide them with an increased student centered instructional strategy during a year-round school year. These could be activities that activate prior knowledge, hands on projects, in depth discussions, and multiple intelligences. These learning experiences are highly effective, but they are also time consuming. On a multi track schedule, students could also be exposed to smaller classroom sizes, which could benefit the student giving them more time to themselves, and to their assigned teacher for extra instruction.

The topic of year around school has been brought up many times throughout my time in school. Though it has been brought up, it has not actually been considered by my fellow students and I. We have all taken surveys regarding it and most of the people I know have been against it. With our school being in a small town in Iowa I do not think having year round schooling would benefit us or the community.

A teacher who was part of a year round system recounts, “I found myself going through 3 school years without that opportunity for self-assessment and planning for the future of the educational program.” (“The Effect of Year Round Schools” 1999/22 February 2005). With a much shorter summer break, teachers will not have enough time to increase their education, which can benefit the learning of their students. For these reasons, year round schools are not as beneficial as the traditional school year.

Some schools in the United States have been switching to a year round school calendar instead of the traditional school calendar. How would children in the USA feel if their school year became year round? The year round schedule dictates schools use a 45-15 schedule in which every 45 days students get a 15 day break including weekends. Unlike the traditional calendar, which includes 60 days of summer break, holidays and weekends. Students and parents won't be able to do activities or vacation together using the year round schedule. The traditional school calendar is better than the year round school schedule.

In America most public schools go to school on a 10-month system established when America was mainly agriculture, and the children had to work in the fields during the summer. Year-round school was first used in the early 1900s to fight overcrowding and underfunding. It wasn’t until the 60s that year-round school was used again when a school in California became the first school to use it since 1904. I believe that the school schedule is fine the way it is. Some of the cons of year-round school are students can’t have summer jobs, most programs such as lunch and buses cost more, and extracurricular conflicts.

The beginning of the year is the hardest at PES. Due to growing up in a rough environment, numerous students come to my classroom portraying that they are tough, but it is just a shell. They are subconsciously trained to act hard to survive in their community, but deep down they are delicate. Once I break the barrier and show them that I care, the students are affectionate. They hold on to my every word and love me more than ever. Many of my students call me mom and wanted to come home with me for the breaks from school. They openly show that they care and are accepting of anyone who shows them that they care. To establish rapport, many teachers and administrators have to do the same. Yet, by October we are all

One of the most documented reasons for switching to a year round school is what’s known as the “summer slide.” Students leave spring semester after taking their exams and don’t think about school for almost 12 weeks. These students then come back in the fall not only failing at subjects they knew three months prior, but in dire need of having the foundations re taught to them. This forces teachers to spend valuable class time re-teaching lessons, which dips into class time that should be used for grade appropriate lessons. In her article, O’Sulivan theorizes, “the less times students are away from school, the less time teachers will have to spend reviewing material from the previous year and acclimating students to classroom rules and procedures”.

The education system in the United States is an ever-evolving institution. As a country we have progressed from one-room schoolhouses, to segregated classrooms, to online learning environments. Congress is constantly passing legislation to better our public school systems and minimize costs to taxpayers. Individual states have also implemented various new systems to try and maximize their education potential. One such alternative is year round schooling. Year round schooling has become increasingly popular over the past few decades and is still a rapidly growing trend.

A large portion of the knowledge gained during the last school year is lost over the long idle months and must be retaught for weeks, which wastes a lot of time that could be spent learning new material. This puts students behind in that year’s curriculum, and over many summers, can add up to students being months or years behind where they would be if no learning was lost. There is a solution to this problem, however: year-round school. Year-round school provides many advantages for both students and adults over the traditional summer vacation schedule.