Should Year Round School Be A Positive Impact On The Lives Of Students?

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.

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.

Year round schooling is better than regular school because, it allows the kids to retain more information and not lose what they learned, they also allow them to graduate earlier with higher retention levels. In discussion of Year Round Schooling, one controversial issue has been whether year round schooling is a good idea or not. People believe that year round schooling is a good thing and that it will increase academic achievement levels and benefit the students more than anything else. Students will also be able to advance more quickly since the schooling is year round, they have less to forget since the breaks are shorter. On the other hand people seem to believe that year round schooling takes away from the students and gives them less family time and less of an “Outside of school life” (NEA). In the research of year round schooling it shows that absences are most likely to be higher since it is year round. Their view is that we think that many students can benefit from year round schooling, and that is has more benefits than anything else.

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.

Year-round schooling, also known as YRS, is a new idea that schools are trying to implement across the United States and worldwide. “As of June 2006, and estimated 2.3 million students in over 3,100 schools across the United States attended classes on a year-round school schedule.” (Chittom and Klassen). Schools that aren’t on a year-round schedule are based off of a 180- day calendar that includes a summer and fall break. With the YRS schedule the classes would run for 3 weeks then take a 2-3 week break in between. Schools should switch to year-round school because there is less setbacks and it is beneficial to the people involved.

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

When a person first mentions the idea of year-round schooling, their comment is usually met with a look of dread. The image of year-round schooling is that students must go to school every day throughout the entire year with no breaks. This is an untrue image. Students are given frequent breaks throughout the school year to make up for the shorter summer break. It was first used in the 1800s, which goes against many people’s thoughts that it is a new alternative schooling proposal (Research). At that time year-round schooling was used in industrial cities to teach English to children of immigrants. By the early 1900s, year-round schooling was used as a method to reduce overcrowding, underfunding,

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.

using a multi track year-round calendar can allow a school to enroll up to 50 percent more students. More than two million students go to year-round schools. The last reason why year-round school would be a positive thing is the effect on budgets advocated claim a year-round calendar allows school facilities to be used most effectively because they are not sitting empty for months at a time during summer

How would the population react if the schedule that structures many peoples’ entire year were to change? This change is a reality for a growing number of families across the country as a method of improving primary and secondary education through year-round school. Although many have come to accept or even embrace year-round school in an effort to help students retain more material, year-round school would actually disrupt the learning environment, be potentially detrimental for students and their family’s financial health, as well as that of the schools, and could take away from family and personal time.

According to the National Association for Year-Round Education, students will be able to advance more rapidly if they did year-round schooling. A by-product of summer break is the dividing of classes based on age. If schooling was year-round, there would be less distinction between one year and the next. This only teaches us to work with people from our generation. If we had year-round schooling we could advance quicker and work with people from different generations, just like how it would be in the future with jobs. Also, the constant learning environment takes away the emphasis of when the student started school and instead emphasizes skill

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.

“It’s for the public it’s year round and it 's also for the schools because we 're going to re-establish our school programs and all our outreach programs” Susan Hayward. Will year round schooling help or benefit the schools of the United States and society? Year round schools could change the reasons why teachers are teaching ("Top 10 Reasons"). Elimination of extended breaks from schools in the United States. would be beneficial to the population.

Consider the following situation: A car is driving past the local elementary school on a hot and sunny July afternoon. As the car approached the school the driver notices some unusual things. Students are outside with the teachers for recess, and it looks as if school is in session. The school is on a year-round schedule. The driver is intrigued and decides to do some research. From the research, this person found that students are achieving more academically and the teachers are well rested.