Snow Days Memo

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.

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

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.

In his article “Go Year-Round: A Push for True Summer School”, Milton Chen, the executive director of Edutopia, urges readers to use the year-round schooling system. He explains in brief words what the summer vacation was for. “…when farm families needed young people home during the summer months to replace the three R's with the two P's -- plantin' and pickin' " (Chen). He carries on discussing that the problem with the school days is not only the amount, but the schedule of the school day. The curriculum is too tight; neither the students nor the teachers have the time to step away from the books and text and learn from the outside. The students do not have the chance to go into the outside world and observe what is going on in the society that they live in. Additionally, the teachers do not have the chance to decide how their time is spent because it is spent on the strict schedule of the classroom.

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.

Can you imagine going to an all year round –school? It must be horrible. You would have to go to school all year with short breaks in-between quarters. You couldn’t go on vacation, you couldn’t do activities, and summer is for family memories and its tradition. So why would we change tradition to go to school all year. Here are reasons why we shouldn’t apply to an all year round –schools.

Have you ever wondered why teachers take a whole month to review everything from the previous year or why students tend to forget everything? Every year, students are keeping their calendars at hand and counting down the days until summer vacation. It’s the last day of school and when the final bell rings, kids are ready to do nothing for three months. However, is this really a good thing? The possibility of having year-round schools is at hot debate topic right now and it is time for change from traditional calendar schools. Schools should incorporate a system where schooling is year-round instead of having a long summer break because this allows for more learning and would prevent the problem of students forgetting everything they’ve

All primary and secondary schools in the United States need to change from the traditional schooling system to the newer educational system of a year-round schooling system. A traditional school system is one where students go to school for nine months out of the year and receive a three month summer vacation, whereas students in a year-round school system follow a cycle of forty-five days in classes followed by a fifteen day period of rest, for the entire calendar

“No pencils, no books, no more teachers; for a kid, an endless summer would be the best thing in the world. Unfortunately, right now America’s education system is on the ropes” (Reasons Why Year Round School Is A Good Idea-Screenflex). Did you know “students at the year-round school demonstrated significantly higher average in math and reading scores” (Higher Achievement at Year-round Schools)?. Which is why School should be all year around because children would remember the information more, and business can earn more money.

Educational debates are a widespread in today’s society. Currently, one of the largest debates in education is the debate of whether schools should stay with the traditional school calendar or change to a year-round calendar. The main focus of the debate is centered around the idea that using the year-round calendar will provide kids with a more consistent learning schedule, which in turn creates better grades within the school and cuts back on summer learning loss. Year-round calendar and traditional calendar are far different. Traditional school calendar provides ten weeks of summer break and year-round calendar provides a shorter summer break but more frequent breaks throughout the year. The frequent breaks provide families the

Once a student enters the building on their first day of school they long await summer break. Yet, districts around the nation are changing that, instead of giving a two and a half summer vacation, they are asking students to go to school instead. This is a controversial issue because some parents agree with the decision, while others don’t. Instead of vacations and lying around at home during summer break, students will be given more textbooks, homework and tests. Although they do attend school throughout summer break, they do get periods of time off throughout the school year which gives them a break. The government should apply the year-round schooling method in our district because cost is not much of an issue, it helps teachers, and the

Many adolescents that live in North Dakota know the feeling of having to sit in school in August, when the weather is perfect for days on the lake or other activities. A majority of them are asking why they have to be in school during this time, when states such as Minnesota are still on break until September. To fix this inconvenience along with other frustrations would be to start the school year after Labor Day in September. To fix the predicament first people should know why starting school early is a problem, then have a clear solution to this problem, and finally know why other solutions that have been offered to compensate are not as favorable.

Year-round school presents a very controversial issue that school districts struggle with every year. The same arguments, facts, and statistics are presented annually, and somehow a conclusion is never reached. Many people believe that year-round school would be a step in the right direction. Although there are many positive innovations to year-round school, the advantages do not outweigh the disadvantages of cost, breaks, vacations, employment, and scheduling.

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.