Summer Vacations And Student Success At Anaheim High School Vacations

Getting rid of summer break would hurt a lot of students; they do not have the patience to go to school during the school year—taking away what is supposed to be their vacation could possibly break them.

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.

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 gap between lower and higher income students, and advantaged and disadvantaged students becomes smaller as well. Because learning loss is reduced because of the breaks, teachers do not have the spend time reviewing previously taught material. Instead, they can teach new information with the time that is typically used for reviewing (Reasons). The extra time can also be used to ensure that the students all understand what they are learning. With standard schooling most students whose parents have a higher income have the opportunity to attend summer camps and other learning places over the summer (Weller). The problem with that is that most students whose parents have a lower income and can not afford the summer camps. This creates a learning gap between the two groups because the lower income student generally do not participate in any extra learning. Year-round schooling can decrease the gap between the students. The higher income students can still participate in camp, but as they do that the lower income students will continue to learn and not stop the learning process during the summer days (Weller). Research shows that performance among low income students increases with year-round schooling (Lynch). Studies have found that students with learning disadvantages fall behind as well.

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

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.

“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”

It is very common for students in the fall to have at least six weeks of review because they have forgotten so much. Michelle Obama stated in Education today, “Our children could score higher on every measure of testing if they didn’t have such a long break between grade levels.” Many countries outscore America on math tests. This might be because math needs to be used continually or the equations are forgotten. Ms. Obama also stated, “Many poor parents cannot afford daycare, so they have to leave their children with older siblings while they are at work.” Public schools are paid for the government and they would be taking care of the children except for Fridays. The elementary students would be safer in class than at home without adequate supervision. Lastly, Ms. Obama declared, “Extended weekends mean that families would have more time together and might take fewer vacation days during school

Year-round schooling is characterized by its 45-90 day periods of instruction (varying with different multitrack systems) separated by 15-30 day breaks (varying with different multitrack systems) (California Department of Education). There is no current scientific evidence to show that year-round education lessens the amount of material forgotten during the summer (McMillen 68); in fact, this memory loss is maximized as it occurs more frequently as it accompanies the shorter, habitual breaks. Constant breaks can also multiply some of summer’s negative effects. One common issue associated with summer is students’ loss of focus as summer approaches and trouble becoming accustomed to the beginning of the following school year (Worsnop 439). This would be a, though minimized, a recurring difficulty with constant breaks. Furthermore, teachers

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

Also many parents work and have kids, so if they are working and there is no school for 2 weeks it can be hard to find babysitters to watch their children. Many teens also like to get jobs over the summer. The teens will not be able to do that because there won’t be a summer break. In text 2 paragraph 5 it says, “ Some critics, however, note that extracurricular activities, like sports and band, may be more difficult under year-round schedule.” It would be hard because if all schools aren't doing the year-round schooling. Also, it would be difficult because it would be hard to get in competitions, plays, and games. (However) year round (schooling does) affect schedules, that isn't’ the main reason why there shouldn’t be year round schooling. The main reason why is because, it rushes into a new school year. After just a week of school ending, it starts right back up again. That gives people no time to get school supplies and it gives zero time for teacher to finalize grades,get their room ready, get school supplies for their own children ,etc. Also, teachers can’t (arrange) a new school year in a week. In text 2 it states, “Finalizing grades and report cards may take place while school is still in session,

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

The minute that everybody has been expecting for has at long last arrived. The people are inclining toward the edge of their seats, listening for the last chime to ring to unleash them to freedom. We all love it when summer vacation has arrived, but the time just passes by so fast. A high percentage of the students want there to be a longer summer vacation, but are there really any benefits? Well yes in fact a longer vacation will be associated with many benefits such as increased social life, health benefits, and educational plus financial gains.

Imagine a room full of 30 plus 12th-grade colonists on the first day of school at Anaheim high school and the math teacher asks what is the square root of 16? Nothing but the noise of sheer silence falls across the room. How can a room full of students that have been going to school for 12 years not answer that simple question and how can we increase the success of students that go Anaheim high school? In order to increase the success of students at Anaheim schools the summer has to be shorter and the days longer. In the article “Marita’s bargain” the author Gladwell explains how time is used in regular schools compared to the KIPP Academy in the Bronx and other school systems with short summers and longer days.The article shows how more time