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Switching To Year-Round School

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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”. …show more content…

It was also noted that while one teacher was expecting to have to reread several chapters of the class book, she was pleasantly surprised to only have to go back a few paragraphs. The most popular opposition to this theory is to assign summer homework, which some schools have already implemented into their curriculum, for the students to complete on their own time over break. However, even with school assigning summer work as a way to combat the summer slide, there is no way to enforce when, or how much effort, students put into their summer work, and nothing assigned over break can compare to what students learn in a school supervised environment with no distractions. Harris Cooper, director of the education program at Duke, confirms that when tested in the spring and fall, “kids generally slide in math and reading during the traditional summer break” (O’Sullivan), proving that two of the most real-world applicable subjects need to be continuously practiced upon to reach …show more content…

However it can be argued that the more frequent breaks throughout the year will leave students feeling refreshed and ready to continue learning when they get back. In the proposition detailed above, students will have a series of breaks throughout the school year, with the longest being three weeks over the winter holidays. This gives ample amounts of time for families to vacation and celebrate together and hopefully leave the students feeling refreshed and ready to learn when they get back. It was also indicated by administrators that “renewed motivation and continuous injection of new ideas maintained a higher level of enthusiasm than [students] had experienced in their previous traditional calendar schools” and that they fully believed this was a critical factor in improving student performance throughout the year (Shields). It should also be noted that the vast majority of jobs offered globally do not have a summer break, and by shortening summers from 13 weeks to 7, students will be more prepared to enter the work force once out of school, and should have an easier time transitioning into the year round life as opposed to students used to taking 10 to 13 weeks off at

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