The Benefits Of Implementing A Year-Round School Calendar

The possibility of year round schools has been a hot debate topic for quite some time. The question is, is the idea of year round schools acceptable considering all the potential drawbacks? Year round schooling can be disruptive to both the family of the students and the teachers themselves, it can be too costly for a large group of people, and year round schools do not provide the same opportunity for learning as the traditional school year does. For several reasons, the traditional school year, which runs for ten months instead of eleven, is more beneficial in comparison to year round schooling.

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.

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

The first reason why kids should have a summer break is that it makes school less complicated. According to Jennifer Brozak, a disadvantage of having a year round school is that the school budget has to increase. They will need to have more fundraisers in order to keep the school going. If they neglect to get the amount of money they need they sometimes cancel and let the students have a summer break. In addition, teachers are having difficulty with planning lessons for students and grading papers in a short amount of time they have (Brozak). In addition, Brozak says, because of the short amount of time teachers have to grade papers they are prone to burnout. This is one of the reasons that schools should have a summer break because both teachers and students’ mental pressure because of work (Brozak). As a student, I can say that breaks will be necessary to recharge and prepare myself

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.

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.

Does year round school truly have a positive impact in the lives of students? Various studies do suggest that year round school is helpful. There are some disadvantages to this type of schooling that are preventing all schools from switching to this type of scheduling. In earlier times schools were only teaching throughout half of the year so that school would be out of session when it was time to work in the fields. This type of scheduling is still common today even though only a small portion of agriculture is tied into education and kids are no longer required to work. “In 1994, the National Education Commission on Time and Learning (1994) urged school districts to develop school calendars that acknowledged (a) differences in student learning and (b) the major changes taking place in American society. The report reflected growing concern about how the school calendar relates to students at risk for academic failure” (Cooper, Nye, Charlton, James, & Greathouse). As a result. many are fighting for year-round school. Year-round school has proven to be beneficial in the lives of students and has lead to greater success in the classroom. Although, there are some downfalls to year-round schooling.

Year round schooling may sound scary but read this and I might change your mind. Year round school is pretty much what is sounds like, except it is the same amount of school days as a regular year, and it has more spread out breaks. Year round school would be beneficial because it consist of less review due to “summer slide”, more “family time”, and longer more spread out breaks.

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

Have you ever found yourself in the same schedule? Repeating almost the same day over and over. Students with traditional scheduled schooling have to go 70 plus days before just a short break. If we had year-round schooling the most we would have to go to school before a break is 45 days. Plus students would be able to advance more quickly, teachers would be happier, and our school would have a higher grade point average. This is why year-round schooling could help the staff and students of linden schools.

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.

Is the traditional school calendar really the best option for your local school system? Maybe, having a year-round schooling system would be best. Year-round education is when schools operate on a 180 day school calendar with frequent breaks. Year-round calendars also don’t include a long summer vacation(Melissa Kelly, February 21,2017). A traditional school in America has a 10-month school calendar, but, many are switching to the year-round calendar. Some are switching to maintain more consistent instruction. A few others are switching in order to save money(Grace Chen, July 2017, Public School Review). There are over 3,000 year-round schools in the United States today. Year-round schools first started in major cities or towns like, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit. But, Los Angeles has the most year-round schools, over 500, in the nation. And there are only 10% of public school students who attend a year-round school. This can be beneficial for both teachers,students and even the families involved. The dropout rate is 2% lower than traditional schools( Niche ,2016). The absence rate is also lower, about 1% lower to be exact. This type of system can increase the school building capacity which means there’s no overcrowding. More education would be provided to lower income families or a child that is disabled. Studies also show that year-round schools have higher test scores than traditional schools. Changing the traditional school calendar

Year round school helps with the complications of childcare issues. Parents won 't have to worry about paying for their child to go to a daycare or a summer camp. Child care can be very expenses and the child might even be upset about going to daycare everyday of the summer. Another child care issue is that if families have older children they could get stuck with watching their younger siblings. Then most of teenagers summer are spent watching their younger siblings when they could be enjoy their summer the way they want.

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.