The Importance Of School Schedules In Public School

A lot of parents are shaking their heads at the consideration of a four-day school week, and a longer school day. Shorter school weeks or longer school days are reasonable solutions when there is a shortage of funding, or possible budget cuts coming to the school district. This solution has many mixed opinions from parents, teachers and school board members.

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.

Another important advantage for many school districts is that year-round school can enable multi-track schedules. A multi-track schedule is one in which teachers and students are divided into equally sized groups called tracks (Gerard 1). Each track attends school and has vacation at the same time, but there is always at least one track on vacation at any time (1). This is somewhat analogous to our P.E. system at Johnston High. Imagine if everyone had P.E. on the same day; we’d never be able to manage students or fit them into the gyms. This is comparable to our

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.

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 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”

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.

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

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

“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.

With students taking classes all year round they are constantly using their knowledge and adding on to it, making it awfully difficult to forget. LeighAnne Lyttle, a member of the U.S. Department of Education, states, “Data collected across the country has proven that year-round schools are the best way for children to get the most of their education providing better scores and learning habits than those of traditional schools. Traditional schools offer the most time off, but it is apparent in the grades of children and attitudes of teachers. More time off between semesters means more time reviewing and getting remedial students back into the swing of school. The best way to teach and to learn is to use a year-round calendar system that benefits students’ achievements and teachers’ motivation” (Lyttle) With the U.S. Department of Education having this information and studies to back it up they should be enforcing all public schools to switch over to year round schooling. Studies can be found though that prove there is no difference between the two types of systems, but this verdict is heavily outmatched and the studies also do not prove that traditional schooling is better. Year round schools offer superior retention for students, which allows students to always be moving forward in

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

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.