The Pros And Cons Of Year-Round Education

Year round education (YRE) is implemented in 436 U.S. school districts with very few complaints. In fact, school districts that have been participating in YRE and extended school days (ESD) are raving about the benefits in pupil's achievement level, their new found enthusiasm in learning, as well as the many programs that exist in the extended day promoting the decline in latch key children.

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.

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.

Year round education (YRE) is implemented in 436 U.S. school districts with very few complaints. In fact, school districts that have been participating in YRE and extended school days (ESD) are raving about the benefits in pupil's achievement level, their new found enthusiasm in learning, as well as the many programs that exist in the extended day promoting the decline in latch key children.

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.

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

In the article,” The Pros and Cons of Year-Round School” it states that by taking summer away that this could help the students have more time to understand the material. In addition, they say that by taking summer away it helps students not to forget anything that they learn the year prior. This shows that students could excel more in school if summer breaks were gone. Also in the article, “The Pros and Cons of Year-Round School” states that the summer break given to the students is too long. The students have almost nothing to do. Some do go on vacations, but not a lot do. This shows that this would be the prime opportunity to get rid of summer, and do a year round school. Sure people believe that this should happen, but is that really the right way to go

Why is a year-round school a bad idea? Having a summer vacation gives students motivation throughout the school year. It is a bad idea to make our winter break longer than summer break because some students work over the summer, students are not getting the best education they could, and they will not have much time to spend with their family.

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.

The topic of year around school has been brought up many times throughout my time in school. Though it has been brought up, it has not actually been considered by my fellow students and I. We have all taken surveys regarding it and most of the people I know have been against it. With our school being in a small town in Iowa I do not think having year round schooling would benefit us or the community.

Many people feel that no school should have a year-round schedule because it is not right for children be in school year round. Despite this feeling, many schools have changed their schedule to a year-round one to benefit their students as well as their teachers. Year-round schooling (YRS), also know as year-round education (YRE), is a good way to better students’ education. It betters students’ education by provided more frequent breaks, and giving student opportunites to participate in inter-sessions.

"They do not view YRE as a calendar configuration for space, achievement, or enrichment, but rather as a part of the transformation toward a philosophy of long continuous learning." (Guthrie). One of the main purposes of Year-Round Schooling is to lower the break time between school sessions. This causes children to have a better chance of retaining the knowledge that they learned from the previous year (Wyoming Tribune Eagle). Year-round schools consist of the same amount of school days, 180 days, the difference is that it is spread out over 12 months instead of the original 10. When the original school schedule was made, it was made for families who farmed in the summer. Modern day Americans do not have to focus on the economic issue

     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.

Did you know that all year round schools are the same length as regular schools? As of now are school day length is roughly 180 days, the all year round schools are roughly 180 days long. The only reason why people think that you go to school longer in a year round school is because you only get a month off in the summer, the rest of the time is spread out between our Easter and Christmas holidays. Pros of year round schooling would include longer breaks on holidays, for example, instead of getting two weeks off during the Christmas holidays we might get three weeks off for Christmas holidays. Another pro of year round schooling would be would be, the school would not be empty for two months at a time, when the school is empty for two months at a time the owner starts to lose money because they are still paying for water and power bills even though nothing is being used. A con of all year round schooling would be you don’t graduate from school earlier than all of the other schools, just because you only get one month off in the summer doesn't mean that you still learn for an extra month. Year round schooling holidays are just separated more compared to just having two months off during summer and a week or two off during holidays. The final pro of having year round schooling would be not having the school closed for two month at a time. One of the worst things about year round schooling is summer holidays, the person who pays the bills for year round schooling is not getting

The opposers of year round schooling have little argument to work with, but stress it strongly. The summer is a prime time for high school students to pick up short-term jobs to help pay for looming college fees, jobs like being a lifeguard at the pool is not available all year round throughout the United States. College students also have the opportunity to enroll in summer classes in order to meet pre-requisites for other classes. Summer classes could be a deciding factor on how early a student graduates. Also, a three-month summer break creates an easier, less stressful timeframe to plan a vacation. Instead of working a vacation into the shorter, known breaks of year round schooling, parents have three months to figure their week long vacation into. The most powerful argument is the effect on extracurricular activities. The frequent, short breaks in year round schooling would have an effect on extracurriculars like band because it would be required that they take the vacation off and could miss potential time to prepare before a performance. The traditional schooling system is still the majority in the United States even with very few benefits and no advantage over year round