Essay about Year Round Education: A New Perspective

Horizon Elementary’s principal, Jasper Lusby, replied when being asked about some of the negative effects of a balanced calendar, “The negative attribute that is most impactful to families is that only two out of nine schools in our community utilize a balanced calendar and both are elementary schools. This presents challenges for families with students at multiple levels have children in both traditional and balanced calendars which impacts vacation planning, transportation schedules etc.”

In order to accommodate the year round calendar, there are several forms of year round education. The first form follows a single track calendar. This is the most popular type of calendar (Shields, 2000). A single track year is usually implemented to “provide a more balanced and enriched education program or to accommodate the special scheduling needs of a community” (Glines, 2002, 2699). A single track calendar takes on a 45/15 design. This is where students go to school for forty-five days in a row, and then have a fifteen day break. It is a continuous cycle. Schools usually begin in early August, and follow this pattern four times to complete the school year (Glines, 2002). The three week break in between is called an intersession. During this time, students can choose to take additional educational courses through “remedial,

     There are different types of YRE and ESD schedules. The most popular schedule is single-track and is usually implemented for the purpose of academic improvements. On a single-track schedule children attend school year round with frequent intersessions or breaks. Typical schedules might be 90-30, 60-20, or 45-15 where the first number indicates days of instruction and the second, days of vacations (Opheim, Mohahjer, Read, 1996). There is also a multi-track schedule, which is known to be more cost efficient. This schedule is often implemented when the school is overcrowded, in poor neighborhoods, as well as in inner-city schools. On a multi-track schedule students schedules are consistent with the single-track 90-30, 60-20, or 45-15, however, students are assigned to one of the several tracks which are staggered therefore, no one group of students has the same intersession at the same time. By staggering attendance schedules, class size is deducted. Studies have concluded that decreased class size promotes more efficient learning.

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

The academic calendar is the agenda of a school year. It is split according to one of three systems. The most frequent sys- tem splits the calendar into two

When a person first mentions the idea of year-round schooling, their comment is usually met with a look of dread. The image of year-round schooling is that students must go to school every day throughout the entire year with no breaks. This is an untrue image. Students are given frequent breaks throughout the school year to make up for the shorter summer break. It was first used in the 1800s, which goes against many people’s thoughts that it is a new alternative schooling proposal (Research). At that time year-round schooling was used in industrial cities to teach English to children of immigrants. By the early 1900s, year-round schooling was used as a method to reduce overcrowding, underfunding,

One way students could benefit is that this schooling could provide them with an increased student centered instructional strategy during a year-round school year. These could be activities that activate prior knowledge, hands on projects, in depth discussions, and multiple intelligences. These learning experiences are highly effective, but they are also time consuming. On a multi track schedule, students could also be exposed to smaller classroom sizes, which could benefit the student giving them more time to themselves, and to their assigned teacher for extra instruction.

using a multi track year-round calendar can allow a school to enroll up to 50 percent more students. More than two million students go to year-round schools. The last reason why year-round school would be a positive thing is the effect on budgets advocated claim a year-round calendar allows school facilities to be used most effectively because they are not sitting empty for months at a time during summer

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.

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, also known as YRS, is a new idea that schools are trying to implement across the United States and worldwide. “As of June 2006, and estimated 2.3 million students in over 3,100 schools across the United States attended classes on a year-round school schedule.” (Chittom and Klassen). Schools that aren’t on a year-round schedule are based off of a 180- day calendar that includes a summer and fall break. With the YRS schedule the classes would run for 3 weeks then take a 2-3 week break in between. Schools should switch to year-round school because there is less setbacks and it is beneficial to the people involved.

DeNisco, Alison. “Year-round schooling gains popularity.” District Administration, vol.51, issue 9, Sep. 2015, pp. 15-18. EBSCOHost, web.a.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/

“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.

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.