Year-Round Education : Schooling Of Tomorrow

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/

Year-round schools have gained popularity among the United States, being a very communicated topic within middle class communities. These schools are generally argued about by whether they are beneficial or not. While there are many advantages to year-round schools, there are some disadvantages as well. A few of these disadvantages include the expenses of the schools, the schedules the schools provide, the involvement within the schools, and the actual effectiveness of these schools.

Most schools in America today follow the traditional 180-day schooling system. This system was started in the 19th century when schooling for children began. There was a 10-week summer vacation for the students to help their families on the farm for harvesting. In March of 2009, President Barak Obama suggested to the public his Race to the Top program. The program is to extend the school hours or extend the school days. “We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day,” he says. His reason is the students of school today will not be equipped for the 21st century if we continue to use the traditional

Snow days, teacher institutes, half-days, and holidays bring happiness to every student. With year round schooling, the year feels shorter and faster because the calendar includes more days off of school and longer breaks. The breaks are evenly spread across the calendar. This provides students with time off from school, but not enough to lose what they learned. Year round schooling also helps with transitioning from one grade to the next. Every student hates to see summer end and dreads going back to school even more. Without a long summer, students focus more on school and do not have much time to think about moving from middle school to high school. Days off from school allow families to take more vacations and spend time together. This reduces the amount of negativity or hatred towards school and students develop a positive

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.

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.

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

Year round schooling is an alternative education system that was implemented to operate schools for 180 days over the entire year with shorter breaks between each term. This system was formed to improve the preceding school system where schools operated 180 days but had a long summer break in between. Year round schooling was established in the 1900s in cities that did not base their breaks on the agricultural cycle. Since then, year round schooling has become ubiquitous all over the world. Supporters of year round schooling say that its benefits include helping students improve academically, using school facilities more effectively, and expanding the capacity of students for school districts while critics argue that year round schooling shows

Some advantages of year-round schooling include improved achievement, improved attendance by both teachers and students, reduced discipline problems, lower teacher stress, increased motivation due to frequent breaks, and increased opportunities for enrichment (Palmer and Bemis). During the two week breaks in between school sessions, students have the opportunity to take classes on karate, ballet, photography, cooking, and swimming. This intersession provides time for hands-on, big project classes that get kids involved in topics that interest them. Intersession can also be used as an intervention for students who are falling behind. “Karl Alexander, sociology professor at Johns Hopkins University, studied 800 students for more than 20 years in Baltimore’s elementary schools. He found that by ninth grade, low-income students had fallen 3 ½ grade levels behind their middle-class peers. And most of that gap was attributable to learning lost over the long traditional summer” (Schulte, 2009). The biggest driving force and proponent of year-round schooling is the effect of the “summer slide.” Students lose two months of achievement in math skills and students from low-income families lose more than two months in reading achievement according to the national Summer Learning

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

Year-round schools are becoming very popular in today’s society. Many schools have changed their school year to year-round and still have the same 180 days that the traditional schools have. The schools that changed from the traditional school year to the year-round school have found many positive things about this type of school year. The old way of schools being out in the summer is a thing of the past. The traditional way was originally set up many years ago so the kids could help out on the farm (Anthony). The year-round school year could really help students learn better.

Source C states “Students in the California attending year-round school jumped 29%.” Wow, year-round school is really helpful. Year-round school is a school that runs throughout a year. Before you run in the woods hiding from year-round school, it is only 180 school days like a normal school. This means that summer vacation is shortened from 14 weeks to 5 weeks. And in the fall, spring, and winter there are 3-week breaks. Some people want to keep their summer vacation while others don’t. I think that year-round schools should be a great idea because it can help students gain more knowledge, convenient and students and teachers would be less stressed.

“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.

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.

This shows that year-round school is at least as good as the traditional schedule in helping students learn. Year-round school also allows more time for remedial classes during the breaks, which can help students who are falling behind during the school year catch back up. This is in contrast with summer school, which only occurs after school is over and students are finished with the curriculum, making students have to start a totally new class just to catch up. Remedial classes reinforce material that is fresh in students’ minds instead of forcing them to recall something they may have learned half a year ago and probably forgotten. This once again cuts down on the time it takes to bring students up to speed with their classes.