Year Round School Essay

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.

During summer, many students forget what they learned the year before, and teachers must review material done last year. People in year-round schools believe that because of the shorter breaks, teachers have to spend less time reviewing material, and can move forward in their teaching. According to the National Education Association, “one of the main reasons for switching to year-round schools is to improve with student academics.” Although there is no proof, many schools believe a year-round schedule helps improve students academic skills.

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.

If that is the case, then it would be more money to run schools year-round. My question about that point is this. What do the studies show, regarding year-round school quality of education to the amount of money spent in the additional months? Are the grades 25 percent better with the additional money spent? That is one reason why I disagree with Amy McDonald when she stated that it would save schools money to do school year-round. Heating a school in the coldest part of the year when there is a Holiday and cooling the school in the hottest time of the year cost a lot of money. I know my parents talk about the power and heating bills a lot here at home and hour home is a lot smaller than the school. The reason Amy used as her example was that it would be less money to not do year-round school, and not need to pay extra money for summer school. I would say that would be about the same amount of money. It is harder for students that don't have enough money to pay tuition for college if they can't get a summer job. Without summer jobs some students won't be able to attend college. I believe that Nick's letter was the best out of the two because of the reasons I gave and many

Year-round schooling could make those vacations more difficult. Even though there is a shorter summer break using year-round schooling, there is still enough time for families to go on a long summer vacation. In fact, because of the way a balanced calendar is set up, there are different opportunities for vacations. In year-round schooling there are multiple breaks after each quarter. These can allow families to go on vacation on seasons other than summer, and have more frequent, smaller breaks during the year (Year-round). The cost for plane tickets and some other expenses of a vacation could be reduced. This could occur because if going on vacation during an offseason, plane tickets are generally less expensive (Year-round). With standard schooling there are times when families want to go on vacation. The problem is that there either is not a break that the family could go during, or the break is not long enough for the vacation the family wants (Flanagan). This causes the student to miss school, and with that tests, lessons, and homework. It can be hard for students to get caught up and fully understand the information that they missed during their time off of school (Flanagan). The frequent break would help with this and make planning vacations more easy. Summer vacationing seems difficult with year-round schooling, but there are actually many

You know that summer vacation that you always take with your family? Well if the school board switches to year-round schooling, you will no longer be able to have that vacation. Year-round schooling is turning into a world-wide new experience. With going to school all year long it ruins old traditions like that family vacation in the summer, and having that long stretch of summer relaxation by the pool and on the beach. Some other issues with year-round schooling is the rising cost and schedule adjustments.

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.

In the article, “How Much Does Stress Affect Learning by , it says , “Stress…negatively affects the way children pay attention in class, stay on task, and are able to move from one activity to another.” This stress that students deal with is not a good thing and it can also cause teachers to become stressed. The short breaks that come with a year-round school year allows students to get rid of this stress, and relax. In the article, “Year-round schooling:An overview” it states, “teachers and students experience less stress and burnout during year-round schedule because of the multiple short breaks available throughout the year.” This reveals the fact that year-round schooling can decrease the level of stress a teacher or student has opposed to the basic school year. The short breaks that come with a year-round school year allows students to get rid of this stress, and relax. It also gets rid of the mental problems that come with the stress.

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

     Furthermore, switching over to year round schooling can prove to be more costly than the normal school year. First off, the budget for a year round program, when compared to a traditional program, is much larger. There are more materials, such as school supplies, to be bought, a larger cost for air conditioning, and the increased expenses when a facility is used year round. One of the main concerns is that the life of a school becomes considerably shorter. Usually, in the summer time schools are under repair and made ready for the next year. However, with a shorter summer break, there is not enough time to renovate schools. This will lead to the need of newer facilities more often. Moreover, the largest expense is in hiring new teachers. Not many educators sign up for the year round schooling program and those who do, expect larger salaries than regular teachers do. “The biggest budget increase in a year-long program is most often due to

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.

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

Continuing this further Year Round Schooling should not be allowed because it is expensive for the school community. Considering this, Year Round Schools is essentially expensive because this article states that “A year-round school schedule would be at least $3 million -- and as much as $33 million -- more expensive than the traditional school calendar” (“Year-round school costs questioned Savings projected in report were based on faulty data." Baltimore Sun). In addition to this, Year Round Schooling is expensive for the school community because the parents of the students will have to pay more. Keeping this in mind, the parents will have to pay more because they will have to pay for more supplies to last the kids the whole year. Furthermore Year Round Schooling is expensive because the maintenance cost will be higher. To show that this is true this article claims that “School maintenance costs, including day-to-day upkeep and utilities, can increase up to 10 percent if schools are open for longer” (“The Pros and Cons of Year Round School." About.com). To

Also, “without public support, year-round will fail because the parent’s reluctance to send their children” (Gee, 795). Parent reluctance comes from the lack of synchronized time off for vacation. Work schedules do not typically run on a 45/15 plan and without three months break, families lose time for a vacation. If a school decides to go year-round, communication between the community and school would have must be very clear as to when students are supposed to be in school (Wildman et al. 465).