Essay about Year-Round Schooling: A Push for the Better

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.

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.

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

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.

It is very common for students in the fall to have at least six weeks of review because they have forgotten so much. Michelle Obama stated in Education today, “Our children could score higher on every measure of testing if they didn’t have such a long break between grade levels.” Many countries outscore America on math tests. This might be because math needs to be used continually or the equations are forgotten. Ms. Obama also stated, “Many poor parents cannot afford daycare, so they have to leave their children with older siblings while they are at work.” Public schools are paid for the government and they would be taking care of the children except for Fridays. The elementary students would be safer in class than at home without adequate supervision. Lastly, Ms. Obama declared, “Extended weekends mean that families would have more time together and might take fewer vacation days during school

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.

Year round school eliminates regression of learning due to extended time off. Having a year round school can reduce what people known as summer learning loss ("The Pros"). Almost every child will experience a decrease in their math over the time of summer break each summer break ("SUMMER LEARNING"). “On an average students lose two months of reading skills over summer” ("SUMMER LEARNING"). After

This is one reason that we should not have year round school in the United States. Year round schools don't learn any more than the kids in traditional nine month school calendar. The article says,"Students in "year-round" schools don't learn more than their peers in traditional nine-month schools, new research has found." This shows that kids in year round school don't learn any more then kids in the nine month school calendar. If kids don't learn any more than their peers than they shouldn't have to go to year round school. Kids in school deserve to have a summer vacation to hang out with friends and family and to be able to travel.

Nelson Mandela once said “Education is the most powerful weapon, which you can use to change the world”. School boards today are taking these words to heart, as they are concerned about student’s education more than ever. The solution to their concerns of students weakening education is the method of Year Round Schools. This supposed “education-saving” method offers the same amount of school days except the traditional summer break is exchanged for smaller breaks throughout the year. Although this method is supposed to boost students learning and intelligence it is actually not all that it is cracked up to be. Year Round Schooling essentially causes more harm than good because it does not benefit the students at all, it is a

` School systems should not transfer to year round schooling because of the lack of educational benefits. According to the NEA, “Studies have been inconclusive to its academic benefits. According to a sociologist at Ohio State University, “Over a full year of math and reading test scores improve about the same amount for children in year round schools as they did for schools with the traditional school

Year round schooling is a topic that is being discussed in schools everywhere in the world today. (1) Many schools within the country wish to enroll themselves in year-round schooling in the upcoming years. (1) Though many wish to switch to this year round schedule, many others disprove of the idea. A large amount of surveyed people in studies shows that the school year should remain the same length.

When individuals think of year-round education, many think that it is an extension of the traditional school year with no breaks and more class time. However, this is not the case. Year-round school systems have the same number of days as any other school system, but the breaks are spread throughout the year differently than the traditional school year. This unchanging view and failure to realize the facts about the system from many people is what makes year-round education a hot topic to debate in terms of whether or not to expand the number of schools who use the system or not. Year-round education can be one of the most beneficial choices for children, as shown in Brigid Schulte’s article, when she describes the benefits her children have

Have you ever really pondered the way schooling is done today? Have you ever wondered if it is really the best fit? Some experts say that a all year round schooling calendar would be more beneficial to students. Paul Von Hippel, a researcher and sociologist of ohio state University, says “Students have a better tendency to remember material because of short breaks.” While other people believe that summer vacation is an american tradition and shouldn’t be changed. If I could plan my ideal school, I would create an all year round calendar, teach specified subjects, and begin the school day later. Summer break dates back to the 1800s(Pearson, 2010). Now is the time for a change, or is it?

These countries typically require longer instructional days and more of them than most American schools, where the eight-hour-per-day, 180-day-a-year model is standard (Worsnop,96). This type of schooling may be the answer to the decades-old concern that American students are being ill-prepared to compete with their counterparts overseas. By the most objective measure, test scores, year-round education seems to be working. For example, before switching to its new schedule, Socorro schools had some of the lowest test scores in the country. Now Socorro students outscore the state average on the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (Blackman,99)

Not only is America’s diminutive academic school year restricting the US’s global competitiveness, but the structure of the school year is very ineffective, especially the long summer break. First of all, long summer vacations were not even intended for today’s American society. The original purpose of an extended summer vacation was for children to help their family tend to their farms in America’s past agricultural society. Now that America is no longer an agricultural society, but rather post-industrial, the long vacation is pointless and actually detrimental (Summer Vacation is No Longer Necessary). Unlike America, most advanced nations have adapted to their changing societies and offer