Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
4 day school week argumentative essay
Effect of cutting education budget
Positives and negatives of a 4 day school week
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: 4 day school week argumentative essay
Have you ever heard the saying that “Time is money?” Well this statement holds truth to it and when it comes to school, the saying is right on the money. The economy has seen an increase in inflation and it seems like everything is on the rise. Constantly, people are struggling to find money. Money is an issue for many, especially for schools facing budget cuts and high school students who are seeking out opportunities to go to college. Could a solution to this lie within how a school system’s schedule is set-up? Well traditionally, high schools have been run on a five day schedule where students attend school for approximately seven to eight hours. Now, from pressure from the economy, a small percent of high schools have seen a change in scheduling to a four-day week and the benefits seen from this have been substantial. School system debates have been prevalent since schools began, and like any issue, there are benefits and drawbacks of the four-day school week. Even though critics may argue that an extra day out of school would be a waste of time, changing every high school to the four day week schedule would yield many benefits, including cutting school spending, increasing school performance, opening up job opportunities for high school students to earn money, and preparing students for college. Education is a incredibly important part of society and is a key to success. Students need to be educated in order for them to be a helpful member of society. Have you ever wondered just how much time and money goes into education? Statistics from the New America Foundation on the federal education budget shows that, “The federal government allocated approximately $135 billion on education in fiscal year 20... ... middle of paper ... ...s. Web. 23 Feb. 2014. New America Foundation. New America Foundation: Federal Education Budget Project. 25 April 2014. Web. 26 April 2014. Peter D. Hart Research Associates, Inc. & Public Opinion Strategies. (2005). Rising to the challenge: Are high school graduates prepared for college and work? Prepared for Achieve, Inc. Washington, DC: Author. Reeves, Kimberley. “The School Administrator: The Four Day School Week.” March 1999. AASA: The School Superintendents Association. Web. 4 April 2014. Snow, Kate. “Districts Debate Four-Day School Week.” abcNews. World News, 14 April 2009. Web. 28 February 2014. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2013). The Condition of Education 2013 (NCES 2013-037), Public School Expenditures. Yarbrough, R., & Gilman, D. A. (2006, October). From five days to four. Educational Leadership, 64(2), 80-85.
Back in the olden days, schools were originally put on a schedule in which students would spend the majority of the year in school, and 2-3 months off for summer break. The purpose of this was so that children could be home for the summer to help their parents run family farms. Today, due to progressive industrialization of farming, modernized farming equipment, and decrease in family farms, the need for children to be home during the summer to help run family farms is minute if not obsolete; because of this many schools across the United States have transitioned to year-round schooling (“Summer”). Contrary to belief, year round schooling does not usually mean more school days. Currently most year-round schools adhere to the 180 day school year. Instead of the traditional lengthy summer vacation, year-round schools distribute the 180 days throughout the entire year while allowing for shorter breaks. Common scheduling for year-round schools includes cycles of 2-3 months in school followed by 2-3 week breaks (“Research Spotlight...
When it comes to our children education, we always should pay extra attention to the decisions that we make, especially if the decisions that we’re going to make are weighty and could have an impact on our children educational performance. In Jaclyn Melicharek’s article “Four-Day School Weeks: The Rule to Skip School,” she makes several climes against the four-day school policy, which is a convenient policy that seem to pervade our schools nowadays. She believes four-day school policy is ineffective and rather harmful to our children, teachers and staff because it reduces our children educational performance, deter the academic value that our children are obtaining and shatter the lives of the teachers and the staff. I agree with Melicharek
Back in the early ages, the idea of year-round school would be thought as completely insane, because the farming families depended on their children to be home during harvest time. Now in modern times, the term year-round school is becoming more and more common in the United States of America. Slowly the schools are changing the way they teach, from giving the students a long three month break to a shorter one month break during the summer. The change of America’s high schools to the year-round schedule benefits both the schools and the students because they still get breaks throughout the school year, the children are less likely to forget information, the children would have more time with the teachers to learn, and the parents would not have to pay for childcare during the long summer break.
Have you ever felt like weekends go by too fast? Do you become tired of going to school five times a week?School can be exhausting and it often seems as though it is not worth the trouble. This is especially true when school is dragged on for five days at a time with only small breaks in between the next school week. Although a four-day school week may not sound appealing, students and teachers at Sturgis Williams Middle School could greatly benefit from it.
Have you ever began a book only to find that after a few chapters into it a more important task comes up that must be given attention to and you don’t make it back to the book for some time. The ensuing matter has been taken care of and now it is time to finish that novel that thought was so great you just couldn’t put it down but, where did you exactly leave off and what character are doing what now? Often it is required to skim a few previous chapters to get a sense of what is going on to give the full focus to the new events taking place. As the summer ends, the leaves begin to change and our school children return to the classroom to begin this very similar task. Instead of rereading a few pages, teachers must review with every student were they are scholastically and every student is very different. Almost a month into the new school year last year’s material is covered and reviewed. Our traditional school calendar may be to blame for our failing schools systems. Can schools attending year round with smaller gaps of time off from learning benefit the student learners? Better retention of material, higher graduation with college enrollment increases and safer downtime alternatives are a few reasons why the traditional education plan should be done away with.
Going to a four day school week could cause many problems such as finances, more homework, and behaviors.
Teachers don’t get paid nearly as much as they should. With a four-day week, the classroom time is extended to meet state requirements. However, teachers claim they aren’t getting paid enough to do the amount of work required ( Yarbrough and Gilman 85). Also, Colorado’s Karval School District RE 23 Superintendent claimed, “‘If teachers are not efficient in the classroom, we have one less day to reach students,’’ (Chmelynski). Longer days in the classroom can also be tiring on the students. Teens can’t learn well when they’re tired (“No-School Fridays” 20). Potential challenges of a four-day week are the special needs and younger students. Attending school for these students could be difficult by keeping their attention (Weldon
This research brief provides a history of the reform and presents a synthesis of the research base, albeit limited, focused on the implementation and impact of moving to a four-day school week schedule. Also included is a discussion of the most commonly voiced
The other reason why we shouldn’t have a four school week is because students will have more time to get into trouble more.Half of high school and middle school students will get into drugs and crimes because they are unsupervised for a long time.If students get into crime and drugs at a young age they probably wouldn’t be able to get a job.Some of the students wouldn’t know it’s bad for them.The reason why is because some of the students don’t know it’s bad is because their parents or teachers haven’t told them about why it is bad.
David T. Conley, Ph.D. a. The. Education - Leadership -. Vol. 66 No.
Educational debates are a widespread in today’s society. Currently, one of the largest debates in education is the debate of whether schools should stay with the traditional school calendar or change to a year-round calendar. The main focus of the debate is centered around the idea that using the year-round calendar will provide kids with a more consistent learning schedule, which in turn creates better grades within the school and cuts back on summer learning loss. Year-round calendar and traditional calendar are far different. Traditional school calendar provides ten weeks of summer break and year-round calendar provides a shorter summer break but more frequent breaks throughout the year. The frequent breaks provide families the opportunity to choose what school year would be the best fit for their family and also helps keep children motivated in school. With the information given many believe the year-round calendar will provide a better education by preventing summer learning loss, create a better calendar to fit certain lifestyles, and promote more motivation in school.
The topic of year round schooling is quite controversial and greatly misconceived by the public. Most school systems tend to steer clear of the idea due to lack of support and academic success. Year-round schooling is not for everyone. Benefits however, include downsizing of schools, the reduction of building construction, and the ability to effectively meet the demands of the community. Students and teachers are typically placed on a multi-track schedule instead of the general nine month school calendar. The altered schedule can consist of two different sequences that each school district may choose to participate in. Students and teachers go to school for longer periods of time throughout the year and take small breaks/vacations in between. The benefits for teachers who participate in year-round schooling have proven to be very affective and rewarding. Through studies and reports however, the concept of year-round schooling has produced very minimal improvements and positive results amongst students. When compared to students of traditional education, those who participate in the year-round schooling system show little advantage and/or improvement. It is even suggested by some that the year-round program ineffectively promotes learning loss instead of benefits. Overall the year-round school system is very inconsistent and unreliable. The results and benefits have not proven to be great enough to give the platform a sound argument and reasonable support. The results for the teachers and the community at large seem to be somewhat affective, where as for the students it is not.
School is the foundation of life. It guides us to success and prepares us for the future. Unfortunately, school is difficult; some schools are using a four day school week to help kids cope with the struggles. However, because of longer school days and unwanted expenses, schools should not adopt a four day school week.
I think that instead of a five day school week we should only have a three day school week. I think that a three day school week would not only benefit the district financially but also improve students grades and habits. If I was in charge of making this happen in the district I would make it so that school is an extra hour or two hours to make up for the two days we are adding onto our weekend.
Schools spend a lot of money during a long 5 days school weeks. 4 day school weeks will cut transportation costs and heating and cooling costs for schools and they will save a lot of money. This reason is important because it proves that schools will save money from transportation costs and heating and cooling costs. Parents will pay lower costs for taxes also 100% of my classmates agree that their parents will be more happier paying lower costs for taxes. This study is important because it acknowledges that all parents will be more happier paying less money for taxes. Everyone will be saving money with shorter school weeks.