Over the years, there has been debate about technical colleges converting from quarter systems to semester systems. Some people feel a semester system will be better than the quarter system. Apparently, the Technical College System of Georgia agrees and converts the technical colleges to the semester system. Now students who are on the quarter system have to transition to the semester system. Students will have to cope with the new academic calendar, courses, credit hours, tuition, and financial aid. But will it be as easy as people think. The semester system is used by more than 80 percent of colleges and universities across the country (Crist). The other 20 percent is still on the quarter system. These changes will align the technical schools calendar with K-12 school systems and the University System of GA (TCSG). The quarter system was not aligned with the calendar making it harder for students to transfer to other colleges (Technical College System). The semester system will be better for students transferring because it will be easier and not as stressful. Because of the aligned calendar, the academic year will change. Instead of four quarters in an academic year, it will be divided into two semesters with the summer semester optional. With the semester system, classes will start early around mid August and get out early as well (Semesters vs. Quarters). Students generally get a major break about Christmas time. This will give a scholar time to spend with friends or family during the break. Students will get a summer break if they do not attend during the summer. The quarter system classes will start late in mid September and last until mid June. There is a break in December and a short break in March with the quarte... ... middle of paper ... ...ting to the semester system is not a terrible idea. Works Cited Crist, Carolyn. “Tech Schools Moving to Semesters.” Gainesville Times 13 July 2010. Web. 5 June 2011. http://www.gainesvilletimes.com/archives/35285 “Semesters vs. Quarters System: What’s the Difference?| Xatal 28 August 2008. Web. 25 May 2011. http://www.xatal.com/college/semester-vs-quarter-system-whats-the-differences/ Suggs, Ernie. “New College route Semester system will mean subjects per term.” The Atlanta Constitution 24 August 1998, Southeastern Newspapers, ProQuest. Web. 1 June 2011. “Technical College System of Georgia will convert from Quarters to Semesters by Fall 2011.” Targeted News Service, 27 October 2010. Web. 23 May 2011. “The Technical College System of Georgia Quarter vs. Semester Conversion: Quick Facts.” TCSG Semester411. Web. 25 May 2011. http://www.tcsgsemester411.com/
According to writer Vanessa St Gerard from The Education Digest, a traditional school year is defined as “large blocks of instruction with inter-spread week-long breaks, all culminating with a long summer break” (2007). This structure is most familiar to Americans today, however the new alternative schedule presents a variance in the time allocated for breaks throughout the school year. “During a modified school year, instruction periods typically are broken up into 45-or-60-day sessions with each of these being divided by breaks lasting three to four weeks” (St Gerard, 2007). In the alternative calendar, schools would still break for a summer session, but in most cases the break would consist of about five weeks rather than eight. While the calendars might differ in session times, they would both meet the federally mandated 180 days of ins...
Before the argument, some misconceptions need to be clarified: Schools with the traditional school year have nine months of
Attending a year round school will help students retain the information they are taught with greater ease due to the shortness in breaks between times they attend school. An Indianapolis fourth-grade school teacher says, “In this calendar, my goodness, (it takes) two weeks at most.”, referring to the six weeks it normally takes to review the previous year’s lesson to get the students up to speed from the summer break (Johnson). If you are to add twenty days to t...
adaptations need to be made back to the year-round school. If society has continuously adapted
The Disadvantages of Year-Round Schools. (2012, April 1). Dr. Matthew Lynch. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://www.drmattlynch.com/1/post/2012/04/-the-disadvantages-of-year-round-schools.html#.U1fVFfldVqV
Year round school or the modified school year is a rearrangement of the traditional school year to provide the students with continuous learning throughout the school year. Students receive the same amount of instructional time as a traditional school. In year round schools, the instructional time is balanced without of school time more evenly. (Winter, 2005) The National Association for Year Round Schooling defines it as “a schedule which contains no break lasting longer than eight weeks-schools are able to keep their students in constant learning mode, and are able to use the intersessions between periods of schooling to address the problems of students who are falling behind.” (St. Gerard, 2007, pg. 57) There are three common tracks of year round schooling. They are the single track, multitrack, and extended year. The single track is scheduled throughput the year into intersessions which allow time for enrichment or red-mediation. The multitrack is used to help schools reduce overcrowding. The school divides the teachers and students into groups of an equal size. Each group has its own schedule. One group is on intercession while the other is in school. The extended year increases the amount of time spent in schools from 180 days to as many as 240 days a year. (McGlynn, 2002)
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.
There are various models of YRS that can be implemented, all of which are reconfigurations of the traditional, nine-month calendar. In some areas these models are known as alternative or modified calendars (Shields & Oberg, 2000) and they all have unique characteristics. Because of theses differences, school systems should spend some time analyzing which model will be best for their particular school; educators may find that some models work better than others depending on the school. Estimates on the exact number of year round schedules vary, although it has been estimated that at least 50 different scheduling patterns exist (Palmer & Bemis, 1999). The most common alternatives include the single track calendar and the multi-track calendar.
The traditional school calendar has been in effect for more than a century. By the middle of the nineteenth century rural areas the school year lasted for five to six months, based on the harvest schedule. In contrast, many schools in urban areas were open for eleven or twelve months. A uniform calendar was established in 1847 that is the traditional calendar of today. (Shields, 2000) There was resistance to this calendar from the beginning; people in urban areas had to go to school from much longer to receive the same education. YRE began in a premature form in 1904 in Bluffton, Indiana with a four-quarter schedule. (Speck, n.d.) YRE began to be popular in states like Texas, New Jersey, North Dakota, Nebraska, Tennessee and Pennsylvania. It ceased during WWII because national uniformity was felt to be essential to the war effort. Hayward, CA implemented at official YRE programs at Park Elementary School in 1968 to become the first YRE school after WWII. (Speck, n.d.) YRE schools began to sprout up all over the country after that. In 1969 the first multiple tract school was established in Missouri. Since the late 70’s YRE has picked up in popularity and is a continuing trend. According to the National Association for Year-Round Education, more than 2 million students attend close to 3,000 year-round schools in 41 states and 610 school districts, which is a dramatic increase compared to the early 1990’s. There have been a variety of YRE schedules and currently there is the choice of single or multi-track, options within both of those, and an extended school year.
Chittom, Lynn-noreKlassen, Jeff. "Year-Round School: An Overview." Points Of View: Year-Round School (2013): 1. Points of View Reference Center. Web. 19 May 2014.
Former VSU President William McKinney adjusted the academic calendar by reinstating Fall Break and eliminating Dead Day. He knew that the constant debate of whether or not to have the two items had been prolonged enough. Dr. McKinney said he believed that his decision “serves the best interest of most Valdosta State students, faculty, and staff” (Edwards, “Dead Day Gone”). While the elimination of Dead Day should have benefited everyone the students didn’t benefit as much as the teachers, so Dead Day should be reinstated to allow students an extra day before finals to study and relax.
Throughout time education has been considered a process that every so often must be improved. The education quality in the U.S. has declined over the years and people have been looking for a way to make improvements. A more recent proposal has been to go from a traditional nine-month schedule to an all year program. Supporters of year round school claim it gives the student a better education. However, the prospect of year round school is not beneficial to the taxpayers pocket, to the education a student receives, or to the people involved with the district.
Year round schooling sounds rigorous, but in fact it is just a change in schedule. The traditional school year was made with farming families in mind when the families needed their children to help with the crops in the summer. That is why the traditional school year has a three month period where kids are not in school over the summer. In today’s modern world, that does not make any sense because now a days, big huge machines take care of the farms and crops. Also, our economy does not depend on the crops and farms like it did back in the 20th century. The year round school year would still require the same amount of school days as the traditional school year, which is 180 days in the classroom. But instead of a prolonged summer break, it would have a 45-15 plan. 45 days in school and 15 days out of it, which translates to nine weeks in school and three weeks off. The breaks would include three weeks off in fall, winter, spring, and summer. These breaks would be in nine week intervals.
One of the first concerns of a student when they think of year-round school is that they will be attending school five days a week, 52 weeks a year. That thought is incorrect. The year-round school schedule is still based on 180 days, which is the same amount as the traditional school year. The big difference between the two different systems is that the year-round school year have breaks that are more spread out throughout the year. Instead of have a long three month summer break from school, the year-round schools give a one month summer break. Although the summer break is shorter, the system allows the school to have longer breaks during the school year. One example of a year-round school schedule is from Balanced Calendar; the children would attend school for nine weeks, and then receive a 15 day break. These two week breaks that happen periodically throughout the year allow the children to relax, and not think about homew...
Have you ever wondered how we can improve students’ performance in school? A simple, but effective answer would be to implement the year-round school schedule. In a traditional school, such as ours, students study for most of the school year, and then have one long three-month summer break. But in a year-round school, students learn throughout the year, with frequent but shorter breaks in between. While the number of days spent in school is the same in both systems, the rearrangement of time in year-round schools is more conducive to learning. The year-round schedule should be effected in our school because it helps children retain what they learn and lessens the burnout of teachers and students.