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Benefits of year-round education
The benefits of year-round education
The benefits of year-round education
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Of the 3,181 Year Round Educational Schools, or YRE schools, the drop out rate is under two percent. The drop out rate of regular schools is about five percent. That means students at YRE schools are less likely to drop out of school than any other student in a regular school. The concept of a YRE school is for more, shorter breaks. Students attend school for about thirty to forty-five days and then receive fifteen to thirty day breaks. Catie Watson, an expert in YRE schooling, said, “A popular YRE calendar uses a 60-20 plan, with students attending school for 60 days and then going on break for 20. Other popular plans include 45-15 and 80-40” (1). There are two types of YRE schools. The first type is a single track where students all attend at the same time and have the same breaks. The second type is a multitrack where different groups of students attend school at a different time and have different breaks. This multitrack type of schooling is a more personalized form, allowing gifted or talented students to attend school at a different time than the special education students for example. The Brunswick Board of Education should change the current nine-month schedule to a new and improved yearlong school schedule on account of students not forgetting material over the long summer break, increasing capacity the schools can hold, and the health of the students.
The most common thing for students to do while over the long summer break is to forget all of the materials they learned the past year. With YRE schooling, that can all be prevented. Students will tend to retain more information over the shorter breaks. For example, “Children are benefited academically due to the short breaks, as there they don’t have to re-learn the old ...
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...on should switch to a year round schooling system and therefore, students generations from now will benefit from the new and improved schooling system.
Works Cited
Gisler, Peggy, and Marge Eberts. "Year-Round School." And Other Expert Advice. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
"Peggy Gisler, Ed.S., and Marge Eberts, Ed.S." - FamilyEducation.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 Nov. 2013.
"Pros And Cons Of Year Round School." - Advantages & Disadvantages Of Year Round Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Valenzuela, Susie. "Should School Be Year Round?" Online Masters in Education. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
Walcher, Elena "Welcome!" Pantagraph.com. N.p., 02 May 2012. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
Watson, Catie. "Year-Round School Pros and Cons." Certification Map RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.
"Year-Round School Statistics." Statistic Brain RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013.
One of the most talked about issues of schooling today, would be year round schooling. The program started as a new way to learn. The old way and still the way most schools calendar is set up was designed the way it is due to harvest times, when the United States was a farming country. There have been many studies done, and some schools have already implemented this program. The studies and the schools that have gone ahead and implemented the program have seen both good things and bad things in their findings. There will be both pros and cons for every issue, and some may see pros and cons differently. Year round schooling is the idea of attending school for an entire year, not all 365 days, but continuously throughout the year. Year round schooling operates on a different schedule to incorporate the same amount of classroom time as a typical school schedule has. The only difference is that the breaks are shorter, but there are more of them in year round schooling. This is the basis of most of the arguments for and against year round schooling.
As I wearily sat in my seat, writing an essay on the importance of electricity in the modern world, I caught myself glancing repeatedly at the clock that was so carefully perched above the teacher’s desk. “Ten minutes, only ten more minutes left until school is over and I get to go home!” I told myself. In most schools, the average school day is about eight hours long. Eight hours of continuously sitting in a chair taking notes during lectures, doing classwork, projects, etc. During these eight hours of school, students deserve a short, outdoor break in which they can isolate themselves from the stress of working all day and just relax. Studies have shown that people who take short breaks throughout the day to do light, outdoor breaks are more productive than those who do not. A short, outdoor break will benefit students due to the fact that students will have time to relax; students will be able to focus more, concentrate, and be more productive; and teachers will have more time to prepare for the next class coming.
Silva, Elena. "Revising the Current School Calendar Has Many Implications." Year-Round Schools. Ed. Adriane Ruggiero. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2008. At Issue. Rpt. from "On the Clock: Rethinking the Way Schools Use Time." Education Sector Reports. 2007. 1-9. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 19 May 2014.
The founders of the American public school system had a dream that all of America’s youth would have the opportunity to attend school in the best way possible for the times. The educational leaders of today must take up the same mission of providing the best school system imaginable for our modern era. Yearlong education is the solution to many problems that plague teachers, students, and school budgets.
The BC Ministry of Education recently allowed for flexibility in how school districts choose to organize their school calendars. BC School Districts currently follow a traditional school year calendar with students attending school approximately 190 days, most with a two week break in winter and spring and two months off during the summer months. “This model was very practical when the school calendar was designed to accommodate children with the needs of an agricultural economy” (qtd in Webb 5), and can be “described by some as outdated and irrelevant in today’s society” (Winter 401). A balanced school year calendar, also referred to as a modified school year and year round school, would maintain the same number of instructional days, but would evenly distribute breaks throughout the year. The literature and research available on the balanced school year is mostly American, with a few Canadian sources. This research indicates that those in support of this type of calendar see many benefits, but the most strongly supported with evidence is the reduction of summer learning loss experienced by students, especially for English as a second language (ESL) and low income students. For those who oppose the balanced school year, some believe summer learning loss does not exist and some strongly argue that changing the school calendar is only warranted with proof of increased academic achievement for students.
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 are 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. Single track YRE -.. Single-track YRE is simply the reorganization of vacation time; summer break is broken up and distributed to make a more continuous period of instruction. All students and teachers follow the same schedule, and the rescheduled vacation is integrated throughout the school year into periods called intersessions. Intersessions are “usually utilized as instructional time for remediation and enrichment” with both single and multi-track calendars.
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.
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...
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)
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.
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...
While switching to a year-round schedule does not always guarantee students the best teachers or learning environment, the educational benefits offered in a year-round school system give students more options in their education. For example, students who fail a class could possibly retake it during one of the many extended breaks throughout the year, which could help them catch up to their peers and make sure they do not fall behind (Schofield 15). Not only would students benefit from making up classes during breaks, but making sure they graduate on time or even early could also decrease taxpayer spending because students would spend less time in school. Others claim the cost of more teachers and air-conditioning (especially during summer) will cancel out or even exceed the savings on buildings and supplies (Schofield 9). Studies have proved the contrary, that savings on insurance, buildings, school supplies and buses heavily outweigh the added costs of hiring more teachers and air-conditioning school buildings 12 months a year (Rodgers
Imagine students becoming stressed with the abundant amount of homework they have to accomplish, complaining about the lack of time and fun enjoyable tasks they have to leave out. Currently, District 211 has a five day school week but having a four day school week eradicates these problems, which could have a positive mental and physical effect. Currently, the four day school week is being used in more than 120 school districts across the country, in states including including New Hampshire, Colorado, and New Mexico. Use of the four day school week also extends to several provinces in Canada, France, and Britain. Considering the amount of districts that are executing a four day school week it is most reasonable to assume that they have significant
The most popular form of year-round education is the 45-15 plan, where students attend school for 45 days and then get three weeks (15 days) off. The usual holiday breaks are still built into this calendar. Two other ways to organize a school calendar are the 60-20 and the 90-30 plans. Perhaps, the most important facet of year-round education is how it is implemented.
3..2..1.. summer the yearlong torturer of another school year is over and summer has begun but what do we forget during our break, students traditionally return to school to repeat the process of acclimating to new teachers, new classmates, and a new classroom. Students struggle to remember lessons and assignments they have not been taught for months. The summer learning loss, many schools have implemented year-round schooling. The Association for Year-Round Education reported that in 2007 that 3,000 year-round schools enrolled more than 2 million students in the United States. But does the research show that year-round schooling really pays off? Students in year-round schools do as well or slightly better in terms of achievements than students in traditional schools.