If you were raised in public schools, you’re probably very familiar with how the yearly schedule works: go to school for nine months then get off for the long awaited summer break. But what if this schedule was different? I would like to address issues that the current schedule brings and provide solutions to them, for example student productivity, stress levels and career preparedness.
The proposed schedule change would be a good idea firstly because it’s likely that productivity in high school students would increase. All through grade school we are taught during the fall, winter and spring, then let on break for the summer. During the school year, students are accustomed to waking up early every morning, going to school all day to carry out a fixed routine, then going home or to extracurricular activities at the end of the day. Unfortunately, once summer break arrives, students do not follow this schedule at all. As a high school student, I know people that during the summer will completely reverse their entire sleep schedule; they wake up in the evening, stay up until dawn and then sleep all day. This is obviously unhealthy and unproductive, but with the new school year schedule change, it will not leave near as much time for students to adapt to
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During the regular school year, we have eight classes in total for a quarter. Balancing this number of classes plus extracurricular activities and often a job can be nearly impossible. With three classes, there would obviously still be a lot of work seeing as the classes would be more intensive; however, students would not have to balance the other five classes on top of that. If they’re able to focus more on one core class and their two electives, they’ll be able to concentrate more on what they’re
Family vacations, pool memberships, and corn de-tasseling; these have been the experiences of traditional Midwestern summers. For centuries young American children have attended school during the winter months, during farming off seasons when their families could afford to be without them. Families have grown accustomed to a traditional school calendar that provides time for bonding throughout the year. Students have grown accustomed to an eight week break during the summer months where they are allowed to refresh their minds before returning for a new school year. Unfortunately, these traditional experiences and practices are now in jeopardy. In today’s race to improve student achievement, traditional school calendars have become a point of contention. Today more and more school districts and parents alike have begun to debate the pros and cons of an alternative school calendar.
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.
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.
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.
Shortly, we became more industrialized and had more advanced technology which made the summer vacation that was so crucial to the survival of the family now purposeless. With these long summer breaks, it can affect a child’s learning in so many ways. According to the benefits of year-round education article,”As of the 2006-2007 school year, nearly 2,800 U.S. schools were classified as year round.” One essential problem with long summer breaks is lack of retention of learned material and can lead to the student not being able to make progress with their learning in the next school year. In year-round schools, kids don’t waste time on review as opposed to traditional schools who take about three weeks reviewing the information they learned in the
Ideally, extending the school schedule into the summer equals more learning. Because students are not dedicated to their studies, often they do not retain the information they learned over the school year during summer vacation. According to the article “Will Longer School Year Help or Hurt US Students” Smyth notes that, “Proponents argue that too much knowledge is lost while American kids wile away the summer months apart from their lessons” (Smyth). Smyth argues that students clearly do not retain their lessons over the period of their summer break. However, opponents of the extension of the school schedule say, “summer breaks are needed to provide an academic respite for students’ overwrought minds, and to provide time with family and the flexibility to travel and study favorite subjects in more depth” (Smyth). Smyth’s observation not only protests taking summer away from families but also describes summer as a time needed to rest student’s minds.
Taking a closer look at dropout rates; discipline worries; low test scores; excessive grades of C, D and F; and a lack of interest among the majority of exceptional students confirms that the status quo of nine month school systems are not the answer. Experience teachers seemed to reach consensus that these negative trends were reduced when schools had more frequent breaks. Social fact deals with traditional family vacation time. The majority of working parents were permitted approximately two weeks of vacation time per year. Researchers varied their definition of year-round education school systems. The majority of the school plans maintained the usual 180 school days (Bradford) with short one or two week breaks throughout the year. Employment of a multitrack or single-track program was based on school needs. If excessive population or reducing the budget was the primary concern, multitrack was chosen for increased school size by assigning students and teaches to targeted groups. Each time these tracks or groups went on break, the classrooms were just simply used by other groups and teachers. Highlighting a few of the plans, the most popular one according to (Weaver), was the 45-15 method. Fourth-five days of formal instruction followed with 15 days of vacation, repeated four times during the school year. (Glines) defined school calendars consisted of the same principle but
In conclusion, If the school changes their schedule it will benefit all including teachers, students, bus drivers, and even parents. So if we change the schedule school students can sleep at any time they want as long as they get at least 9 hours of sleep, enough to do well in school, to do better at sports, and even to be overall stay healthy and grow. So students having more sleep is better for the world and their
Restructuring the traditional typical school calendar to be year round would benefit not only the students, but also the teacher. Having year round school—still going the 180 days—can be stretched out across twelve months. According to, “She reports that the national dropout rate is 5 percent, while the dropout rate for year-round school students is just 2 percent”. (Warrant) Most United
Don't you hate waking up early for school in the morning? Most high school students wake up before the sun rises just to become ready for school. Teenage brains do not begin to function that early considering many are tired from staying up late the previous night. The National Sleep Foundation reported that most teens do not retain enough shuteye, one study found that only 15% reported sleeping eight 1/2 hours on school nights. That fact was extremely true for me when I attended high school. I barely was able to wake up, get dressed, and be in school on time since I was so tired. In my opinion school days should start later, precisely in between 9- 10 o'clock. If the school day started later attendance would improve, students will be more prepared, and student's attitudes and grades may improve.
Summer breaks are way too long and children forget a lot of information throughout the summer break. A lot of that valuable time teachers spent is lost in only a few months. Not only is the teachers time lost but also the child’s, during the fall teachers spend time reviewing from the previous year (Nair, n.d.). Educationalists noted that during a modified or year-long school year students are expected to forget less the information they acquired because they experience not as many interruptions. Children may not experience loss of knowledge with a year-long school year. The year-long school calendar in fact, has the same amount of school days than a regular school calendar, but the breaks are spread out throughout the year. Therefore, when the breaks are spread out the children and teachers experience less burnout from school. These breaks are called intercessions (Ballinger, 2008). Kids have 4-6 weeks off of school during the summer instead of 2-3 months and the findings are positive (Bennecke, 2010). There are three different options for a year-long school calendar. The first option is a 45-15 calendar, 45 days of instruction followed by 15 days of vacation/ intercession. The second option is the 60-20 calendar, 60 days in school followed by 20 days’ vacation/ intercession. Finally, the third option is the 45-10 calendar, 45 days of instruction followed by 10 days of vacation/ intersession
Scientists have found that school increases levels of stress in students. As a consequence of a year round calendar, those numbers what just go up even more without the long break students need. (owlcation.com). Also, summer break motivates students and gives them something to look forward to at the end of the year. For instance, students would continue school with only a four week break instead of a 10, 11, or 12 week break. This would not be enough time for students to relax after a year of working hard. Even if they did, after only four weeks they would need to start another year all over again causing more stress and even depression. Without summer break, students couldn’t get the rest they need. Converting to a year round school calendar would shorten summer break by a great deal too. With only a few weeks of school, older students couldn’t get summer jobs that they might need to help support themselves. Also with a shorter break, families couldn’t take as long or as many vacations as they could. Vacations would help students to relax and have fun along with their break. To add on, students who don’t have as long breaks wouldn’t experience as much as a student who has a longer break. Being in a yearly school wouldn’t give the students as much time as others to do more things. Some trips require people to take off long periods of time from their usual life. In fact, a shorter break would limit students to what
I am proposing the benefits of year-round schooling to enhance education in a positive way. The purpose of my topic is to inform and report the impact on academic achievement that can come with year-round schooling. The traditional school calendar has been with the American Education System for the past 250 years, and many changes have taken place. However it is time to gain a new perspective regarding academic achievement. The other purpose of this study is to gather and report accurate information that has an impact academically. Achieving higher education will influence decisions made throughout life.
After a long summer, the time has finally come for Sam and his classmates to return to school. Sam dreads going back to school, because he knows that the first weeks of school mean long, boring reviews. Despite the fact that Sam and his friends do not like to relearn what they have already studied, they need to review because most students forget what they learned over the three-month break period. Many students can relate to Sam, wasting two weeks or more at the beginning of the school year. Parents, teachers and students across the United States believe a better option exists, that will waste less time, including the idea of a year-round school schedule. Higher academic achievement, benefits to the community and reduction in overcrowding
In “Extending the School Day or School Year: A Systematic Review of Research” authors Erika Patall, Harris Cooper and Ashley Batts Allen argue reasons why the school year should be longer. The amount of time spent in school directly effects how well students do in school. According to the authors study “Adding time to the school year or school day is at the top of the list of measures that have been hypothesized to improve achievement among U.S. Students”(401). The main reason why the authors believe that the school year should be extended is because there are now more things being taught to students and the extra time is needed in order to academically succeed. The authors state that years ago school years and days were both shorter because children us...