When we think of year-round schooling, we automatically think of no summer vacation. Across the country, schools are changing their schedules to a year-round curriculum. A year-round curriculum means that students and teachers no longer have two months of summer vacation. Some parents and teachers have enjoyed the year-round schedule, others do not approve. There are some schools that are implementing the year-round program to have more consistent instruction, while other schools are doing it in order to save money. Each schedule has its own pros and cons.
Some experts say that continuing the use of traditional calendar is not what is best for children in today's age. As schools experiment with the year-round schedules, many schools are getting
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rid of the traditional summer vacation.
However, they are still simultaneously providing students with more frequent and consistent breaks from school. The most popular year-round schedule is a 45-15 plan. With the 45-15 plan children attend school for 45 days then have three weeks off, plus having days off for major holidays and teacher workdays. Year-round school increases retention rates. Students in year-round schools have showed higher scores on some standardized tests. The schedule gives teachers a break when they most need it, like during the grading period. Year-round schools have a lower staff turnover rate. A year-round schedule might reduce absences because the frequent breaks allow for exhausted or sick teachers and students to recover and relax before returning to school. Both teachers and students might feel less burnout. Teachers that are on a year-round schedule think it as a positive change. Parents and students in year-round schools also have positive feelings toward year-round schooling because the frequent breaks allow them to recharge and reenergize. Also, students would not have
to relearn what they forget over the summer break since they would only be out of school for three weeks for every 45 days. When they return after the three week break, they would be ready to pick up where they left off. Most students who attend a year-round school do better academically. Another pro of this new curriculum would be that families who have a hard time paying for childcare or finding someone to take care of their child will think that the year-round schooling would be positive because they would not need to pay a daycare for them to watch their child for a full day. Many school leaders think that the year-round calendar is designed to help students, but there are some parents that are not accepting the new curriculum. Parents are worried that they will not have enough time to take family vacations without having a long summer break. The year-round calendar can possibly be a scheduling nightmare for some parents. Parents who have more than one child in school might have a child in a year-round school, while the other children are in schools that are on a traditional calendar. A parent will struggle to find time during the year when the whole family has time to spend time together and relax. Another argument against year-round school is that as soon as students are starting to get into the routine of school, a break would come. However after break, the students would be refreshed and ready to listen better. Students who have difficulty with attention or students that are under the age of seven may not be developmentally ready to attend for longer periods of time. This may increase the amount of behavioral issues in the classroom. Another con would be the schools budget. With year-round school, the budget will go up to provide utilities, food, and other things that are needed for the students in year-round schooling. The school would have to raise the tuition or extracurricular activities might be cut. Student might become overwhelmed with the cycle of year-round school and might have a hard time focusing after each short break ends. Another con to year-round schooling is that it makes it difficult for students to work in the summer if they need to. With its shorter and more frequent breaks, it can interfere with job opportunities, as well as non-school related sports and activities such as summer camps and going to the park. Students who want to attend college classes in the summer will be effected by the year-round schooling. A teacher might want to work towards a higher degree or have summer jobs, but with the year-round schooling he/she will not be able to. Year-round schooling helps students stay motivated. Many teachers and parents do not feel that kids need two months away from school. The year-round schedule would be an adjustment, but there would be more consistent rest periods, more learning opportunities, and a more fresh approach to education and learning for students. Personally, I agree with year-round schooling. Kids that are bored during summer break usually play on their electronics, and a lot of electronics usage can affect them in a negative way. By splitting break into small sections, kids can be less overwhelmed during school a not be so bored during break, and they will use electronics less frequently.
Nonetheless, there is some resistance to schools converting to a year-round calendar. Most of that opposition comes from the reduction in intersession length, and some students and/or parents don 't like the idea of year-round education from the start. This gives families a reason to voice their opposition when both the parents and child 's schedules do not line up with one another. This usually affects households that wish to take long vacations over the course of a summer. Parents, in some cases, may oppose this change because of child care needs. Child care raises opposition since there is a shift in the school year calendar. Parents may not be able to find nannies or babysitters. In addition, parents will have to check for or maybe even search for new or different childcare services. To add, parents with multiple children may have to worry about their children being put
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.
adaptations need to be made back to the year-round school. If society has continuously adapted
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.
The United States has a long and proud history of providing public education to its citizen’s children. The fundamental idea behind the creation of this educational system was that it be available to all, regardless of geographical location or family status. In the era that this initiative was generated many of America’s families lived and worked on farms, and children were a vital part of this lifestyle. The founders of the United States’ public schools had to create a plan that included all children, even those who were expected to perform agricultural work in the harvest season. Thus, the nine-month school calendar was brought into use, allowing farming children a three month break from school in the summer to aid their families in the crop yield. In time, youth participation in farming became outdated and obsolete, and this arrangement slipped from necessity to simply being a tradition held on to through the years. In our modern era, a year-round school calendar would benefit the teachers, students, and finances of America’s public schools.
The Vancouver School Board is considering implementing a calendar change; in a June 2010 memorandum sent for review, “Balanced School Calendars: Pros and Cons” by Superintendent of Schools Steve Cardwell, the report summary states “the ever changing composition and needs of the students in this district make it reas...
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...
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.
Although year-round school is not something that most Americans are used to, it is much more beneficial than the original nine-month schooling. Nine-month schooling has been around for a very long time, but it is also out dated. Nine-month schooling was a way to help farmers keep their children at home for extra help during the summer months. Now, more and more people are living in town, and farmers have advanced equipment. Year-round school is a great way to give students and teachers more frequent breaks throughout the school year so they do not get burnt out. It will also shorten the review time each year, and allow teachers to teach more throughout the school year. The multi-tracking system allows
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.
For years, parents and educators have debated the advantages and disadvantages of the traditional school calendar, which has long summer vacations for all students.The longer you are away from school, the more you lose what you learned in the previous year. Studies have shown that children who know English as a second language benefit the most from year-round education because during the long summer break, they may not hear English for several months. Long summer breaks is a problem for traditional schools and the solution is to substitute traditional schools for year-round schools.
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.
Should school be year round? Well, I say yes because our young people will get done with High School faster. And if school was year round, students will not have a chance to get in a lot of trouble and they will not be able to join a gang or have time to hang on a block because they will not have a long summer break. Somebody needs to bring this problem to the school board to see if they will make the change to save many students’ lives by keeping them off the streets and keeping them in school all year long. If the children were in school longer, they will most likely turn out better, but it’s up to the people of communities to push kids through school. I believe parents need to stand up for their kids’ rights to help them have a better future by helping to make school last all year.
What do you think about going to school year round with little breaks here and there, but not your traditional three month summer break? Year round schooling has been a decision argued with the government, teachers, principals and parents. Many kids and adults like to relax on their three month break. Many students are used to having two week winter break, one week spring break, and three months of summer break. Overall, one three month break would benefit than having three-week breaks broken up throughout the school year.