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Is year round schooling better than traditional
Is year round schooling better than traditional
The benefits of year-round education
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Summer break is supposed to be a time of rest and rejuvenation for students. After nine months of hard work and challenging classes, one would think such a long break could do nothing but good for students; however, this is not the best way for young minds to learn. A three month break is far too long for children to go without proper education and supervision. Instead of a long three month break at the end of each school year, why not give students the same number of days off but spread them out more frequently throughout the year? Year-round education is a more efficient, globally competitive, and fair alternative to the traditional nine month school year.
The reasons behind having a three month summer break are outdated and do not provide any functional advantages to the present day student. The current school year lasting nine months with a three month summer vacation is not necessary in today’s society. It originally served to allow children in rural communities help their families with the harvest (Hemerson and Gove 8). Educators originally saw the nine month school year as a way to maximize attendance in rural areas of the country (O'Sullivan 399). This serves no functioning purpose in today's society. It is estimated today that only 3% of the population is involved in agriculture (Kralovec 32). The nine month school year originally was supposed to allow more working children to attend school, but,with current child labor laws, this has become obsolete (O’Sullivan 398). The switch to a year round schedule is seamless and simple, but leaders are dragging their feet just because the change could cause disruption among those who like the schedule the way it is (French 28). Such old-fashioned ideals should not be allowed to ...
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Kralovec, Etta. Schools That Do Too Much: Wasting Time and Money in Schools, and What We Can All Do about it. Boston: Beacon, 2003. Print.
O'Sullivan, Mary Therese. "The Ten-Month School Year: Are We Ignoring Educational Research in Order to Preserve Summer Vacation? Finding a Compromise Between Educational Advancement and Over-Schooling." Brigham Young University Education & Law Journal 2 (2013): 395. Advanced Placement Source. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
"System Supports for Teacher Learning and School Improvement." Springer International Handbooks of Education: International Handbook of School Effectiveness and Improvement. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media, 2007. Credo Reference. Web. 29 January 2014.
"Year-Round Education." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File News Services, 28 July 2000. Web. 20 Jan. 2014. Web.
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.
Another significant reason is summer vacation needs to be longer. The primary reason for this is children need time to wind down and relax before they have to go back to school. For instance, during the summer children relax and prepare for school, if they...
The change of the system to include summer breaks was due to issues not quite under their
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.
In the United States, most schools still use a ten-month calendar that was developed when our country’s students needed school off to help with harvesting (Palmer). Trimble Local Schools Superintendent Kim Jones says, “year-round schooling is the notion of getting away from the old agrarian calendar...which was formed up around the planting season. Students were out of school from April until harvest to work in the fields,” (qtd. in Hapka). Under the agrarian system, most United States students are in school for nine to ten months, and get a two- to three- month summer vacation. However, the United States is no longer an agricultural-based society, and students have no need to take a three-month-long, unnecessary, not to mention disruptive break during the summer months; instead, the United States should switch the school systems to a year-round calendar.
While growing up, I attended a traditional school. This is a schooling method many individuals are probably familiar with. A student attends school for nine months out of the year, and then has a three month break during the summer. However, in my immediate hometown surroundings, nearby traditional schools are assessing the idea of transforming into year-round schools. Year round schooling is one subject debated in high schools, middle schools, and elementary schools nationwide. Are schools that operate 365 days a year academically better than traditional schools? What are the cost differences between the two? How would a year-round school effect families? Changing the schooling technique from traditional to year-round has numerous variables that need to be taken into consideration before any grade school or secondary education institution fully commits. Year-round schooling schedules should not be implemented and traditional schooling calendars should be maintained.
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...
School is usually a huge part of every child’s daily agenda. Teenagers in high school basically dedicate their entire day to school and homework. Students in grade 8 are similarly going through the same process as high school students. As students work 2 months after the Winter Break, some of them tend to start reducing their quality in their work. When we’re tired of doing school work for two straight months, why should we only receive a short March Break? Can’t the March Break just be one week longer, the same as the Winter Break? Students shouldn’t be limited to the amount of activities they can do during the March Break. Since the March Break is the last Break of the year, students clearly deserve two weeks of March Break rather than one. Furthermore, students should have the need to relax before the next three more months of school.
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)
The summer vacation students on a traditional schedule receive could be very beneficial since summer gives time for the students to attend camps or other activities that would allow them to learn. The camp may not be like the learning in school, but students would be able to get a different style of education while having fun. Lynn-nore Chittom and Jeff Klassen, two authors who wrote about year-round vs. traditional schooling say, “Critics also cite year-round school as an obstacle to summer enrichment programs such as youth camps, and note that the balanced calendar model can hurt students and industries dependent on short-term summer employment” (Chittom). If students are going to school all year with only some short breaks, when would they have time to go to camp? Even if their camp is during one of their breaks, the students would have homework to complete, thus eliminating the educational effects of the camp on the student. Also, teen...
High school and college dropout rates are at an all time high. Secondary school students are told throughout high school that if they don’t go to college then they will never be successful. Going to college doesn’t always make a difference because many career choices such as teachers and lawyers are highly contested and result in either no job or low salary. Low pay deters teacher’s motivation and they tend to work part time jobs to supplement their income. Public schools standards are comparable to a kangaroo court’s procedure; private schools are known for better teachers, environment, and test grades. The major problems in the public school system include the lack of funding, lack of resources, and lack of standards.
The costs and benefits of an excellent education for all of America’s children. Teachers College, Columbia University Levin, Henry, Clive Belfield, Peter Muennig, and Cecilia Rouse. 2007.
Fischman, Wendy, Jennifer A Dibara and Howard Gardner. "Creating good education against the odds."Cambridge Journal of Education, 36. 3 (2006): 383--398. Print.