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. Research is inconclusive on whether year-round schooling is an effective solution to this problem. Two major surveys on year-round schooling have shown that the findings are mixed and that many studies, failing to account for family socioeconomic level or parental education. However, both of these surveys—Worthen and Zsiray (1994) and Cooper, Valentine, Charlton, and Melson (2003)—did find supporting evidence for these conclusions. Students in year-round schools do as well or slightly better in terms of achievements than students in traditional schools. Year-round school may be beneficial for students from poor or middle class families. Students, parents, and teachers who are involved in a year-round school program tend to have a positive outlook about the experience. The research also indicates that when year-round schooling has resulted in higher academic achievement, the schools in question are usually doing more than just rearranging the school calendar. These sc... ... middle of paper ... ...., Charlton, K., Lindsay, J., & Greathouse, S. (1996). The effects of summer vacation on achievement test scores: A narrative and meta-analytic review. Review of Educational Research, 66(3), 227–268. Cooper, H., Valentine, J. C., Charlton, K., & Melson, A. (2003). The effects of modified school calendars on student achievement and on school and community attitudes. Review of Educational Research, 73(1), 1–52. McMillen, B. J. (2001). A statewide evaluation of academic achievement in year-round schools. The Journal of Educational Research, 95(2), 67–74. National Association for Year-Round Education. (2007). Statistical summaries of year-round education programs, 2006–2007. San Diego, CA: Author. Worthen, B. R., & Zsiray, S. W. (1994). What twenty years of educational studies reveal about year-round education. Raleigh: North Carolina Educational Policy Research Center.
Grade-based normative information was obtained for Fall and Spring administrations, with interpolated performance for Winter norms, allowing for more precise measurement. Each score is a standard score with a mean of 100 and standard deviation of 15. Qualitative descriptors for examinee performance may be based on a 10-point or a 15-point classification system, allowing the user to match descriptors across cognitive and other achievement measures. Additional age and grade equivalents, percentile ranks, normal curve equivalents, growth scale values, and stanines may also be
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
First, the pros of year round schooling can include; effects on absence and burnout rates, effects on budget, more frequent breaks, and also a big effect on academic achievement. The way that year round schooling works to reduce burnout and also reduce absences is that by having more frequent breaks; students are less likely to want to skip class. This is definitely noticeable after spring break where most schools don’t have any days off until the end of the year that is usually more than 2 months straight. In other words the “April, May, June stretch”. Year round schooling will also help students with their academics as well because with the way the schedule is set up, students do not ha...
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.
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.
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 school is a bad idea not just for students, but also for parents and teachers. There than 3,181 year round schools in the U.S. alone and only 10% of kids attend them. Basically, year round school will not provide academic success. Some teachers and principals believe it will not have a positive effect on kids. According to the teachers “Most kids need a summer off from school.” Year round school schedule is usually 6 to 9 weeks long with 2 to 3 break weeks.
Why are so many schools changing to a year-round schedule when study finds that a year-round does not boost learning compared to traditional schools? Paul von Hippel, a sociologist at Ohio State, conducted a study which found that “students in year-round schools learn more during the summer, when others are on vacation when others are on vacation, but they seem to learn less during the school year.” This means that people on the traditional schedules have an eight month lead in education on people in year-round schools. Von Hippel explains how even though some educators say that eliminating long summer will boost academics “the results do not support that claim.” Schools should just go ahead and let students have a full
Full year schools are numbered at three thousand eighty-one nationwide (in 2002-2003), compared to the roughly ninety-five thousand schools that are not year-round. This shows how little faith and trust is had towards this new, yet stale, initiative of inadequacy already, as schools continue to switch back from year round to traditional. One of the three most common ways in which students experience this deficiency is the forty-five-fifteen plan, in which seven weeks (forty in-school days) of school occurs, followed by three weeks (fifteen days) of vacation. The second is the sixty-twenty plan; twelve weeks of school followed by four weeks of vacation. The third organization of days is the ninety-thirty plan, effectively splitting summer in twain. Some elaboration, however, is required: each of these schemes has only one hundred eighty days, equivalent to the number days in a normal school year.
Most schools which operate year round have adopted the balanced or 45/15 calendar, which switches between nine weeks of school and three week breaks. Other schools use the similarly structured 60/20 or 90/30 calendars which simply lengthen both the learning periods and vacations(Chittom 2). As simple as each plan seems, none preserves the mental health of students. “It only takes about 3 weeks for stress to start creating more lasting problem such as depression and decreased motivation in teenagers,” notes Dr. Sofia Jalilie, a pediatrician in the Bay Area, during an interview. Because of rigorous academic expectations, along with pressure for grades, choosing colleges and a future career, the high school environment can be considered stressful. As shown by three popular systems, year round calendars give students a resting opportunity only, at minimum, after six weeks, which, from Dr. Jalilie's words, is enough time for the students’ brains to be damaged. This effect on students reveals a disadvantage of the year round system because in high schools, mental health and student stress are already large concerns. Meanwhile, supporters of year round calendars claim that they aid students by preventing summer learning loss, the popular theory that students forget most of the information learned in the prior school year during summer break(Von Drehle). Those who believe in the term link no summer to better academic performance. However, in a comparison of test scores throughout North Carolina, a school with diversity in its school calendars, "achievement scores were no greater among students from year-round schools as students from traditional schools"(Chittom 4). Standardized tests are considered one of the best ways to compare students. The year round schools' failure to be superior shows summer learning loss to be inaccurate and demonstrates that making students attend
According to the article, the only real benefit to year round school is to help with
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.
Industries such as business and medicine depend on extreme methods and forward thinking ideas. To be a successful enterprise, one must be willing to take risks and try new things. Within the last century, education has attempted to take a leap of faith by completely flipping the traditional school schedule and idea of summer vacation upside down. Just as with any idea, there are advantages and disadvantages as well as supporters and opponents. Each district must look at their own individual needs and evaluate the trials from schools that have gone before them to decide if year-round schooling would benefit their school.
Day or School Year: A Systematic Review of Research." Sage 80.3 (2010): 401- 36. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.