Year Round Education: A New Perspective
Introduction
Over the years we have gained aspect to all the new technologies and advancements that have improved the educational system. Each innovation has helped in some way or another to develop better academic programs in schools around the United States. Recently, a proposal has been made to change the traditional school year of nine-months to a year-round program that has sparked controversy all over. Despite controversy though, there are still many strong supporters of the idea. According to the National Association for Year-Round Education (NAYRE), “the pervasive and unique impact of extended-year schooling on children's cognitive development suggested that it may be a key reform in improving the American education system” (Frazier-Gustafson, 2003). The purpose of this research paper is to investigate how technology-rich year-round schooling can promote academic success for students.
Traditional Calendars
Traditional school-year calendars usually begin the day after Labor Day and end early in the summer, with a Christmas break, selective holidays, and a three-month summer vacation. It is also known as the agrarian calendar because school’s needed to revolve around the same time as the harvesting and planting of crops. The calendar was made this way to allow for children to be available to the family for farming during the months of summer. Although farming has declined, the traditional calendar has now been in effect for over a century and with the suggestions of Year-Round Schooling (YRS) educators are trying to update this “old” system of schooling.
Year-Round Calendars
Some might get the wrong impression when the term year-round education is brought...
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26. Stenvall, M. (2003). National Association for Year-Round Education Website. Retrieved April 21, 2004 from http://www.nayre.org.
27. This is a link on the website of the National Association for Year-Round Education.
This organization promotes YRE and provides various statistics, research articles, publications etc. related to the issue.
28. Thomas, G.I. (1973). Administrator’s Guide to the Year-Round School. West Nyack: Parker Publishing Company, Inc.
29. This book helps you understand the reasoning behind year-round programs with a major emphasis on the cost analysis approach.
30. Warrick-Harris, E. (1995). Year-round school: The best thing since sliced bread. Childhood Education, 71, 282-287.
31. This article supports year-round education and the many advantages and benefits it has for students, teachers, and the community.
Pearson, A. (n.d.). Year-Round School Advantages & Disadvantages. Education. Retrieved April 21, 2014, from http://education.seattlepi.com/yearround-school-advantages-disadvantages-2521.html
Education." Midwest Quarterly 44, no. 2 (Winter2003 2003): 211. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed April 11, 2014).
The change of the system to include summer breaks was due to issues not quite under their
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.
Guthrie , J. W., Heyneman, S. P., & Braxton , J. M. (2002).Encyclopedia of education . (2nd ed., pp. 283-289). Farmington Hill, Michigan: Cengage Gale.
Hurston masterfully utilizes four basic Southern literary elements to illustrate the plight of a woman that achieved self-expression and independence in the 1930’s: narrative language, allegory, and symbolism. The combination of the three elements utilized by Hurston in her novel “Their Eyes Were Watching God” bring about a much greater theme of the story—self-expression and independence. Throughout the book, Janie is faced with many trials and tribulations on the road to achieve her ideal life. But everything throughout her journey happened for a reason for her to learn from and keep pushing. She finally got her ideal relationship with Tea Cake.
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.
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.
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.
Barber, R Jerry. “Year-Round Schooling Really Works.” The Education Digest. Web. 1 Apr. 2014 “
Scuba diving is diving with a self-contained underwater breathing apparatus, that is completely independent of surface supply. Providing the diver with the advantages of underwater mobility whilst being able to sustain life at underwater pressures. Embolism results when gasses in the lung expand during ascent and rupture lung tissue, causing air bubbles to enter the bloodstream.
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.
Could you even think about teaching year round? I know crazy right yet so many schools are doing it it's ridiculous. not only that but the way they treat teachers is crazy. We have all had that we loved to be in her class. Imagine her not being able to have any time to relax, her job getting harder, and being worked harder for less money. Terrible right well that is what year round schools are doing to innocent teachers.
Saunders, M. (2004, September 7). Try year-round school: The lazy days of summer may hurt children who struggle in school the rest of the time. Atlanta Journal-Constitution, pp. 14A, Retrieved November 6, 2004, from Lexus-Nexus.
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...