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.
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.
Janie eventually attains what she has spent forty years searching for--her voice, and her identity. The only voice Janie had in her marriage to Killicks was to throw down her apron and walk out the door (Racine 9). While with Joe Starks, she allows herself to live a dual life--one in which her body contributes and another in which her thoughts wonders boundlessly. In Janie's marriage to Tea Cake, she gains the freedom and the self-identity she has been searching for. By killing Tea Cake, Janie selects herself over the dominant society of men (Holloway 43). In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston suggests to her readers that Black men and women have been controlled by white society.
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.
Dixon, A. (2011). Focus on the alternative school calendar: year-round school programs and update on the four-day school week. Retrieved from Southern Regional Education Board website: http://publications.sreb.org/2011/11S01_Alt_Cal.pdf
Attending a year round school will help students retain the information they are taught with greater ease due to the shortness in breaks between times they attend school. An Indianapolis fourth-grade school teacher says, “In this calendar, my goodness, (it takes) two weeks at most.”, referring to the six weeks it normally takes to review the previous year’s lesson to get the students up to speed from the summer break (Johnson). If you are to add twenty days to t...
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
The founders of the American public school system had a dream that all of America’s youth would have the opportunity to attend school in the best way possible for the times. The educational leaders of today must take up the same mission of providing the best school system imaginable for our modern era. Yearlong education is the solution to many problems that plague teachers, students, and school budgets.
Palmer, E. A., and A. E. Bemis. "Research Spotlight on Year-Round Education." Rss. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.
Barber, R Jerry. “Year-Round Schooling Really Works.” The Education Digest. Web. 1 Apr. 2014 “
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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 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.
Students who are enrolled in a year-round school attend school for 180 days, the same number of days as students on a traditional calendar schedule. A year-round school calendar is formulated into nine-week quarters. Each quarter is separated by a three-week break called an intersession. There is still a summer vacation , but at four or five weeks, it is less than half that of a traditional school summer break, and does not provide enough time for students to completely forget what they learned all year. This solution actually reduces the problem. This school system has been proven to have positive effects on student achievement, especially for students with learning disabilities. The goal of year-round schooling is to create continuous or extended learning by adding hours to the days and days to the year. According to the benefits of year round education article, “Fifty years ago, most American households were supported by a working father, while mothers were expected to stay at home. However, the women’s movement of the 1970’s combined with the rise in divorce rate and the high cost of living, lead to a decline of stay at home mothers.”First, The shorter vacations implemented by year-round education and intersession are helpful to today’s working parents because it is a less expensive alternative to daycare or summer camps. Also, parents and teachers can schedule vacations
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Day or School Year: A Systematic Review of Research." Sage 80.3 (2010): 401- 36. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.