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Arguments against longer school days
Arguments about longer school days
Arguments about longer school days
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The Board of Education wants to add hours to the school schedule. The problem proposed is American student’ test scores are falling behind counties in Europe and Asia. To see how more time in school will affect students and test scores, schools in Iowa, North Carolina, and California have increased the time some students spend in class. Some parents and faculty members think extending the school year into the summer could help American students compete academically with other countries, but the school year should not be extended because summer is needed for academic respite, the extension will cost millions, and there is not enough evidence to say that it can boost academic achievement. Ideally, extending the school schedule into the summer equals more learning. Because students are not dedicated to their studies, often they do not retain the information they learned over the school year during summer vacation. According to the article “Will Longer School Year Help or Hurt US Students” Smyth notes that, “Proponents argue that too much knowledge is lost while American kids wile away the summer months apart from their lessons” (Smyth). Smyth argues that students clearly do not retain their lessons over the period of their summer break. However, opponents of the extension of the school schedule say, “summer breaks are needed to provide an academic respite for students’ overwrought minds, and to provide time with family and the flexibility to travel and study favorite subjects in more depth” (Smyth). Smyth’s observation not only protests taking summer away from families but also describes summer as a time needed to rest student’s minds. Logically an extension to the school schedule would provide the schools with more federal money. Th... ... middle of paper ... ... with Europe and Asia, the American Board of Education placed project schools around our nation to examine the effect of extended school hours. Extra hours, however, will not contribute to increasing test scores as well as other factors can. Instead, the government should provide our schools with more qualified teachers. Without professional teachers, extending the hours in class cannot possibly help US students. Works Cited "Schools Give Extended Class Time a Longer Look." Gannett News Service. 18 Sept. 2006: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. Smyth, Julie Carr. "Will Longer School Year Help or Hurt US Students?" Commercial Appeal. 14 Jan. 2013: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. Viadero, Debra. “Mass Initiative: Does More Time Equal More Learning?.” Education Week 27.15. 12 Dec. 2007: 10-11. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 11 Nov. 2013.
The Disadvantages of Year-Round Schools. (2012, April 1). Dr. Matthew Lynch. Retrieved April 23, 2014, from http://www.drmattlynch.com/1/post/2012/04/-the-disadvantages-of-year-round-schools.html#.U1fVFfldVqV
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,
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.
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...
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.
Shortly, we became more industrialized and had more advanced technology which made the summer vacation that was so crucial to the survival of the family now purposeless. With these long summer breaks, it can affect a child’s learning in so many ways. According to the benefits of year-round education article,”As of the 2006-2007 school year, nearly 2,800 U.S. schools were classified as year round.” One essential problem with long summer breaks is lack of retention of learned material and can lead to the student not being able to make progress with their learning in the next school year. In year-round schools, kids don’t waste time on review as opposed to traditional schools who take about three weeks reviewing the information they learned in the
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.
Some people say that school times should not start later in the morning because there would be less time to complete other activities that they enjoy doing. One source says, “Starting school later means dismissing school later, which leaves fewer daylight hours for after-school activities” (O’Neill 21). This indicates that some believe that starting school later would be an unbeneficial sacrifice to take, just because they do not want to miss out on their favored extra-curricular activities. Another incorrect reason why people are convinced that schools should not begin later is because school districts would have to pay for more bus drivers, and they do not want to have to pay for these unnecessary expenses. O’Neill writes, “Later start times would mean some districts’ might have to invest in additional buses and drivers, which can be expensive” (O’Neill 21). This demonstrates that many school districts would rather keep the same start times for school than have to pay more for bus drivers. One final reason why people falsely believe that schools should not start later in the morning is because it helps teens learn life skills that they can put into use later in their existence. An excerpt from an article reads, “Being on time, managing a busy schedule, and getting enough sleep are important skills teens will need when they enter the workforce” (O’Neill 21). This quote reassures the fact that some people believe that learning important life skills is more relevant than getting enough sleep, even though a lack of sleep can cause teens to get unnecessary illnesses. Despite the fact that some people say that keeping school start times early in the morning is more advantageous than pushing the start times later, they are erroneous for numerous
The debate rages on whether or not schools should have year-round school. The differences between the arguments for and against year-round school are striking, and they deserve a thorough investigation. There are many arguments supporting year-round school. One major argument is that students do not forget what they learned over the summer because there is no summer vacation. Research shows that year-round schooling helps students learn quicker and it keeps the students and teachers refreshed.
"The only ones who don't lose are the upper 10 to 15 percent of the student body. Those tend to be gifted, college-bound, they're natural learners who will learn wherever they are" (Smyth 7). This is a statement from an article written by Julie Carr Smyth about how much knowledge is lost over summer because of the amount of education-free time during the break. Smyth's article also state so that "The National Summer Learning Association cites decades of research that shows students' test scores are higher in the same subjects at the beginning of the summer than at the end" (Smyth 6). If the National Summer Learning Association already has research showing that knowledge is lost over summer break, why do we still have such a long break in between school years? All students would agree that every school year goes on the same as the one before: you start the school year reviewing everything you previously learned, then you spend the rest of the year learning new lessons just for them to slip out of your mind again when you get back to school the next year after summer break. It seems as if the only activities that students remember from their summer breaks are the parties, vacations, and Netflix series they spent their time on. That is not how it should be. Shortening the gap between the summer school months will in turn strengthen student education. It won't allow them to lose as much previous education as a long summer break would. A longer school year will in turn decrease education loss, increase productivity year round in students, and provide the simple necessities of daily life such as food for some unfortunate students.
In more than 40 states, at least 75 percent of public schools start earlier than 8:30 a.m. Students who don't get enough sleep are likely to fail because their always tired. Most schools, who boosted their time in the morning are getting more progress from students from test scores, attendance, and better grades in their classes. (Teny M. Shapiro), an economist at Santa Clara University, estimates that a one-hour change produces the same benefit as shrinking class size by one-third or replacing a teacher in the 50th percentile of effectiveness with one in the 84th percentile.
With delaying the schools start time, comes tardiness. Kids wouldn’t be tardy and wouldn’t be tired. A school that moved the starting time to 9:00 reported a 66% drop in tardiness. 70% of the kids from that school improved on their grades, and showed significant improvements. Later start times also reduced truancy in schools and dropout rates. 64% of teenagers that sleep in class
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.
Zhao, Emmeline. "Longer School Year: Will It Help Or Hurt U.S. Students?" The Huffington Post.
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...