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Is year round school better than traditional
Advantages of year round schooling
The benefits of year round school
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Does year-round school truly have a positive impact in the lives of students? Various studies have suggested that year round school is helpful. There are some disadvantages to this type of schooling that are preventing all schools from switching to this type of scheduling. In earlier times schools were only teaching throughout half of the year so that the school would be out of session when it was time to work in the fields. This type of scheduling is still common today, even though only a small portion of agriculture is tied into education and kids are no longer required to work. “In 1994, the National Education Commission on Time and Learning (1994) urged school districts to develop school calendars that acknowledged (a) differences in
The report reflected growing concern about how the school calendar relates to students at risk for academic failure” (Cooper, Nye, Charlton, James, & Greathouse). As a result. many are fighting for year-round school. Year-round school has proven to be beneficial in the lives of students and has lead to greater success in the classroom. Although, there has shown some downfalls to year-round schooling.
“The U.S. research challenges one of the main arguments for abandoning conventional schedules: year- round schooling improves achievement because it prevents students from falling behind during the summer and because it does not waste precious time reviewing past years’ lessons” (Mahoney). So even though year-round school is a different way of providing the schedule from traditional schools, it does benefit students by having shorter
Year-round schools use what is known as a track system. These schools have a certain number of tracks that interchange student and teacher schedules. While some students are attending school, other students are on break. While this allows for a greater school population, it could lead to family disruptions if siblings are not on the same track schedule. This type of calendar could also lead to greater stress on the teachers because they would have to keep up with their classroom schedules if they work more than one track. Another disadvantage to this type of school calendar would be that there would be a greater need for office, cafeteria, and custodian services. Other reasons why people would think that a year-round school calendar is not efficient is because you would have students testing at different points in the year, and ceremonies and graduations would all have to be planned accordingly. Year-round schools that have many different tracks would be required to pay more money to operate the school for a longer period of time. Being on different tracks may make it difficult to compose a sports team or band. In addition to these disadvantages one of the most important would be the price for transportation, with students all on different tracks the buses would be needed more often than those in traditional
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.
Nonetheless, there is some resistance to schools converting to a year-round calendar. Most of that opposition comes from the reduction in intersession length, and some students and/or parents don 't like the idea of year-round education from the start. This gives families a reason to voice their opposition when both the parents and child 's schedules do not line up with one another. This usually affects households that wish to take long vacations over the course of a summer. Parents, in some cases, may oppose this change because of child care needs. Child care raises opposition since there is a shift in the school year calendar. Parents may not be able to find nannies or babysitters. In addition, parents will have to check for or maybe even search for new or different childcare services. To add, parents with multiple children may have to worry about their children being put
Would you consider going to a school where you learn year-round? Maybe this would be your ideal school, but, when would you get to have some time to go to summer camp, or get a summer job, or play a sport with games during the day? Schools with the traditional schedule may actually be a better choice, and not just because kids love summer break. Schools should have a traditional school year schedule instead of a year round schedule because there isn’t a significant difference between the students’ performance, and year round schedules make planning family vacations hard, make the teachers’ job more difficult, and are more expensive. Also, having a summer break allows kids to participate in activities that they would not be able to do on a year round schedule due to the shorter breaks.
This research indicates that those in support of this type of calendar see many benefits, but the most strongly supported 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 Vancouver School Board is considering implementing a calendar change; in a June 2010 memorandum sent for review, “Balanced School Calendars: Pros and Cons” by Superintendent of Schools Steve Cardwell, the report summary states “the ever changing composition and needs of the students in this district make it reasonable to question whether a traditional school calendar remains the most beneficial option for our students” (1).... ... middle of paper ...
When that particular group returns from vacation, another track will go on vacation leaving the other tracks in school and so on. A calendar such as this is implemented in response to overcrowded schools, and allows for more students to attend one school. It has also been suggested that single-track YRS serves well as a transition to multi-track YRS (Shields & Oberg, 2000; Stenvall, 2003; Thomas, 1973). Either way both schedules offer more efficient use of school facilities, which is definitely a positive.
Year round schooling is becoming increasingly popular in the United States, and has shown positive academic benefits for students enrolled in year round schools. Many countries implement year round schooling, and academic ability of their students greatly surpasses those of the United States. Year round schooling, as well as increase in school days should be implemented in schools nationwide in the United States. The need for long summer vacations is non-existent, as society has become industrialized. Implementing year-round schooling, and increasing the number of school days will allow the United States to invest more time into education in order to grow and build academic success.
In conclusion, the advantages of year-round schooling are beneficial to all. If all schools did change to year round schooling, I believe we would be able to teach all the students without having to reteach skills from previous years, it could be done during intersessions. Year-round schooling benefits both the teachers and students. Teachers are able to reflect on their teachings and adjust in time before the next session would begin. The students would feel positive about themselves in school. With this change, we may even be able to accomplish No Child Left Behind.
The prime reason for this is because traditional schools do not need to spend extra money on air conditioning (Yeager). This is a necessity in the summer months, whereas heat is in the winter months. Neither the middle and elementary school nor the high school I attended has air conditioning throughout the school. Nor would they have the funds to install a system, for that matter. The reasoning being that my hometown schools recently underwent a vast repairing, renovating, and remodeling period. In addition, other costs of year-round schools would be accumulated through bus transportation and maintenance, lunch supplies, school daycare, extra utilities, and paying the staff for the summer months (Yeager). This would be especially true if schools decide to run on a multiple-track
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.
First, Long summer breaks is a problem for traditional schools. Year round school are schools that function on a 180 day system
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.
The phrase “year-round” scares students and parents alike. Some argue that students attending school year-round will get so burnt out that the new schedule would be counterproductive. However, the term “year-round” is misleading. Students would not go to school non-stop twelve months out of the year. Instead, students would attend in blocks separated by short but frequent breaks (Hapka). The National Education Association gives insight to the block system:
To have year round schooling it much more expensive than a regular school year, to have school year round it, can cost “up to $1,300 more per student.” Also, most students in high school have a summertime job for those three months. But, if schooling was year round teens wouldn't be able to work in the summer. So the amount of times teens can work would decrease. In addition, kids would be much busier with school year around because of all the work and less free time to do whatever. For instance, kids with a lot of homework, projects and other things from school wouldn’t allow them to do things they like in their free time. For example, kids wouldn't be able to hang out with friends, family, play travel sports, or go on vacations because of the lack of free time they would get with school year
The year round schooling would reduce the frequent absences of a lot of students. Some students might actually miss seeing one's parents before the summer break, but with this new system, students would be able to ones parents more often. One wouldn’t have to miss school just to spend time with one's parents while taking away from an individual’s education. Another reason that the kids are having very frequent absences is the fact that they are being loaded down with boatloads of work. Instead of being weighed down by tremendous amounts of work, teachers could balance out the workload throughout the year, given that teachers wouldn’t have to meet a rather quick deadline. With the new system, instructors wouldn’t have to worry about their jobs as much as they would in a semester type school year because they would have more time to set down with their students and help tutor them. In addition to this, instructors would be able to set down and come up with more challenging lessons for students to try and see if they can solve an advanced problem.
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...