Education at a Year-Round School

Education at a Year-Round School

Consider the following situation: A car is driving past the local elementary school on a hot and sunny July afternoon. As the car approached the school the driver notices some unusual things. Students are outside with the teachers for recess, and it looks as if school is in session. The school is on a year-round schedule. The driver is intrigued and decides to do some research. From the research, this person found that students are achieving more academically and the teachers are well rested.

Year-round schooling is beneficial to school systems because: it alleviates overcrowding, offers remedial opportunities, decreases teacher burnout, increases retention rates, assists English as a Second Language (ESL) and low-poverty students, and improves the entire school community.

Wildavsky (1999) says, “[The National Association for Year-Round Education] defines a year-round school as an institution with fewer than eight weeks of summer vacation” (para. 7). According to another article (1997), “In 1986, there were about 400 year-round schools in 16 states. By 1997, the number increased to 2400 in 41 states” (National Association for Year-Round Education, para. 4). Additionally, Hunter (1998) adds, “…the U.S. National Association for Year-Round Schools stated that year-round schooling has grown by 500 percent in the past decade” (para. 4). These schools are capable of meeting the needs of our students, teachers, and administrators.

Overcrowding

Schools that follow a year-round schedule can help alleviate overcrowded schools. The number of students is growing, as studied by Hellerman, Schriffen, D., Colenso-Semple, Spiner, and Schriffen, J. (1997), at 30,000 to 40,000 per year and distric...

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