Year Round Schooling

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Industries such as business and medicine depend on extreme methods and forward thinking ideas. To be a successful enterprise, one must be willing to take risks and try new things. Within the last century, education has attempted to take a leap of faith by completely flipping the traditional school schedule and idea of summer vacation upside down. Just as with any idea, there are advantages and disadvantages as well as supporters and opponents. Each district must look at their own individual needs and evaluate the trials from schools that have gone before them to decide if year-round schooling would benefit their school. The first year-round school was opened in 1904 in Bluffton, Indiana with the intent to increase school-building capacity and improve student achievement (Palmer and Bemis). There are three types of year-round schooling; single-track, multi-track, and extended year. Single-track keeps all students and staff in the building at the same time running on the same schedule. Multi-track splits students and staff into different groups which follow different instructional and vacation schedules. There are advantages and disadvantages to all. A multi-track schedule allows a building to accommodate more students, but it poses the problem of having children from the same family on different school schedules (Palmer and Bemis). Extended year adds 15 to 20 days of instructional time which costs more money to school districts (Dessoff, 2011). Obama has called for longer school years to help American students compete with other countries of whose students attend school 25 to 30 percent longer than American students according to Education Secretary Arne Duncan (Dessoff, 2011). The three most common year-round schedules... ... middle of paper ... ... option. Resources Schulte, B. (2009, June 07). Year-round school? my kids love it. yourswwill, too. The Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/05/AR2009060501971.html Palmer, E., & Bemis, A. (n.d.). Year-round education. Retrieved from http://www.cehd.umn.edu/carei/reports/docs/year-round.pdf Dessoff, A. (2011). Is year-round schooling on track?. District Administration, 47(7), 34-36,40,45. Retrieved from http://www.districtadministration.com/article/year-round-schooling-track Year round education. (2008). Informally published manuscript, Iowa Policy Research Organization, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA. Retrieved from http://www.uiowa.edu/~ipro/Papers 2008/Year-Round_Schooling.pdf Yre schools on the web. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://nayre.org/YRE Schools on the Web.html

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