The Pros Of Year-Round Schooling

WARNING: What you are about to read may take awhile due to the numerous pros and positive affects year-round schooling has on the education system.

Overcome crowding- provides solutions to school or districts that experience overcrowding and doesn't require new buildings or temporary structures.
Avoid Costly Investments- To build new schools to house the overcrowding children in another would be costly due to capital outlay, staff, furniture, maintenance, etc. Year-round schooling would be cost-effective
Continue of Instruction- The loss of knowledge in the three- month summer vacations would be eliminated without the loss of vacation days.
Improved Student Achievement- With the continued instruction, students would be more opted to achieve higher standardized test scores as well as learning.
Intercessions- The intercessions are opportunities for remediation and enrichment. In traditional school, these opportunities only come once a year.
Class Size- It can reduce class-size so there is more one-on-one time between student and teacher.
Reduce Stress- With more frequent breaks, stress is reduced.
Reduce Juvenile Activities- With year-round schooling, students are less likely to engage in delinquent activities.
Flexible Mobility- It would make it easier for transferring students to accommodate, due to the breaks.

What's your take on Year-Round Schooling after seeing the pros?

Lily's Story: Proof of the Benefits

Lily's story is a great example of the affects year-round schooling brings. Although she is just a kindergartner, she is one of may children (of all ages) that have succeeded in school. From my research, I have concluded that " destruction of family time" is the number one reason the antagonists have, which is easily refuted with the common sense. If anything, year-round school produces more time for family vacations at different times of the year for different experiences.

Has Lily's store affected your point of view on year-round school?

Administrator and Teacher's Cry: Not Enough Vacation

The main cry of the administrators and teachers against year-round schooling is vacation time. When thinking about a majority of jobs, there is a certain number of days one can take off. That is not the case for teachers. Traditionally, they get all school holidays off, vacation time, sick leave, and most of the summer months. They must not consider the number of vacation days compared to other typical jobs. These administrators and teachers would have a absolute fit if they were in a doctor's shoes, which basically work 24-7. Some complain that they only get two weeks off a year, at the bare minimum. That is just selfish. I do agree that it takes a special person to teach our up and comming generation, but it is also a job. It's not like vacation time is took away all together. College teacher's and administrators can teach all year-round. Why can't the others?

The Kids Opinion: Young and Naive

This cartoon illustrates most children's opinion of year- round school. Most children oppose to the modified calender because they don't know all the facts. Because of the age, and the naivety of just seeing the front cover of the subject, they don't understand that they would actually get MORE breaks. They automatically think "No summer break means school all the time!" Schools in America operate on a 10- month system that was established when the U.S was a agrarian nation. They needed children to work in the fields during the summers. Now, summer vacation is thought of as a "right" of the school children when really it detours their learning abilities.

Last week, I questioned some kids in my neighborhood to see what they thought.Out of five kids, four of them were opposed to it. Here are the responses:

Child #1- I do not think we should have year-round school because we work hard in school so I think we should have some time off.
Child #2- I think kids should not go to school year round because we need the exercise and kids need their free time.
Child #3- I think that we should not have to go to school year round because we need free time with family and friends without having to sit in the classroom all year.
Child #4- I think we should have more school because we would have more opportunity's to get a job.
Child #5- I think we should have year round school for many reasons. One of the reasons are it might make kids think more and probably will make them smarter. I know kids need exercise but we have recess. It will also allow us to learn more and we will get really good jobs. Also during summer vacation we forget some things we already learn in school. This is why we should have year round school

Out of all these children, only one looked at the subject from both sides and analyzed it thoroughly.

Do you believe the adults that oppose year-round schooling are feeding off of their children's reactions?

The President Takes a Stand.

The President of The United States has now took a stand for year-round schooling. President Obama and Secretary of Education, Arne Duncn, have called the traditional school year "inadequate and outdated for 21st- century demands." Obama passed a $100 billion dollar stimulus plan for education. $5 billion dollars of that will go towards "incentives to transform public education system that produces too many high-school dropouts and too many failing urban schools."

By him doing this, many schools may reconsider switching over to the modified calender.

Do you think this will affect the movement of year-round schooling?

Readily Accepted: Why Aren't More Schools Switching Over?

Most antagonists of year- round school question it because it hasn't been readily accepted. Many have commented, "if year-round school is such a good idea, why isn't all the schools switching over." The awnser is simple, but first we have to look at some more dramatic questions alike. If democracy is such a good idea, why is it that so few countries have it or why is Christianity not accepted universally? The awnser? No matter how good a idea might be, it doesn't guarantee acceptance.School districts cannot change the school calender in one day. There has to be advocates.
Parents that have experienced year-round school usually become advocates, because they experience the benefits. The opponents usually have not. Here lies the problem in year-round school acceptance. Would you take the chance of year-round school? You have nothing to lose.



SOURCE: NAYRE

"Year-round Schools don't Boost Learning, Study Finds": A ridiculous test

"Year- round Schools don't Boost Learning, Study Finds" reads the title of an article in Science Daily. It is about a study done by Ohio State sociologist, Paul von Hippel, that tested children's reading and math skills. Half of these kids went to year-round school, and the other half went to traditional school. The skills of the year-round school children and traditional children were compared and von Hippel came to this conclusion; " We found that students in year round schools learn more during the summer, when others are on vacation, but they seem to learn less than other children during the rest of the year." That is such an ignorant conclusion. Is he trying to say that in year-round schools the teachers drill kids with information only in the summer, and then lay off the rest of the year? I doubt that is how the year-round school teacher work. To say learning is not boosted by year-round school, by the means of this study, is not reliable.

Balanced Calendar vs. Traditional Calender

These two calenders, made by the National Association for Year-Round Education(NAYRE), shows the break-up of vacation during school years. Both of these calenders exclude weekends and detail a typical year of 258 work days. Both represent 180 school days.

In the traditional calender, the bulk of vacation is the summer vacation with only 3 days off for Thanksgiving, 10 days off for Christmas, and 5 days off for spring break. This limits the family to vacation only during the summer months.

In the balanced calender, vacations are balanced throughout the year allowing flexibility for families to go on vacation, like to the mountains for example. It would also reduce the loss of information in the children throughout the year, making school easier for them.

Now that you have seen the layouts of the two calenders, which do you think is more effective?

By the numbers.

This chart is from the National Association for Year-Round school. As you can see, many schools are realizing this way of schooling is more effective because kids are less likely to "forget" things and in turn, causing standardized test scores to increase. It also is beneficial for the kids, in that they are less likely to ruin their summer with drugs, alcohol, and other risky behaviors. With more and more districts moving to this calender, the outcome of children looks better. Could this movement to a new calander make for a better future for the kids?

Summer-break : A teacher's point of view

Today, I went to my cousin's house (who is a third grade teacher) and got her opinion on year-round schooling. Like most teachers, she was against it. She contended that the summer-break was a time for the kids to be their playful selves. She also suggested that a summer break was a time for the teachers to recuperate. It is a time for teacher's to relax and get away from the troubles of state standards, tests, and workbooks.
While I agree that kids should utilize summer vacation to be kids, I still think year-round school is a wiser choice. What most people don't understand is that school is no longer (as in days) during the year-round schooling. It is simply redistributed, similar to the college semester schedule.Having summer vacation is like having a cake. Do the teacher's and kids really want to eat the whole thing in one sitting or cut it into equal pieces and eat some every now and then?

The History of Year-Round School

According to Dr. John Hodge Jones,having school year-round is not just a new hype. It goes way back to the 1800s in the United States. Northern industrial cities would have school throughout the year in order to teach immigrants the American culture. Around the early 1900s, it was used to solve problems such as overcrowding and funding shortages. It was also thought that it enhanced the education process. The twelve month school calender became rejected across the country around the 1950s. Communities argued that it became to disruptive to family life, had no educational benefit, and actually costed schools more money. In more recent times, the question of year-round schooling is arising again. Is year-round schooling beneficial?



Source: http://www.summermatters.com/history.htm