Year Round School

Year-Round schooling is a term that has been tossed around for many years. The United States is one of the only countries that does not have year-round schools. Therefore, by putting year-round schools into effect, students gain the ability to have a more global educational experience. Students who attend year-round schools go to classes anywhere from six to nine weeks in a row, with two to four week vacations between class sessions. Some educators believe that this is the optimal way to enhance the learning process for students with the least amount of disruption possible.

There are several schools located in fast-growing areas that made the transition to year-round schedules as a way to ease overcrowding. When this happens, students are placed on a system called multi-tracking and they alternate tracking in and out of the school. This process keeps the buildings in constant use and students in this system are better accommodated by receiving more individualized attention and less competition between peers.

Some arguments in favor of year-round schools emphasize the fact that schools not in use during the summer are inefficient. These buildings remain vacant, but minimal to no activity at all is taking place. Taxpayers are still paying to help keep the schools running, but their children aren’t even using them at the time. Another problem with long summer vacation is many students forget the information they learned during the school year. By changing the school system to year-round schedules student retention rates may decrease. Further, remediation needs of students can be addressed during the school year as opposed to during summer programs.

Some other facts that support year-round schools are that shorter summer breaks will decrease the chance that students will incur summer learning loss. By decreasing summer learning loss, the number of students that are served in intervention programs may decrease. In addition, families that struggle to find childcare or to pay for childcare expenses during the summer will benefit from year-round schools, as will children in poor childcare settings. Lastly, family vacation time will be more evenly distributed throughout the year. This will make it easier for families to schedule their vacations and it will give students opportunity to regenerate more frequently. As a result, the need to re-teach skills after long vacations may be cut down and teachers will be better able to use classroom time more efficiently.

In conclusion, year-round school is a hot topic in the United States today. Many other countries work more efficiently and effectively with year-round school and students as well as their families may be better served by the change to year-round school. There are several reasons why year-round schools would benefit students in America such as, decreased retention rates, summer learning loss, and better accommodating the students. All in all, year-round schools should be seriously considered in America.

References

http://childparenting.about.com/od/schoollearning/a/year-round-school-pros-cons.htm

http://www.scholastic.com/resources/article/the-pros-and-cons-of-year-round-schools/