Year Round Schools: Lifestyle vs. Learning

As with most issues related to school reform the research on this topic varies depending on the source. The idea of year round schools is also referred to as a balanced schedule. The concept behind year round schools is that of eliminating the traditional school calendar of 10 months with a cumulative 2 month break to a balanced calendar where the breaks are equally distributed throughout the year. Some of these models’ calendars vary although all models eliminate the two-month summer vacation. Some models also include an extended school day. Another interesting piece of information is that in year round schools there are a similar number of instructional days as traditional school calendars.

In the year 2008, nearly 2.5 million pupils were enrolled in a year round school. By the year 2012, education groups estimate that more than 5 million students could be going to school
year-round which is about 10 percent of all children that are enrolled in American public school. Some states that have many of their schools now on a balanced schedule are Arkansas, Arizona,
California, Colorado, Nevada, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.

Those that promote year round schools argue that society can't keep saying to schools' have every kid perform better' when we don't have them in school throughout the year. It is a challenge to “cram” the required curricula into a 9-10 month time period. Trying to meet AYP is challenging enough but the year round school model is believed to increase student’s performance which helps to meet the requirements of NCLB. Also, from a global competition perspective, our students spend less time in school than other countries like China and India.

It is also believed that the traditional school calendar puts our low income students in
an unfair disadvantage compared to the privileged students due to the two-month summer vacation. The privileged students are able to experience academic camps and/or tutoring over the summer months which increases their reading, math and spelling skills. The low income students do not receive those same opportunities, which in return does not allow them to increase their academic abilities and for the majority they actually lose skills over the summer
months. There was also a great deal of research on the negative impact of the two-month summer break for our English as Second Language students. These students are taught in English for 9-10 months but then spend their summer around their family who speak in their native language. So, it is believed that when these students come back in the fall that they
require a great deal of review of the English language.

All of the research supporting year round schools believes that it increases student achievement, reduces learning loss and new learning occurs quicker because there is less time spent reviewing. The balanced schedule is believed to give the students some kind of relief with a break and then the students come back more invigorated. Research supports that it decreases the dropout rate of students at the high school level. It is believed to prevent student and teacher burnout and reduce the amount of absences from staff and students. The core principles of year round schools are that it allows for maintenance of what a student has already learned and then improvement by adding new learning and increasing student achievement.

Bridget B. Potts