History of the Traditional School Calendar
The American educational system is based on the traditional, nine-month school calendar, which has been in place for over a century. Originally, the United States was an agrarian society. The majority of Americans lived on farms. People made most of the items that they needed, and with little trade necessary, there was no need for schooling (McLain, 1973). However, as people branched out into neighboring areas, they needed to learn new skills, such as basic arithmetic to price items, measure land, and more (McLain, 1973). As a result, it became the responsibility of those who were less needed on the farm or in the factory to acquire knowledge for the family (McLain, 1973).
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The first year round school was established in 1904 in Bluffton, Indiana (Glines, 2002). Year round education is described as a “calendar modification that requires students to begin school earlier and end later than normal, with the lost summer vacation redistributed in blocks throughout the year” (Glines, 2002, 2698). It is important to note that year round schools have the same number of days in a calendar year as does the traditional school year. However, the days are distributed throughout the year. Year round schools differ from traditional schools in a variety of ways.
Single Track Calendar
In order to accommodate the year round calendar, there are several forms of year round education. The first form follows a single track calendar. This is the most popular type of calendar (Shields, 2000). A single track year is usually implemented to “provide a more balanced and enriched education program or to accommodate the special scheduling needs of a community” (Glines, 2002, 2699). A single track calendar takes on a 45/15 design. This is where students go to school for forty-five days in a row, and then have a fifteen day break. It is a continuous cycle. Schools usually begin in early August, and follow this pattern four times to complete the school year (Glines, 2002). The three week break in between is called an intersession. During this time, students can choose to take additional educational courses through “remedial,
Year-round schooling is the same number of days as a normal day at school, just split up with short breaks. They would go for 60 days and then get a 20-day break. More popular plans include 45-15 and 80-40. Some Pros for Year-round schooling: kids can suffer from the long summer break, year-round schools can replace summer school, teachers normally spend weeks reviewing things from the year before, but year-round schooling can prevent that. The cons to year-round schooling: There are higher demands on staff, cafeteria, and maintenance workers, it’s is harder to plan graduations and parent conferences, working parents can have a hard time finding transportation, and parents with kids in other schools can have a hard time planning vacations. More than 2 million kids came to year-round schools in
Imagine a school year that never ends. A year without summer, relaxation, and vacations with family. Summer is the time of year that every student cannot wait arrive. But what if the playful time filled with friends, smiles, and laughter did not exist? What if school remained in session year-round? This is happening in 3,181 schools across America and is gradually increasing (edweek.org). The government calls it: Year-Round School. There are both many pros and cons to this controversial issue in today’s education; however, Year-Round School is not a good decision because of the social outcomes, the financial costs, and the academic effects that Year-Round School burdens on the students.
Most schools in America today follow the traditional 180-day schooling system. This system was started in the 19th century when schooling for children began. There was a 10-week summer vacation for the students to help their families on the farm for harvesting. In March of 2009, President Barak Obama suggested to the public his Race to the Top program. The program is to extend the school hours or extend the school days. “We can no longer afford an academic calendar designed when America was a nation of farmers who needed their children at home plowing the land at the end of each day,” he says. His reason is the students of school today will not be equipped for the 21st century if we continue to use the traditional
Year round school calendars aren’t the best idea we’ve had to improve our educational systems. This is just one of many ideas we’ve had. Year round schooling has affected families, students, and required maintenance in many negative ways.
Year-round schooling, also known as YRS, is a new idea that schools are trying to implement across the United States and worldwide. “As of June 2006, and estimated 2.3 million students in over 3,100 schools across the United States attended classes on a year-round school schedule.” (Chittom and Klassen). Schools that aren’t on a year-round schedule are based off of a 180- day calendar that includes a summer and fall break. With the YRS schedule the classes would run for 3 weeks then take a 2-3 week break in between. Schools should switch to year-round school because there is less setbacks and it is beneficial to the people involved.
Hillary Scott 1/19/16 3rd hour Year Round School Did you know that 3,000 schools in the United States have year round schools? Year round schools in the United States enroll more than 2 million students each year. Year round school is a school that has no summer break, therefore students attend school for a complete year with breaks in between. More school districts should switch to a year round school calendar because of the great benefits it provides such as, keeping children engaged, less time spent reteaching, and it saves money. Year round school helps school districts save money by a multi track calendar, occupying schools, and more space for students.
Year round school affects a lot of people for many reasons. In the text it said that “most families plan vacations over the summer. Year-round schools restrict summer family vacations. They also don't allow students to go away to camp or take on summer jobs to earn money for the future.” This means that families usually will go on vacation in the summertime when it is warm out but year round schools are going to school at that time so they can’t go on a nice vacation. Also in the summer, kids sometimes do lemonade stands to earn money for their future but kids that go to year round schools can’t do that because they are stuck in school in the summer. Another piece of evidence from the text is that “too many breaks disrupt learning. The breaks
The 45-15 and 45-10 schedules are divided into 45 school days and 15, or 10, days of vacation. The 60-20 and 60-15, and the 45-15 and 45-10 plans can be, and usually are, combined with either the single or multi-track systems. In the Concept 6 plan, the school year is divided into six 43 day terms. This term is similar to block scheduling. Students and teachers go to two consecutive sessions and then they have one session off (Palmer & Bemis, 1999).
Jazlyn Roberts Argumentative Essay Year round schools operate 180 days a year just like a traditional school calendar. The difference between year round schooling and a traditional school schedule is that there are small breaks in between instead of a 3 month summer vacation. School systems should not transition to year round schooling because of costs, parents and students perspective, and lack of educational benefits. School systems should not transition to year round schooling because of costs. According to ESUUS, “Multitrack year round schools have noticed additional demands on school support staff and on cafeteria, custodial, and maintenance services”.
“The U.S. research challenges one of the main arguments for abandoning conventional schedules: year- round schooling improves achievement because it prevents students from falling behind during the summer and because it does not waste precious time reviewing past years’ lessons”
Have you ever wondered what the difference between traditional schooling and year-round education is? Maybe you didn’t know that there are more than one type of year-round education. A year-round school schedule can benefit educators, students, and even families. Year-round schooling is where the breaks in school are on a balanced schedule. Instead of having a three month summer break, there would be 60 days off and then the students would be back to school. If on a multi track schedule, teachers could use their off time to substitute at their school on a different track or at another school to get paid more. For students, the shorter breaks away from school increase retention rates, therefore reducing the amount of review necessary at
The first year-round school was opened in 1904 in Bluffton, Indiana with the intent to increase school-building
While reading this paper, the thought may come to mind of, “What exactly is year round schooling?” Year round schooling is exactly what it sounds like. Year round schooling is schooling in which students attend school all year long without the two month summer break in between each school year. (3) Though year round schooling doesn’t seem all that bad, there are many benefits and falls that accompanies it. Year-round schooling (YRS) has been present from the 1900s. YRS first appeared in urban areas, because they were not tied to the agriculture cycle. The first towns that implemented YRS were Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Buffalo, and Detroit. These towns had schools sessions for 48 or more weeks at a time. The types of school schedules that were used were the 12-1 (12 weeks in school with 1 week break between the 12 weeks, which was more popular) and 12-4 (4 weeks off in August and school ran continuous after). The first summer school was introduced in 1865 at the First Church of Boston, MA. In 1916 there would be 200 elementary schools offering summer school.
Is the traditional school calendar really the best option for your local school system? Maybe, having a year-round schooling system would be best. Year-round education is when schools operate on a 180 day school calendar with frequent breaks. Year-round calendars also don’t include a long summer vacation(Melissa Kelly, February 21,2017). A traditional school in America has a 10-month school calendar, but, many are switching to the year-round calendar. Some are switching to maintain more consistent instruction. A few others are switching in order to save money(Grace Chen, July 2017, Public School Review). There are over 3,000 year-round schools in the United States today. Year-round schools first started in major cities or towns like, Chicago, Boston, Washington D.C., Cleveland, Buffalo and Detroit. But, Los Angeles has the most year-round schools, over 500, in the nation. And there are only 10% of public school students who attend a year-round school. This can be beneficial for both teachers,students and even the families involved. The dropout rate is 2% lower than traditional schools( Niche ,2016). The absence rate is also lower, about 1% lower to be exact. This type of system can increase the school building capacity which means there’s no overcrowding. More education would be provided to lower income families or a child that is disabled. Studies also show that year-round schools have higher test scores than traditional schools. Changing the traditional school calendar
It is October 15th. Normally, students would be at school, working for hours on end at math, communication arts, and science. But this year is different. This year your school has now entered into the year-round calendar system. At home, you can enjoy the season of fall with pumpkins, Halloween, and beautiful weather. The idea of year round school has most commonly been pushed aside because of the misconception that it is too much school, or an on-going cycle of learning. However, those who declare this, do not understand the year-round school concept. Year-round school provides the same number of days as the traditional calendar. The difference, which will change our society and the achievement rate of our students in the future, is that the days are reordered into intersessions. The mechanisms of year round school include students attending school for a nine week period, then following this is a three week break. This rotation occurs year-round with a slightly longer summer break. Consequently, Though many people agree with keeping tradition with the popular school calendar, new evidence and testimony proves that year-round school provides the better avenue because the world is evolving, it benefits low income students, and intersessions are more effective than summer break.