Pros And Cons Of Year Round School

When most people hear the words “year-round school” they automatically disagree without knowing all the information about the subject. The fact is that year-round schooling is becoming more popular around the United States and even the world. It is the twenty-first century, most school systems are shying away from the more traditional school schedules and turning to year-round schooling. In 1992, 25% of the United States attended year-round schools, 17.3% higher than in 1988. Therefore, in just four short years the percentage of year-round school more than doubled (Gándara). Year-round school could become a reality for all of America, maybe sooner than expected. The traditional school schedule is attending one hundred eighty days constant, except for a few days off for holidays, with a summer break close to three months. This schedule is based upon farming seasons, because in the 1800’s farming made up close to sixty percent of the nation’s workforce. During the summer months, increased temperatures caused a greater risk for disease, thus attendance was less than half. As farming slowly started to dwindle down, more people started moving to more urban areas in search of work. Now in the twenty-first century, we still maintain this schedule even though farming technology is more
advanced than ever (Anderson). Along with many pros, there are cons to year-round schooling.
Child care is one of the major issues. Children in year-round school have more frequent breaks and parents do not get time off from work to be with them. Therefore, those parents who have young children have to find a sitter or daycare to watch their child. Another disadvantage is that it may cost the school more money to operate year-round. For example, most school corporations end around May and resume around August, those months the air-conditioner is not being used. Year-round schooling would be in session during those months where the temperatures are increased, causing the school to run the air-conditioner more
(Yeager).
Year-round schooling is not as terrible as most people make it out to be. Instead of a three month long summer break there are about four smaller breaks throughout the course of the year. There are no additional days with year-round schooling, both traditional and year-round go one hundred and eighty days (Dessoff). Most schools that attend year-round use the 45-15 plan, which is by far the most popular. With the plan students go to school for forty-five days and then have a fifteen day break. Basically, every nine weeks they are having a break. Other options are the 60-20 plan or the 90-30 plan. The amount of breaks the school has depends on which plan the school corporation chooses (“Research Spotlight”). Summer learning loss is a primary issue with the traditional school schedule. A three month break causes the brain to lose information learned in the previous year, then the first five months of the next year are spent reviewing past material. A study conducted in 1996 concluded that over a traditional summer break children lose some of their math and spelling skills, along with most of their reading skills. Dividing the three month break into more frequent, shorter breaks helps prevent such a tremendous amount of learning-loss. Most schools that attend year-round school have study periods called intersessions. Intersessions are enrichment-type classes to help students during the breaks (St. Gerard). Students who have fallen behind or seek extra help can attend these sessions. Although numerous studies have been conducted on the academic aspect of year-round schooling, the majority remain steadily inconclusive. One study revealed that year-round schooling had a positive effect on their test scores. A year-round school scored .046 standard deviations higher than a traditional school in math. Reading scores were .036 standard deviations higher in this year-round school (McMullen and Rouse). Most test scores remain close to the same when comparing year-round school to traditional school. Most year-round schools use a single track system, which just changes the vacation/instructional periods of the school year. Another option for year-round schools is a multitrack system. A multitrack system divides staff and students into different tracks, usually four or five. For example, if a school uses a four-track system while three tracks are in school the fourth track is on their break. Therefore, everyone’s vacation breaks are no a rotation sequence depending on the plan the school uses. Using a multitrack system helps increase the school’s capacity. If a school can seat 1,000 students and uses a four-track system, it can enroll about 1,333 students increasing its capacity by 33% (Yeager). In addition, there are multiple other positive qualities about year-round schooling. It helps with building maintenance because the building does not sit empty for three months (“Research Spotlight”). Stress on students and teachers can be relieved by multiple vacation breaks. Families can take vacations more frequently and their vacations can be planned in different times. Teachers can incorporate seasonal learning into their curriculum (Yeager). Generally speaking, year-round school has numerous positive qualities with a few negative. The number of year-round schools are increasing all around the United States and could become a reality for us soon.