The Problems Of Year-Round School
Shawn Shaw is a twelve year old boy who is getting low-C average grades in school. He struggles with multiplication tables and has trouble remembering things when he goes back to school because of the 3 month summer break. Long summer breaks in traditional schools is a problem. It can be solved by introducing year-round schools.
The traditional 3 month long summer break is a problem for today's youth. Year-Round school is a system where students will go to school 180 days just like the traditional school system but instead it is throughout the year and not just September-June. () The traditional school system was created in the nineteenth century. The country was mainly agricultural at this time. Farms were ran by families and children needed
to help plant and harvest. The school calendar was devised to meet the needs of these farming families (McFadden & McMahon). Long summer breaks are a problem according to multiple researchers. On average students lose about 2.6 months worth of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills during their summer break. Only 9.2% of America’s 48 million students attend summer school. Research shows that teacher typically spend between four to six weeks re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer. (onlinecollege.org) Causes of the long summer breaks in our traditional school systems include the agrarian calendar. Which was based on the old farm industry. (Grescoe, Taras) Effects of the long summer breaks result in low grades and the “forgetfulness factor” which is when students tend to forget what they have learned from the end of one school year to the beginning of another (Grescoe, Taras).
The biggest solution to these problems is the idea of year-round schools becoming the norm. Year-round schooling has been proven to work in many ways such as; Students won't have trouble remembering things as much as students who are apart of the traditional school calendar. The National Summer Learning Association has done decades of research that shows it can take 8 to 13 weeks at the beginning of every school year for students to get back on track. (Lynch, Matthew) Families who worry about not being able to spend time with their children won’t have to worry anymore because when April layoff happens students don't have school the entire month of April. (Grescoe, Taras) Bridging the achievement gap will be easier to achieve as well. Minority students such as ESL students, students with disabilities are the most affected by the summer break gap. Studies have proven that these students lose about 7 percent more of things they learned because of the traditional school calendar. Researcher Daniel O’Brien concluded that minority students who are in a year-round school environment progress learning efficiency the fastest. (Lynch, Matthew)
The traditional 3 month long summer break is a problem for today's youth. Year-Round school is a system where students will go to school 180 days just like the traditional school system but instead it is throughout the year and not just September-June. () The traditional school system was created in the nineteenth century. The country was mainly agricultural at this time. Farms were ran by families and children needed
to help plant and harvest. The school calendar was devised to meet the needs of these farming families (McFadden & McMahon). Long summer breaks are a problem according to multiple researchers. On average students lose about 2.6 months worth of grade level equivalency in mathematical computation skills during their summer break. Only 9.2% of America’s 48 million students attend summer school. Research shows that teacher typically spend between four to six weeks re-teaching material that students have forgotten over the summer. (onlinecollege.org) Causes of the long summer breaks in our traditional school systems include the agrarian calendar. Which was based on the old farm industry. (Grescoe, Taras) Effects of the long summer breaks result in low grades and the “forgetfulness factor” which is when students tend to forget what they have learned from the end of one school year to the beginning of another (Grescoe, Taras).
The biggest solution to these problems is the idea of year-round schools becoming the norm. Year-round schooling has been proven to work in many ways such as; Students won't have trouble remembering things as much as students who are apart of the traditional school calendar. The National Summer Learning Association has done decades of research that shows it can take 8 to 13 weeks at the beginning of every school year for students to get back on track. (Lynch, Matthew) Families who worry about not being able to spend time with their children won’t have to worry anymore because when April layoff happens students don't have school the entire month of April. (Grescoe, Taras) Bridging the achievement gap will be easier to achieve as well. Minority students such as ESL students, students with disabilities are the most affected by the summer break gap. Studies have proven that these students lose about 7 percent more of things they learned because of the traditional school calendar. Researcher Daniel O’Brien concluded that minority students who are in a year-round school environment progress learning efficiency the fastest. (Lynch, Matthew)