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Should Public Schools Operate Year-Round?

At first glance specifically if your unfamiliar with the concept, year-round schooling may seem excessive, unconventional, and to numerous tax payers counterproductive. The National Association for Year-Round Education (NAYRE) defines year-round education (YRE) as, a reorganization of the school year to provide more continuous learning by dividing the long summer vacation into shorter more frequent breaks. Students in a year-round program attend the same classes and receive the same amount of instruction as students on a traditional nine-month calendar (usually 180 days) (McMillen, 2001). The operation of public schools year-round would strengthen academic performance by allowing students more time to learn, lessen the troubles encountered in the summer, and is all around cost effective.

The year-round calendar is organized into instructional blocks and vacation periods that are evenly distributed across 12 months (McMillen, 2001).

According to Warrick-Harris (1995), the term "year-round" is misleading, other descriptive terms include "continuous learning," "all-seasons learning" and "four-seasons school" (Warrick-Harris, 1995). Year-round school is the term most frequently associated with the organizational system that uses the school facility during every season. The year-round school is not an alternative curriculum for learning (Warrick-Harris, 1995). Many have never heard of such a thing. In fact, if you were to ask a student attending a traditional school their thoughts on year-round schooling, after they asked what it is they would probably disagree with the concept maybe even calling it insane.

Giving the opportunity they could probably give you a host of reasons why this unnatural concept would not work and how it would disrupt their lives. In need of implementing change to rebuild structure, more school districts are converting to year-round school to assist their counties experiencing rapid population growth, educational economic direst, and prolonged academic decrepitude. The operation of public schools year-round would strengthen academic performance, provide year-round employment for individuals working in the school system, and assist in the stabilization of economic stress rapid population growth has caused on a growing amount of school districts and its communities.

Every year millions of students across the country anxiously wait on the end of the school year in anticipation for the impending summer. “So much to do so little time” we can easily see in the excitement in their body language. Only a select few incorporate voluntary studies in their summer breaks. Most American students unplug their academic brains during the summer months and fill it with exploration, curiosity, respite and slumber. As a result, a number of students suffer from summer learning loss. Stated in research performed by Cooper, long vacation breaks the rhythm of instruction, leads to forgetting, and requires that significant time be spent on review of material when students return to school in the fall.

In addition, advocates say, the long summer break can have an even larger negative effect on the learning of children with special educational needs (Cooper, et al., 2003). For example, students who’s second language is English may have their understanding of the English language skills set back due to extended periods without using them (Cooper, et al., 2003). Additionally, there is growing concern that the negative impact summer vacations have on learning might be uneven for children from different economic groups (Cooper, et al., 2003). Tying summer vacations to equity issues, Jamar (1994) wrote, students from a higher economic background may return to school in the fall with a considerable educational advantage over their less advantaged peers. A clear result of either additional school-related learning. Furthermore, reading comprehension scores of both income groups declined, but more so for disadvantaged students (Cooper, 2003).