Maria Knows All: 2014

Today's Topic: YEAR ROUND SCHOOLING

(3 "Jumpstart Your Child's Education")

History

Year round schooling is an alternate form of education completely unique from public, charter, or private schooling. Basically, it runs the same 180 day school year as public schooling, but instead of one long summer break, they have longer and more frequent breaks throughout the whole year (21 "Year Round School In U.S"). In many American cities during the 18th and 19th centuries, year- round schooling was the rule often for 11 months of the year. In 1900, the number of school days was shortened to 180. The traditional school calendar was developed for two primary reasons: agrarian needs and lack of air conditioning. However, the recent phenomenon has been to return back the the method of year round schooling. "These schools were begun for many reasons. Year- round schools in Newark were developed to help immigrants learn English and enable students to accelerate. In Bluffton, they were developed to enhance learning and create additional classrooms. The schools in Aliquippa and Ambridge were developed for space. In Omaha, they were developed to offer continuous vocational training programs. Finally, Nashville's year-round schools were developed to improve the quality of education" (14 Rule).

(6 "Year Round and Tradition Schools Debate")

Formats

Formats

There are two major types of year round schooling. Those are single-track and multi-track.

Single-Track: single track is the standard and most popular format for year round school, adapted by 90% of year round educators (7 "Year-Round School Gains Ground Around U.S"). There are no additional days, however these schools have shorter breaks to try to prevent learning loss. They still attend 180 days, but instead the summer break is usually broken up and redistributed throughout the year in relatively regular intervals. All the students follow the same schedule, attend school at the same time, and have the same breaks (2 "Is Year-Round Schooling on Track?").

Multi-Track: multi track is slightly different and less common. Multi-track year round schooling is a specific type of year-round education with the purpose of lessen overcrowding in schools. By operating schools on a multi-track system, schools can accommodate up to 33 percent more kids in a building. In this system, students and teachers are divided into groups, or tracks, of about the same size. Each track follows its own schedule, so that one track is on vacation while the others are in school. In many cases, the schools offer alternate learning activities on the students breaks (5 "Year-Round Schooling").

("Single-Track Calender")

("Multi-Track Calender")

("Residents Get Glimpse Of Year-Round School Possibility")

Pros and Cons

Pros and Cons

Pros:
- Students tend to forget a lot during the summer break, thus a shorter time away from school might increase retention rates. This also decreases review time after the long summer break (17 "Year-Round School Statistics").
- Remediation can occur during the school year, when it's most needed.

(4 "Student Centred")

- It's a more efficient use of school space because otherwise buildings are wasted space during the summer (12 "Research Spotlight on Year-Round Education").
- Increased motivation in both students and teachers when experiencing more request breaks.
- Reduction of teacher burnout, lower dropout rates, and fewer discipline problems.

- Allows family opportunities to take vacations at times that are more convenient with their schedules.

(18 "Teaching a Live Online Class")

- Helps with overcrowding in schools (14 "Year-round school calendars versus traditional school calendars: Parents' and teachers' opinions").

Cons:

(9 "What Exactly Is Burn Out?")

- Extracurricular programs suffer from problems with scheduling out-of-school practices and competitions (11 "NAYRE").
- If an entire district does not adopt a year-round calendar, parents could have students at different schools at different schedules.
- Studies have been inconclusive to its academic benefits (12 "Research Spotlight on Year-Round Education").
- Children jumping tracks cause a possible loss of community, identity, and scheduling problems
- Transportation costs may increase (1 "Year-Round Education Program Guide").
- Students will be unable to participate in summer activities or work summer occupations (15 "Pros and Cons of Year-Round Education").