Year Round School

Year Round School

There is an ongoing debate in the country concerning the schedule that schools follow . At present , most schools utilize a nine-month calendar with a 3-month long summer break . However , questions have been raised concerning the effectiveness of such a schedule in meeting learning needs of students . Also , some argue that the traditional schedule no longer suits the current society

The nine-month school calendar was developed for the agricultural society where children were required to help their parents out in farming . The 3-month summer vacation provided children with time

to help out during the most critical months of harvest (Kelly ) However , today 's American society is no longer agriculture-based . Thus , the summer vacation has seemingly lost significance

As such , the idea of a year round schooling has started to gain popularity among schools . Year round school is beneficial for both students and the school system . A shift to year round schooling will reduce the chances of students getting in trouble . Also , it will eliminate the excessive time that is spent on reviewing s learned in the previous year . Finally , year round schooling will help alleviate the problem of overcrowding in schools

The common misconception is that year round schooling will require students to spend more time in school . Year round school does not mean that students will go to school for the whole year . The year round school system simply means that the three month long summer vacation will be spread out over the whole year . Students will spend the same amount of time in a year round school as they do in the current system The only difference is that instead of having a 3-month long vacation at the end of every school year , students will enjoy 3 to 4 week breaks between terms (Kelly ) Year round schools address several issues

One issue that year round schooling addresses is the lack of productive activities that children engage in during summer vacation . The long break from school leaves so much time for students . Some attend enrichment activities such as summer camps . However , other children especially those that come from the lower income brackets , do not have the same opportunities . As a result , these children spend the long summer vacation without much learning . This phenomenon is called the summer learning gap . According to Alexander et al , one reason why children from the lower income brackets tend to lag behind children from more privileged families is the lack of learning opportunities outside the school . Summer shortfall over the five years of elementary school accounts for more than half the difference (Alexander et al 175 Furthermore , in a review of 39 studies , summer learning loss was confirmed . Specifically , the review revealed that students test scores drop over summer vacation (Cooper et al ) With year round schooling children will have constant access to learning . A year round school system will help eliminate the summer learning gap . According to Cooper et al , year round schools have been found to have positive effects on...