Year Round School Research Paper

Extended Education Most students and teachers will cringe when hearing the term “year round schooling.” Before cringing and criticizing; students, teachers, and parents/guardians should know exactly what year round schooling is and how it will benefit not only the students but also the teachers. School will still be in session the normal 180 days. The big difference is the new schedule. The year round school calendar will provide students and teachers with more frequent breaks but will not give the traditional ten full months of summer vacation. Studies show that students are more likely to attend school when there is a break coming around the corner. The most popular year round schooling schedule is the 45-15 plan (Yeager, Fred). The 45

Over summer break the majority of students don’t do anything academically related which causes the dreaded summer brain drain. Summer brain drain is the act of students losing their knowledge priorly gained in the previous school year. On average 67 percent of teachers spend the first quarter of school reviewing and reteaching what students should already know from the previous years (Flemming, Nora). Studies released in 2007 by the Ohio State University show that there is no real big difference in the students learning compared to those students in traditional schools, The National Summer Learning Association cites decades of research that shows that it can take teachers anywhere from eight to thirteen weeks at the beginning of the school year to reteach students so that they are up to speed and ready to learn new materials (Lynch, Mather). Schools use standardized tests to record brain drain. Students will take a standardized test at the end of the year (before summer) and one in the beginning of the school year. The school district receives all the students tests schools in the beginning of the following school year. Research shows that overall the students score better on the tests at the end of the school year rather than after they come back from summer break (Flemming, Nora). Students lose around

Year round schooling will take some time to get used to by the students, teachers, and parents. However, some people may feel that it would be easy for a school to switch to year round schooling. Most traditional schools now will go 180 days without many long breaks or vacations. The year round schooling would go for a certain amount of days in a row, roughly 45 days, then have about two weeks off (Yeager, Fred). Each year long schooling is different though, some have longer in school sessions with longer breaks. That process would continue throughout the entire year. Many people believe that with year long schooling students will not get as much education as they would at a more traditional school because of the amount of breaks. There have been studies that showed that students had greater progress when they came beak from a break. Therefore, teachers would be able to increase the pace of learning a little more and students would actually be getting more information. If more educational programs gave this schooling system a chance students, teachers, and parents/guardians are bound to fall in love with it. The amount of schools that have switched to year round schooling had and is continuing to increase year by