Baillie James

 With the rise in state standards it has become more important for students to retain information from year to year.  Research shows that year round schooling improves retention.  Year round schooling also provides schools the opportunity to offer remedial sessions, therefore assisting students in maintaining appropriate grade levels.

 Most school systems initiate year round schooling as a cost cutting measure.  Schools can save on funding by closing their schools during periods where cost will be high for energy.  School systems who can not afford to build additional school buildings can educate more students within their current facilities. They can do this because while some students are on a break other students will be using the facilities. ( This scenario schools are open year round, students have various breaks.)

 Schools operate on a 10 month system. This was established when the United States was still an agricultural nation. Children were often needed to work in the fields during the summer. Even though few children work in agriculture the system set up over 200 years ago remains.

 Schools will continue to have 180 day calendar. It will however be broken up differently.  The most popular example of this is the plan, which has students attending school for 45 days and then getting a three week break.  Another example of a new calendar is the plan.

. The normal breaks (holiday and spring break) are still built into the calendar.

 Students tend to forget a lot during summer break, and by having shorter vacations this may increase the retention rates.  Educational facilities would be better used in a year round schedule.  Short breaks can provide time for students to receive enrichment education.  Students tend to get bored over such a long break during summer vacation and parents sometimes don’t know what to do with them!

 Teacher Unions have concerns with year round schooling because this would mean teachers would be working year round with shorter breaks. Many teachers depend on a second summer job to support their families.  It is almost impossible for high school students to have summer jobs.  Unless an entire school system is on the same year round schedule, a single family could have children at different schools on different schedules.

 The impact on our schools would be significant. Year round schools will change education as it has been know;  1. Facility Use  2. Teacher Contracts  3. Curriculum  4. Student Progress

 Currently school buildings are used nine to ten months out of the year, and are often over crowded. Year round school can improve this condition because with one group of students always on vacation, a school that was built for 750 students can serve as many as 1,000. This lets school districts with little or no money for building new schools handle a growing student population and save millions of dollars in construction costs. Furthermore, although the cost of operating a year-round program is more expensive, there is a reduction in per-pupil cost.

 Teacher unions, specifically and often object as a breach of their contract because it would be too exhausting for teachers.

 Currently curriculum is set up as a semester or trimester basis. Curriculum would need to be revised to fit into the various year round school schedules.  This can be easily accomplished by manipulating the amount of time a student spends in a specific class each day.

 As a result of year round schooling, students forget less over the shorter breaks, and teachers spend less time reviewing pre- vacation material. Another real benefit of year-round education is that schools can offer an extra session of remedial and enrichment classes to some of the students between sessions.  Year round schooling closes the academic gap between high/middle income students and low income students.

 All but four states have year round schooling.

 With the number of charter schools increasing the number of year round schools will increase, because many charter schools are year round schools.  Lots of charter schools are for low income neighborhoods, and year round schooling is one tool that they have to equalize the learning gap from high income to low income.

 The number of schools going to year round schooling schedules will continue to grow as long as funding is available for charter schools. What may drive year round schooling more then anything else is the increased student outcomes and test scores of those students participating in year round schooling.

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