Is Year-Round Schooling a Good Idea?
Year-round schooling is a topic widely debated by students and school officials. However, it’s not used in many places. Teachers and students who have attended year-round school believe it is a great system. On the other hand, teachers and students who have not attended year-round school think the opposite. Two students weigh in on the matter.
YES
When someone says the words “year-round school” students tend to freak out and complain. However, most don’t know what it really means. Year-round school is thought to be like a normal school schedule but without the summer break, but this is not the case. The year-round school schedule actually gives students more frequent breaks that are evenly spread out which leads to many academic benefits. These benefits can include less loss of information over the long summer breaks, reduction of the stress put on students due to constant working, and enrollment of more students than a school with the typical scheduling.
“With the shorter breaks of year-round education that large loss of knowledge can be minimized”
The main argument everyone makes in favor of year-round school is that it reduces the amount of information lost over summer break. There is even a common term used when referring to it, “the summer slide”. According to a study done on the subject titled Summer Learning and Summer Learning Loss, “Using data from over half a million students [it was] found that students lost between 25 – 30 percent of their school-year learning over the summer.” With the shorter breaks of year-round education, that large loss of knowledge can be minimized.
With the piles of work students have to do and barely any breaks, schools are the main cause of student stress. Large amounts of stress aren’t good for anyone, regardless of age. “Working too hard over an extended period of time could eventually lead to all manner of health problems such as depression, high levels of stress, high blood pressure, migraine, and impaired memory.” This shows that while in regular school scheduling students may be getting a large summer break, the cost is a variety of health problems that could take years to fix.
Some may argue that year-round schooling does nothing to improve test scores, however that’s not true. In fact, if a student studies every day for a week before a test, they will get a good score on that test but won’t remember it by the time the end-of-year exams come around. On the other hand, if that same student studies the subject a few times with a long break in between each session they remember the information for longer. A study done by University of South Florida psychologist Doug Rohrer came to an interesting conclusion: “When two study sessions were separated by breaks ranging from five minutes to six months, with a final test given six months later, students did much better if their break lasted at least a month,”. This proves that large breaks in between instructional time allow students’ brains to process that information and then when they come back, they are prepared to absorb more.
“While in regular school scheduling students may be getting a large summer break, the cost is a variety of health problems that could take years to fix.”
Another feature of year-round schooling is the fact that schools can fit more students into the building. This is due to multi-track schools which are schools that educate students on different versions of year-round education. “If a school with a seating capacity of 1,000 uses a four-track system, it could potentially enroll 1,333 students, increasing its capacity by 33 percent,” according to the California Department of Education’s program guide.
This can be beneficial to the school because as the number of students goes up the more cost-effective it becomes to run the school. The California Department of Education also indicated that with 500 students, year-round education is more expensive by $37,245, with 581 students it is more expensive by $7,051, and with 635 it is cheaper by $15,747. If the school was at max capacity the pattern would continue making it way cheaper to do year-round school than it would be to do regular scheduling.
Credit: American Psychological Association
The year-round school schedule has a bad reputation, but it’s time we change all that and start implementing it in more schools. If we do, students will be better off and won’t have to deal with as much stress and the loss of knowledge over summer break. Likewise, staff won’t have to deal with the seating capacity of their classrooms.
Kairi Medeiros
Cartoon by Tytianna Newbill
NO
Summer. Sun, travel, ice cream, and whatever else you associate with the holiday. We all know and love the couple of months-long break to be with friends, family, and discover ourselves again after a long hard year of school. However, there has been an ongoing debate. Should school be year-round? School shouldn’t be year-round for several reasons. Some reasons include the loss of opportunity for teens to have a summer job, the costs would go up, and there is no true benefit to year-round schooling.
“Summer jobs provide experience. Colleges and future jobs look for this experience.”
Summer jobs. People don’t realize how important these are in a teen’s life. However, with year-round school, these opportunities wouldn’t be as available. An article from chron.com provides insight as to why summer jobs are important. First, it helps teens learn budget strategies. After earning their pay, they learn how to put some money away for more important things, like college, and prioritize other things they can spend on. Summer jobs also provide experience. Colleges and future jobs search for experience. This experience can be shown on resumes from a summer job. Summer jobs also offer experiences to help students figure out what they want to do in life. In summer jobs, students learn how to interact with a wide range of different personalities. With the year-round school schedule, there is no long summer break. This limits students in their summer jobs. And without summer jobs then teens do not gain the multitude of skills that are offered.
“Many high school students rely on summer jobs to fund their own activities, their family needs, or their college education. If these students do not have the summer break to work and save, then they will be forced to work part-time in the evenings during the year, risking academic and social consequences,” according to Letise Dennis in an article for Learning Liftoff.
The cost of year-round schooling is increased from our usual schooling schedule. We must consider the increased paid staff, the cost of utilities, the costs of maintenance, and other costs. In a traditional enrollment of 500 students, the total cost is about $270,880. However, in a year-round enrollment of 500 students, total costs are about $308,125. In utilities alone (lights, air-conditioning, plumbing) there is about a $10,000 jump. The total costs per student, for 635 students, jumps about $74. This may not seem like much, however, if we think of that for 635 students that’s about $46,990. The gap may decrease as the school population decreases, but with schools already having a hard enough time gaining money for a normal school schedule, it would be even more difficult with the increased costs, no matter how many students are enrolled in the school.
“The year-round school schedule has no real benefit to student learning.”
The year-round school schedule has no real benefit to student learning. People think that year-round schooling is more days, therefore more instructional time. However, the California Department of Education shows that it still has the same number of instructional days, there are no extra teaching days, just more frequent breaks. From Ohio State News, a study shows that over a full year, math and reading test scores improved about the same amount for children in year-round schools as schools with the traditional 9-month calendar. An article on the USA today brings up the point that even though there is a shorter summer break, there are more frequent and longer fall and spring breaks. People often worry that students forget lessons over the summer breaks, as schools with the traditional nine-month calendar. An article on the USA Today brings up the point that even though there is a shorter summer break, there are more frequent and longer fall and spring breaks. People often worry that students forget lessons over the summer breaks, however, if you believe this, experts say students need this time to not only review but learn a teaching style, class schedules, etc. Also, if you were worried about this period at the beginning of the year, think about that every time students would return from a break.
Credit: Oak Park And River Forest High School
Therefore, schools shouldn’t be year-round. This is due to multiple reasons including the loss of opportunity for teens to have a summer job, the increase in costs, and the lack of true benefit to year-round schooling. So even though year-round schooling is on the rise, it should decrease, and normal schooling schedules should return. Let students regain their chance to have life experiences, let schools save what little money they have, realize that there is no educational benefit, and let students enjoy their childhood memories while they still have the chance to.
Daniella Wise
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