The Year-Round School Schedule Essay Example

The year-round school schedule is becoming more popular in the US. But it affects many aspects of people's lives. It affects teachers, parents, children, even the US overall. According to Linda Rodgers (1993) the traditional calendar used by most American schools originated from the society we once were. During that era, children were needed in the summer to tend crops, and that calendar of operation made good sense. It has been a strong American tradition to have our 3-month school break. But students' retention over those three months has become a concern and wasted time reviewing is a problem.  

One of the big factors is how it affects parents and families. Parents have the concern that the “kids need summer to unwind, relax, and mature” (Carter, 2008). On the other hand, “Parents that enjoy the year-round schedule ‘echoed the belief that their children learned more, got less bored during vacation, and were less fatigued’” (Rodgers, 1993). This is because of the frequent breaks they enjoy them, instead of the one long break. But many parents have already arranged childcare during the summer months, with a relative who will not be able to provide care during other months of the year. Because of the change parents are seeking childcare within the year-round schedule. “Parents used the school as childcare in the summer then switched the children to the traditional calendar in September” (Rodgers, 1993). The teachers saw many students switch from year-round when the traditional school year starts. When a track gets left off for break a new track comes in from break. Families with children might have the problem with having different tracks of the school, because different grade levels and schools would have different tracks so scheduling anything would be a challenge. “Scheduling of required courses in the multi-track format can be problematic” (Freeman & Hood, 2000). With the traditional school year schedule parents plan for the long vacation period students get, the parents work schedule may have to be altered to fit their children's new vacation breaks. So, in that case “Multiple vacation schedules are often inconvenient for families” (Freeman & Hood, 2000). Being out of synchronization with friends' and relatives' vacation time and being unable to take family trips would be the result of this. 

Children have a big role, in how it affects them. One of the main reasons for the year-round schedule was suggested is the children's retention of information from the previous school year. “One student said, ‘I like this because I learn more every year, and I remember most things when we come back to school’ (Quinlan & Others, 1987)” (Rodgers, 1993). With smaller breaks throughout they retain more so they spend less time reviewing at the beginning of the school year. Students that don’t have the opportunity to get more help during summer will fall behind. Long breaks on low-income students have a bigger impact that “learning losses from summer breaks are greatest for students of low socio-economic status” (Smith, 2011). “Almost two-thirds of students attending Croswell-Lexington qualify for free and reduced-price lunch” (French, 2013). During summer, school meals aren't provided, so they wouldn’t have that resource during that summer break. Other than retention loss during the traditional school year, high absences rates are a problem. “The modified year-round calendar and lower rates of student absenteeism is supported in the student fixed effect of methodology” (Smith, 2011). Students are more encouraged to go to school knowing that they will have a break soon, so they don’t get to overwhelmed. The year-round schedule might work in school but outside of school and other activities are affected by the year-round schedule. Siblings may be on different schedules “Summer jobs, Little League, Vacation Bible School, summer camp, and swimming are disrupted” (Rodgers, 1993). Most times for catching up or getting more education is in the summer, along with recreational activities. “Students can no longer hold full-time summer jobs and may not be able to attend summer camps or community activities” (Pearson, 2011).  Lots of children have hobbies and interests outside of school. But these might be hard to achieve with the scheduling for sports or jobs, with schedules. “Neighboring communities are still on a conventional school year, scheduling sports meets can become impossible” (Pearson, 2011). Many communities have the same sports community so they can compete but if they are on different schedules different, they would not be able to play together. 

Teachers get affected by the year round schedual. Teachers get overwhelmed too with either overcrowding or not being able to catch a break. Some teachers either claim to have relief, and less stress; or to have more stress and less time off. “Because they [teachers] get frequent breaks, teachers do not need to take off as many mental health days” (Haser, Nasser, 2003). The frequent breaks give them time to relax during the year and refresh, which would not be an option in the traditional calendar year, unless they took a couple of days off. One teacher said “I never, ever, had a break. In fact, in the eight years I was in a year-round schedule.... without that opportunity for self-assessment" (Wildman, 1999). Others claim that they were better off with the traditional calendar, and that they prefer I because they were not as stressed. “Many felt that the YR calendar provided relief from stress, and that YR teachers were not as subject to burnout” (Rodgers, 1993). A problem teachers have is time spent reviewing in the beginning. Teachers end up spending weeks at a time reviewing when students come from summer because they forgot information needed from the previous school year. “YR teachers normally do not have to spend the first four to six .... - weeks each fall reviewing material previously covered (Poimbeauf, 1987)” (Rodgers, 1993). This schedule is helping the fact that do not have to spend to much time reviewing, like they would normally have to in the traditional year. “Higher teacher retention rates are correlated with a change from a traditional calendar to a modified year-round calendar” (Rodgers, 1993). The year-round teachers are preventing students from forgetting material. This is both good for the children and the teachers to go right into teaching the new material in the classroom instead of reviewing it, making better use of time.  

The State scores that correlate with the year-round schedule have been higher than the traditional year schedule. “Students in Horizon's year-round program score better on standardized tests than students in other elementary schools in the district and beat the state average” (French 2013). The better test scores could either be the result of less time being spent reviewing or frequent breaks to not overwhelm the students. “Saw a higher number of students retaining the information from the year before” (Smith, 2011). The overall result of the year-round schooling schedule has been positive. There has been a great influence on many different things “Increase in achievement scores, improved attendance, and a decline in dropout rates” (Rodgers, 1993). The US has had a traditional schooling schedule for a very long time. “American schooling system was around for more than 100 years” (Ballinger, 2002).  Most people do not like to change like when things have stayed the same for so long. “The primary reason given for not changing the school calendar is that of tradition” (Rodgers, 1993). 

Year-round school schedule affects many aspects of different views compared to traditional calendars in the US. It could affect them negatively or benefit them, both have been seen. The year-round affects the Family's, Children, Teachers, And the States in many ways. Big concerns about this were schedule synchronization, student retention, teachers stress, and test scores.