Position Statement on Year Round Schools

March 2001

Randi Longmeyer

EDU 343 – History and Trends in Early Childhood

Introduction:

     The National Association of Year Round Education (NAYRE) is a non-profit organization that promotes the concept of year round education. Some schools agree with this idea and have children attend 12 months a year rather than the traditional 9-month program. Schools set up their own system and sometimes have many different schedules
(tracks) working at the same time. In this design, some students are attending while others are on vacation. The idea of year-round school is an unfavorable way to plan an academic school year. Families can not vacation together if they have children on different tracks, teachers can not take summer courses, and students can not attend the summer camps that are normally attended. This would also require an increase in teacher pay because of the year-round teaching that is not required in the traditional setting.

Traditional Nine-Month School Year:

     Most schools in the United States use the traditional nine-month schedule. The nine-month school year was originally designed to break during the three hottest months of the year and to allow children to help with farm work. Students loose most concentration during the three hottest months of the year because most children would rather be outside than inside doing schoolwork. The longer daylight hours also affects how much sleep children receive which affects their school performance. Many high school students use summer break to gain work experience. The loss of the experience may affect their attractiveness of his/her application, compared to applicants with summer experience. The three-month break in the summer also allows families to spend quality time together on vacations and also gives children the chance to attend summer camp. Students can also use part of the summer for extra school time if needed. Teachers can use the three-month break to pursue other interests, take courses to increase professional development, or to make additional income. The nine-month schedule allows for the up keep of the building to take place. Many schools use the three-month break for repairs and renovations while the students and faculty are away.

Desirable characteristics of a school:

     Taxpayers want a school to run smoothly and to have the best program available for children. Taxpayers want schools to have higher standardized test scores, a low dropout rate, and school employees that care about students. The standardized test scores between year-round schools and traditional schools have very little difference. Studies have shown that there is no advantage for year round schools. Children often forget most of what is learned in the first three weeks unless it is continuously reinforced. More frequent breaks give more chances to forget what is learned. Taxpayers want to see good use of their money immediately and may like the use of year-round schooling that saves money for building costs but the taxpayers do not look at the long-term affects that this has. Overcrowding, more absences of students and teachers, higher rates of grade repetition, increase of per pupil cost, and the cost increase of building matenence are a few of the long-term problems with year-round schools.

Year Round Schools:

     Year-round schools are normally found in disadvantaged areas because of over crowding and lack of money for new buildings. The use of school buildings all year would mandate air conditioning in all buildings. This would cut back on the amount time spent out of school due to warm temperatures. Many school buildings are old and are not set up to provide air conditioning for the entire building. Sometimes major renovations must be done to schools to accommodate the installation of air conditioning. Many schools are turned into daycare because parents send their children to school for extra help between sessions because of the free and reduced meals that are available to their children. Orientations must take place at the beginning of each session rather than just each fall and teachers must “gear up” and “wind down” more often.

Recommendations:

     As earlier sections of this paper explained, year round school is dissatisfactory to many people. Money should be spent now to improve education, rather than later when too much time has passed and we may not be able to correct problems that are in our schools. Students should be given the chance to learn to their fullest potential and if they are constantly changing their schedule, then they will never feel comfortable enough to succeed. Teachers should not have to move from room to room and carry all of their supplies with them each time because of constantly changing schedules. Administrators do not need the added pressure of making new schedules each term and keeping vacation times working accurately. Students must all attend the same number of days each year and if they are all attending at different times, then different groups will miss different days because of weather conditions that are not considered in the normal calendar. Survey the community about year round schools to see if there is an interest, calculate the amount of money that will be spent, look at the possible distractions to students in the summer months and then look at how wonderful the traditional school year works for everyone.

References:

“The National Association of Year Round Education”, www.nayre.org

Gisler, Peggy and Eberts, Marge. Question and Answer, www.familyeducation.com/experts/advice/0,1183,1-7076,00.html

Naylor, Charlie. “Do Year-round Schools Improve Student Learning? An annotated bibliography and synthesis of the research” www.bctf.bc.ca/ResearchReports/95ei03/

Marsh, Paul E. “Camp and Year Round School”, Camping Magazine, July 2000, www.findarticles.com/cf_0/m1249/4-73/64519575/print.jhtml

Polar, Barbara Hall, “A Change of Schedule”, Better Homes and Gardens, May 1996, www.findartilces.com/cf_0/m1041/n5_v74/18182665/print.jhtml

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