Should School be Year-Round?

In the recent decades, the number of schools who use a year-round schedule rather than a 9 months on and 3 months off schedule has been increasing. This alternative to the school year schedule with a summer break was first established in the 1960s. As of 2015, more than 3,500 K-12 schools in the United States have opted for year-round schooling rather than the traditional schedule. These changes have predominantly taken place in school districts located in the south and west of the United States. These schedule changes have been met with backlash and concern from parents, staff, and students.  

 

Although “year-round” is used to describe the different schedule, the school year would still include just the normal 180 days of students being in the classroom and the same number of vacation days. Majority of districts who have made the switch split up the 180 days with longer periods of vacation days throughout the entire year. Some of the most popular schedules are four 45-day periods followed by 15-days off, three 60-day periods with 20 days of break, and two 90-day periods in the classroom followed by two 30-day vacation periods. 

 

Advocates for year-round schooling argue that the pros outweigh the cons so much that it is worth making this big change to the school year schedule. Benefits of year-round schooling include a reduction of learning loss over the summer, nearly year-round childcare for parents of younger students, and longer breaks throughout the year which may eliminate the need for students to miss school for a vacation. Cons of implementing a year-round schooling schedule include, teenagers would not be able to have summer jobs, summer camps would not be able to exist or would have to be shorter, and the change would be costly for school districts. 

 

In my opinion, I would definitely prefer the traditional school schedule with a 3 month summer break over year-round schooling. I feel I would perform better academically with a longer break between school years rather than only a few weeks with the year-round schooling schedule. I don’t think it would be very beneficial to many people as it would be a very big change. 

 

Would you prefer year-round schooling over the traditional schedule? Why or why not?

 

What do you think the biggest problem with year-round schooling would be? 

 

What do you think the biggest benefit of year-round schooling would be?

 

https://www.edweek.org/leadership/year-round-schooling-explained/2015/12

 

https://www.verywellfamily.com/the-pros-and-cons-of-year-round-school-621001





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  • I do not think that school should be around. I think that it is good for the kids to have a break from school in the summer.  I think that having school off benefits students because it gives the students a break.  It also gives the students time to spend with each other. 

    • I agree with you, having a long summerbreak makes it easier to spend time with anybody even if they have a busy schedule. 

  • I don't think we should have school all year-round. Most kids get jobs during the summer, and if there is a school that is less money for them and less money for college. Without college, they could never help themselves get to higher paid jobs and people would be too tired and stressed to have fun with one another. 

  • i would definately like the traditional schedule. summer is the best part of the year, and having no school makes it so much better. summer sports would have to be after school and i think our schedules would feel so packed. 

  • I think that we should continue the traditional schedule for the school year. Kids need to be outside playing just as much as they need education. If we have year-round schooling kids won't have summer jobs, or have time to have a long break where they can have fun.

  • I think I would prefer the traditional schedule. I think this because I personally want the option to take classes over the summer and if it is year-round then that oprotunity would not exist. Summer classes was the first issue I though of while reading this. One benefit I though would be parents not needing to find a daycare for their young kids but if it has the same number of days off just more spread out then that problem would be the same if not worse because they can't send their kids to summer camps.

  • In Germany, we have a year-round school calendar. So, it is very interesting for me to experience the traditional school calendar here in the U.S. I think that a year-round calendar is better because you have more breaks to relax throughout the school year and I think it is less stressful. 

    • From my own expierence, I'm guessing I would prefer a traditional schedule, but I think it would be really interesting to expierence a year-round schedule. 

  • I would much rather have 9 months on and 3 months off. I look forward to summer a lot and having school all year round would ruin it. I don't think there would be enough time off and kids and teachers would be exhausted. I think we need our 3-month break just to have fun and take a breather.

    • I agree, I also look forward to summer during the school year. 

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