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 can understand how it would help retain information. But like you said, having a long summer break is crucial. Students need that long break to actually enjoy life. It's hard to do that when you are always stuck in a classroom all day. But maybe year-round school but only like 4 to 5 hour school days?

  • I'm on the fence about which schedule I would like. On one hand, a long summer break is really nice to have and look forward to, but I do tend to forget a lot over it. Spanish is definitely one class where it's easy to forget everything from the past year while on break. With a year-round schedule, that problem would be fixed. If we did have a year-round schedule, I would want the 60 day periods with 20 days of break or the 90 day periods and 30 day vacations.

  • I don't think that school should be year-round. I feel like it would put too much pressure on students and teachers. if anything they should make school years shorter and add a little onto summer break. if we had school year-round that would be 12 years of straight school every week. 

  • No, I think school should be traditional. Having school year round would just be too long for kids and young teens. This would just stress out students. I see no benefit with a year-long of school. I think most of the students wouldn't even try and most wouldn't even keep up.

  • I do not think that school should be all year round because everyone needs time off over the summer, and that is what students look forward to the entire year. Also, I believe that students would hate school more if we had it all year round.

    • I agree with you. All year, I am always thinking about the upcoming summer and what I will do when that time comes. Also, I am always thinking about how I will enjoy not being in a classroom the entire day.

  • I don't think school should be all year round because it would cuase kids to resent going to schools. Kids would just get mental fatiuge more so then if school just stayed normal.

  • I think that if school was year-round people would be super tired. I like how we get breaks from school. When there is a break like summer break students don't have to worry about turning in assignments or writing a paper, etc. It's refreshing not going to school every single day.

  • I definantly think that school shouldn't be year round because it would cause kids to not want to go to school at all, I mean there is already a large percentage of kids who don't want to go to school, why make it harder for them?

  • This reply was deleted.
    • I agree with you, knowing summerbreak is coming up can be a good motivator. 

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