Year round school has been around for years, but was not always accepted unless school districts were in need of space and levies were not being passed for new schools. Here is a research spotlight on year round education.
Some arguments for year-round education include:
• Students tend to forget a lot during the summer break, so a shorter time away from school might increase retention rates.
• It’s a more efficient use of school space because otherwise buildings are unoccupied during the summer.
• Remediation can occur when it is most needed – during the school year.
Some critics of year-round education contend:
• Band and other extracurricular programs suffer from problems with scheduling out-of-school practices and competitions.
• If an entire district does not adopt a year-round calendar, parents could have students at different schools at different schedules.
• Studies have been inconclusive to its academic benefits.
The options for year round school makes sense for a “community school” concept where students needs are met year round. At risk students lose ground when summer comes and some students are enjoying family vacations and camps while other students are at home gaining weight while watching television. Research does not come up with clear benefits to year round school at this time, except for at risk kids needing to keep up during those summer months.
Most schools in the United States operate on the 10-month calendar that was established when America was still an agrarian country. But times have changed and many people propose doing away with this “outdated” system and moving to “year-round education.”
In this updated system, schools continue to operate 180 days per year, but they stretch out the 180 days over the entire year and take shorter breaks between each term.
Part of the recent Educational Reform bills passed by the 2019 NM State Legislature include extended days support for more schools statewide. The logic of changing to year round school seems strong, as the need for kids to get out into the fields to help the year’s crop succeed disappeared (for almost every child) probably at least 50-70 years ago.
Today, children in many non-poverty neighborhoods have year round activities, and their days are full with lessons and teams and various activities after school and/or supported by parent chauffeurs. One might suggest something is being lost when children are not organizing their own activities with other children…carving “playtime” out of large chunks of “free time”, as was the case perhaps up into the early 70s?
OTOH, there are kid’s activation incubators such as Miki Tomita’s Education Incubator, which gives the lead back to the children.
Year round school would likely mean even less unstructured time for kids, but it might also mean success in learning for many at risk kids as Kris notes. School is often the safest place for children in poverty locales to spend their time, and presents probably the richest environment of learning resources accessible for them….. with often little of that at home.
Finding a current research report on year round school was not easy. I did find data on states offering forms of extending the same number of days over a year. California and New Mexico popped up. Perhaps alternative schools, private schools, charter schools are more likely to use the model.
The NEA link I used didn’t have a date and I noticed the hyper links not connecting. I chose the NEA link because it seemed to represent public school attempts at year round schools… not so much since the links don’t connect.