Is
year round schooling in our near future? I was quite skeptical at first but
after reading the article “Year-Round Schooling” on Education Week, it has severely
changed my perception on the concept of year round schooling. Now I know what
many kids are thinking at this point, “No summer?”, but students will still be
able to have a summer. Year round schooling is not an extension of the school
year but rather a reorganization of it. Instead of having a huge summer break
and an enormous fall semester it divides the year into more easily manageable pieces. The chart below will explain it better. Not having a
60 day summer break will help kids retain knowledge from the previous year. Let’s be honest, how
much do you remember from last school year?
Having fewer days off but having them more frequently, I believe would
benefit everyone.
As well as keeping the
knowledge flowing in students heads, another good reason for year round
schooling is to help prevent the overpopulation of schools. In this arrangement,
students and teachers are assigned to different groups. While one group is in
school learning the others are on break. By doing so, some school’s capacity
has increased as much as 33 percent.
Unfortunately, research for this is not that extensive. The
attempts to measure the influence of year round education on student improvement
is inconclusive and contradictory. More and more schools are trying this
method. I think that the benefits would be very worthy.
