Round School vs. A Regular

¶ … Round School vs. A Regular Calendar School Year

The Benefits of Year-Round vs. Traditional Calendar Year School

Continued interest in improving educational achievement has prompted school districts across the nation to consider alternatives to the traditional nine-month school calendar. Educators are exploring year round education, which means that schools will continue to operate on a 180 day system, yet they will spread these days out differently with shorter breaks between each term. The most popular example of year round education is the 45-15 plan.

This has students attending school 45 days and then getting three weeks (15 days) off. The normal breaks (holiday, spring) are still built into this calendar. Is the year-round school schedule more beneficial to student academic achievement vs. The traditional nine-month school calendar? I believe that the year round schedule will help students retain more information, provide increased opportunities for learning during intersession's that will lead to educational gains, and learning would be continuous rather than fragmented.

There is a specific drive behind using a continuous process for improvement. This type of process fosters curriculum change and enhancements, and allows academic leaders an opportunity to update and connect curriculum to the current bodies of knowledge that are respected for their academic discipline. Effective leadership is part of academics, and utilizing it will enable changes within the curriculum. This is why an assessment model is so very significant. Every assessment model has a plan, do, check, and act phase (Toombs & Tierney, 1991).

Some of the most noted process assessment experts have been particularly influenced in leading academic transformation in many institutions of higher learning. Therefore, as educators seek to improve curricula, their support becomes an integral part of the continuous improvement process. This process has been guided by academic leadership. Assessment models are then designed to help improve curriculum (Gaff, Ratcliff, & Associates, 1997).

Statement of the Problem

It is clear that there is a serious issue where the 'right' way to address schooling is concerned. Major studies by Pothering (1998) and Swing (1998), cite the election of curriculum and change perspectives as the purpose and role of curriculum in education. These studies further reinforce the need to apply models of assessment that successfully measure the performance of the curriculum against stated purpose and are reflective of a discipline. These and other studies like them have begun to pave the way for many academic leaders to systematically reform the curriculum at their institutions. Models of assessment have become a common thread in current discussions on the systematic improvement of curriculum.

Successful definitions have been presented that link education and curriculum with quality improvements. Researchers have linked definitions to education that contend that models of assessment are esoteric to successful curricular improvements. Recently, researchers have also formulated frameworks for assessment and improvement as applied to education. In short, it must be determined whether curriculum and how it is structured affects students and their learning outcomes.

Essential Question to be Addressed

The essential question that has to be addressed with this particular study is the following:

How does year-round schooling compare with traditional, standard calendar year schooling when it comes to student performance and quality of education?

Rationale

On average, industrialized nations spend 193 days in school. Many of the countries that are currently outperforming the United States have restructured the school year to utilize a balanced calendar. We must begin to consider school calendar options that put learning first, and since other countries and their performance shows evidence that year-round schooling may be more beneficial to the learning process, it is worthy of study and consideration.

There are also some school districts within the United States that offer the year-round school option, and studying them can provide further information for whether this should be a nationwide commitment to education or whether it does not provide enough of a benefit to be considered worth making the change.

Definition of Operational Terms

Single-track YRE (year-round education) provides a balanced calendar for a more continuous period of instruction. Students and all school personnel follow the same instructional and vacation schedule. Single-track does not reduce class size, nor does it allow a school to accommodate more students. The rescheduled vacation is placed throughout the school year into periods called "intercessions," allowing time for remediation and enrichment throughout the school year.

Multi-track YRE is used primarily to alleviate overcrowding, although it also incorporates the educational values of single-track YRE, including intercessions. It was designed specifically for schools with a shortage of classroom space.

Multi-track avoids double sessions and the extended school day. It also alleviates the need to build costly new buildings. Multi-track divides students and teachers into groups, or tracks of approximately the same size. Each track is assigned its own schedule. Teachers and students assigned to a particular track follow the same schedule and are in school and on vacation at the same time.

Extended Year calendars lengthen the school year substantially, from the usual 180 or so days annually up to 240 days of instruction.

Intercessions are the periods of time rescheduled from summer vacation and redistributed within the school year. They can be used as vacation but are usually utilized as instructional time for remediation and enrichment with both single and multi-track calendars. Intercessions typically involve school staff and community resources to provide a safety net and an academic boost to avoid failure or enhance achievement (Harris, 1996).

Discussion of Potential Positive and Negative Outcomes

As with any study and with any decision that makes a substantial change in a formative area like education, there are positive and negative effects that are often seen. In every successful academic initiative, the need for improving quality within curriculums in higher education is essential (Albrecht, 1994). Quality is steeped in the very fabric of education in this country. Application of the principles of the quality model for improvement alone does not determine the cause of educational change. The assessment process requires a continuous examination through the use of an assessment model. Examination will likely bring about positive changes in any educational curriculum.

Using consistent and well conceived models of assessment to improve quality provides an environment in which change is viewed as something positive and non-threatening. In this way, change can be fostered. By creating a way that others can view change as a non-threatening entity, those that lobby for this change can often move things along much faster than they would be able to otherwise. When change is seen as non-threatening, few people fight to keep the status quo.

A curriculum includes a set of courses offered to students; the set of courses students actually select (unless compulsory) from those available; and the content of the specific discipline that makes the curriculum unique (Toombs & Tierney, 1991). As for substance, the processes and substance of an educational program comprise the purpose, design, conduct, and evaluation of educational experiences.

This gives shape to an institution's particular intellectual beliefs and aspirations, because it is aided by faculty in light of their specialized knowledge and in the context of social expectation and students needs manifested in a body of courses that present the knowledge, principals, values, and skills intended as consequences of an education (Gaff & Ratcliff, 1997). All of these things together work to define education as unique, and there can be strong effects seen in both good and bad ways when education is changed or adjusted, even if there is compelling evidence that the overall outcome will be a positive one.

Projected Limitations

Any study has limitations, and this one is no exception. The main limitation of this particular study is that there are not that many school districts within the United States that subscribe to this particular type of calendar. Most of the schools address the standard, traditional, calendar year as their school year and that is the curriculum that they follow. In other countries, however, most of the schools follow the year-round model, and there is evidence that those students perform better and have more actual knowledge retention than the students in the traditional calendar year schools.

Whether this will be shown to be the case with all of the schools in the United States is not something that can actually be proven by a study such as this one, but good evidence as to whether it has worked at schools in the past can be addressed, which will help to lead the discussion toward future research into this important area.

Chapter II: Review of Literature

Many schools across the country are going to a year-round school calendar (McMillen, 2001). These schools and districts believe that spacing breaks more evenly throughout the year instead of having one long summer break is better for the students and facilitates a stronger learning environment. While the term year-round school is sometimes used to discuss schools that are in session more than the required 180 days, the term also refers to schools that simply space out their 180 instructional time so that it is more evenly distributed (McMillen, 2001). Students in these kinds of schools do not attend school longer, but they do not have a summer break that is longer than any of the other breaks that they take during the school year.

Research done by McMillen (2001) indicated that there were 106 schools in the state of North Carolina that operated on the year-round school calendar for third through eighth grades during the 1997-1998 school year. McMillen (2001) then conducted an analysis of the academic achievements of these students and compared them to the academic achievements of students in the same grades that attended schools where the traditional calendar was still used.

Data for the study came from a database of statewide testing in which 95% of the public schools in the state participate. In order to determine the academic achievements of the students, McMillen (2001) looked at achievement test scores and demographic information that was collected from each one of the students. That data was then used to create variables on the student level that were used as covariates in the analysis of the achievement test scores. The focus of the study was on the differences in achievement test scores between students that attended a year-round school and students that attended traditional school, but the demographic information was used to control for the last year's test scores, the highest educational level of the parents, and ethnicity, and the gender of the students.

Available data came from students that had taken the statewide tests in grades 4 through 8 during 1998, and the final sample was comprised of students that had taken the test in either mathematics or reading in 1998 and had also taken the statewide test for the same subject during 1997. Students that did not have data available for both years were excluded from the study, as were students that were retained during that time and did not move on to the next grade level. To achieve the results of the study, a hierarchical linear modeling procedure was used to look at differences between the students.

Initially, the analysis done by McMillen (2001) showed that there were no statistically significant differences between the students that attended year-round school and the students that attended traditional school, and this was true for both mathematics and reading. The statistical analysis was controlled for gender, ethnicity, parental education levels, and prior achievement. There was some indication, however, that students that were lower-achieving to begin with, as well as Caucasian students, may see some benefit if they attend a year-round school. Another finding of the study was that students that have parents with higher levels of education might actually perform better under the traditional August to May calendar than under the year-round calendar (McMillen, 2001).

However, both the lower-achieving student findings and the parental education findings were very small in magnitude and not all subjects and program types showed this correlation. The study results were important, however, because they correlate with other studies that have been done into this issue that indicated no significant differences between students that attended year-round school and students that attended traditional school, with the possible and somewhat questionable exception of students that were lower-achieving (McMillen, 2001). Past studies that have shown differences may be based on those schools that have a year-round calendar where the students spend much more time in school, as opposed to those schools that have taken their 180-day calendar and distributed it more evenly.

Proponents of year-round education claim increased retention and improved academic achievement for students attending school on a year-round schedule Hazelton, Blakely, and Denton (1992). Other benefits include decreased vandalism, increased attendance, reduced student and teacher fatigue, maintained enthusiasm and interest in learning, and better continuity and pacing for student learning. Economically, year-round schools make the best use of school facilities also (Proctenable, 1996; Bradford, 1996).

One of the main proposals to switching from traditional school schedules to year round is because this change allows for a better use of time and resources for all of the stakeholders that are involved. The main reason is to address the problem of "summer learning loss." Summer learning loss is a term which was penned by researchers who have studied the negative effect which long summers are now known to have on students (Gerard, 2007).

According to the National Association for Year Round Education, there is convincing evidence (educational research) that a year round school schedule makes a difference in the overall learning of students. Educational research is very clear that there is summer learning loss because of the long summer vacation of the traditional calendar. That finding is rather consistent across many studies. The largest study in this field of study was done by a team in the psychology department at the University of Missouri, Columbia, headed by Dr. Harris Cooper (1996).

The study found that summer learning loss is a reality, that all students lose in math and spelling skills, and many, though not all, lose in reading skills over the traditional summer (Harris, 2003). At best, students show little or no academic growth over summer. At worst, students lose one to three months of learning. Summer loss was greater in math than reading, and achievement scores were generally one month lower in the fall than when students left school.

There are many reasons for school districts to consider year round education. According to the Painesville, Ohio City School District, (who recently proposed the implementation of year round school):

There is a perceived slide in student performance as a result of lengthy summer recess.

Students will achieve a better front-loaded alignment to the high stakes assessments.

Provides natural breaks in instruction to remediate based on short cycle assessments.

Climate control in new school buildings makes year-round utilization more attractive.

PCS currently have a number of students participating in programming much longer than the traditional school year.

Provide an option for parents and staff that may prefer a more distributed calendar.

The effects of a modified school calendar on student achievement and on school and community attitudes have been positive for those schools that currently follow a year round schedule. Study findings have shown that balanced calendars are even more effective for students with greater educational needs. Students, parents and staff also reported generally positive experiences with the balanced calendar (Cooper, Valentine, Charlton, & Melson, 2003).

Although Year round education has the potential to solve budgetary, population, and even academic problems, YRE affects every part of a school and schools should consider the negative perspectives of YRE as well as its benefits. Some of these considerations are:

Not all schools are the same. While a year-round school may work in an urban or migrant environment that does not mean it will work everywhere (White, 1985).

Offseason vacations often cause problems. Student summer activities may be disrupted as well as extracurricular activities and sports (Oxnard, 1990).

Without the long summer break, teachers may not be able to continue their own education by taking university classes. Schools may need to offer in-service training (Merino, 1983).

Families and family traditions can be disrupted by YRE, especially if siblings are attending schools with different calendars (Carriedo & Goren, 1989).

Many parents experience difficulty finding off season childcare (Carriedo & Goren, 1989).

Facility cleaning and maintenance will be disrupted.

Year round education is a relatively inexpensive method of reform that allows educators to deal with population increases and budget constraints, reform curriculums, and close the achievement gap. However, it is important to consider its effects on families, students, teachers, and administrators (Vanessa, 2007).

Overall, research on school calendar options has proven that no studies demonstrate effectiveness of the traditional calendar. No studies demonstrate academic harm in any of the modified/balanced calendars. Meta-analyses to date suggest a slight gain for all students on a YRS calendar. Gain of one month each year for twelve years equals 1.33 additional years on instruction, and more significant gains are noticeable in specific populations (Harris, 1996).

In America, at the start of the 21st century, it is necessary to visit how much time is devoted to learning of the course of a lifetime and how that time is spent" (NAYRE).

YRE Data in the United States:

Total number of States implementing YRE =

Total number of Public School Districts=

Total number of Public Schools= 2,861

Total number of Charter Schools=

Total number of Private Schools=

Total number of Schools (Public, Charter, Private) = 3,074

Total Enrollment (Public, Charter, Private) =

Through 2005-2006 School Year)

According to Kelly (2007), "The studies comparing the year round to the traditional schedule are problematic because they are inconclusive. For one thing, it is difficult to isolate the year round calendar as the reason for any positive or negative results. Further, we have to question the agenda of the people performing the surveys. The fact is that the biggest gains were made in schools that were truly trying to improve the overall quality of education. Implementing the year round schedule is just one effort to achieve this end. The question then becomes what part in any educational gains does the schedule take? Schools that are investigating year round education need to decide what they are trying to accomplish and whether a new calendar will move them further toward their goals."

One of the keys here, with year-round vs. traditional calendar schools, is that of the curriculum and how the students are actually taught to ensure that they are all essentially on equal footing throughout the school year. Naturally, what is taught to these students is not that strongly affected by the days and times that the students are in school, but how it is taught is certainly affected, and so the curriculum must be examined as well in order to make a strong determination of how schools and their students are really affected by the year-round school or the traditional calendar school.

One of the issues to address is the No Child Left Behind Act, as this is designed to provide money for teachers and students, and getting good quality teachers in the schools can sometimes be more difficult when the schools have what is still considered by most people to be an 'odd' school schedule. The good news is that the Act does have money for teachers (Exstrom, 2003). School districts must look at spending at least 5% of the Title I funds that they receive from the Act for teachers that are highly qualified.

In 2003, states received an estimated $2.93 billion (Exstrom, 2003). However, 95% of the funds that were received went directly to school districts (Exstrom, 2003). Some are seeing this as a windfall for these districts because states are often struggling to find enough money for retention and recruitment programs that are new and innovative. This is especially true where impoverished children are concerned, and when the schools change over to the year round calendar the costs of doing business change (Thompson, 2002; Thompson, 2003; Quality, 2000).

Unfortunately, many individuals are quite worried that the financial support coming from the federal government is not actually enough to see a highly qualified teacher in every classroom if schools are used year-round (Exstrom, 2003). Many veteran teachers are worried that the No Child Left Behind Act will be mandated federally but will not have money that will be adequate to keep teachers. It is agreed by most lawmakers, however, that teacher retention is an issue that must definitely be tackled in schools whether or not there is enough federal funding for it (Exstrom, 2003).

This retention of teachers changes as the curriculum changes and as the calendar changes, and the costs associated with the operation of the school is also affected by these calendar changes, which could mean that teachers cannot be retained in large enough numbers and with the proper credentials. The Act will have to be studied by those who are interested in changing their schools over to year round instruction before all of the curricular and financial issues can be addressed, and that is why the Act will be discussed here, so that the financial concerns with it can be better understood.

When the No Child Left Behind Act was created in 2001, it stated that by 2003 to 2006 all teachers who taught for schools in states that accepted federal money must be highly qualified (Exstrom, 2003). The good news about this is that states can use parameters set by this particular Act in order to define for themselves what they want the definition of highly qualified to be. The bad news is that the Act did not meet those guidelines before those dates passed, and some of the school districts still do not have their guidelines in place, which puts them into noncompliance.

There were only 10 states in 2003 that had defined highly qualified for their teachers and it appears as though they are taking an approach that is relatively conservative and sticking close to what the minimum requirements are (Exstrom, 2003). There are various new policies and programs that have been created by legislatures throughout the past decade and that help find and retain teachers. These include programs that:

Increase salaries and benefits.

Offer loan forgiveness or scholarships.

Allow retirees to "double dip" into retirement benefits and salary if they return to the classroom.

Offer tax breaks or incentives.

Create alternative certification programs and licensure reciprocity.

Offer signing bonuses.

Support beginning teachers through mentoring and induction programs.

Offer high quality professional development and career advancement opportunities (Exstrom, 2003).

It is good that states are able to determine the definition of highly qualified by themselves, even though they must follow the guidelines set up by the act. Then each state must submit a yearly plan to the United States Department of Education that works to outline the steps that the particular state will be taking to ensure that the goal of highly qualified for each teacher is met by 2005 (Exstrom, 2003). Much of this was not done, however.

The plan for each state must also address how it will work to increase the number of teachers that are highly qualified each year and also the number of teachers that are receiving professional development (Exstrom, 2003). States can define what highly qualified means and determine what steps have to be taken by each specific teacher in order to meet that designation. Unfortunately, many things about the Act failed and it also stopped some schools from changing over to year round calendars because they found that they could no longer afford the steps that they would need to take to accomplish that.

There are 10 states: Connecticut, Alabama, Arizona, Iowa, Florida, Maryland, Illinois, Kansas, Montana, and Virginia, that appear to be doing very well in defining what highly qualified means for teachers and another 21 states that were working toward it (Exstrom, 2003). As the definition of highly qualified is considered by the states, however, many policy experts who work in education are questioning whether these definitions will actually be bold enough to go higher than the minimum requirements that have been set by the act.

Before the No Child Left Behind Act was created there were several states that were considering licensing requirements and teacher preparation that was more rigorous in order to improve the quality (White & Parham, 1990). It is now unclear whether the states will challenge teachers more strongly based on the federal requirements and help to move quality even higher at whether they will struggle to meet the minimums that have been set. It is also unclear how the Act might affect or be affected by schools that use the year-round calendar and schools that want to move to the year-round calendar but have not yet done so.

Many states are likely not going to be interested in setting the bar much higher because failing to make any kind of progress toward a definition that is much more demanding than the minimum will be publicized quite widely under the federal reporting requirements. If this happens with schools that use the year-round calendar there could be problems for schools that want to move to that method - parents and education professionals might be led to believe that the failure of the schools was directly related to their year-round calendars.

As has been mentioned, these states are also concerned about losing their paraprofessionals because the No Child Left Behind Act also requires these individuals to be highly qualified (Exstrom, 2003). If schools in any state take the money provided by the federal government the paraprofessionals that they have must have completed at least two years of postsecondary schooling (Exstrom, 2003). They must have obtained either an associate's degree or higher degree and pass an assessment which demonstrates the skills that they have (Exstrom, 2003).

This requirement might be too much for a lot of these individuals when coupled with the year-round schooling because they can no longer go to school over their long summer break to catch up the schooling that they need in order to be in compliance with the new law. That could put some of them out of jobs and produce some hardships for others, but moving to year-round schooling appears to have benefits for the students, so it makes determining what to do in these kinds of cases very difficult.

By the 2005-2006 school year, all paraprofessionals in a state that takes federal money for the No Child Left Behind Act were to have met the requirements. Some teachers and legislators are concerned that many of the valuable staff members at schools will be lost because many of them will have difficulties becoming highly qualified. The minimal salaries that they receive often do not allow them to afford more schooling and postsecondary education in communities that are very rural is often difficult as well (Thompson, 1998; Rose & Gallup, 2001). This is even more complex when coupled with the issue of being required to change over to a year-round schooling system. Instead, these individuals may look for other jobs or they may attend school in order to become licensed at something else and then move to another field altogether (Ingersoll, 1999). So many teachers are concerned about their paraprofessionals being required to leave the classroom that some states are looking towards grandfathering in paraprofessionals that are currently teaching and have at least ten years of experience (Exstrom, 2003). Whether this will actually be done, however, still remains to be seen.

One of the reasons that legislatures believe that highly qualified teachers are so important is that research confirms that students reach higher levels of education when they are taught by exceptional teachers (Polite, 1999; Poplin & Weeres, 1992; Floyd, 1995; Oakes, 1999). With research indicating that year-round schooling is better and that highly qualified teachers are better, it would appear that schools need to find a way to combine both of these.

Often minority students, low income students, and others who are having difficulty learning in some ways are helped much more by teachers who are extremely competent (Cook & Ludwig, 1998; Delpit, 1995; Dupuis, 1999). Unfortunately, however, lawmakers have seen over the past 10 years that there is a strong shortage of good teachers and good curriculum, regardless of how they address it from a calendar standpoint (Exstrom, 2003). This is especially true in schools that are low achieving, poor, and rural (Drew, 1996).

Many of the schools have been forced to utilize emergency-credentialed teachers in their classrooms and most individuals who work as superintendents of schools in various states across the country argue that having a teacher in the classroom so that children can learn is more significant been sending the children home when a highly qualified teacher cannot be found (Corbin & Pruitt, 1999). One report indicates that, not only can good teachers not be found for specific positions but many school districts do not work hard enough to retain the good teachers that they already have (Exstrom, 2003). The teacher retention problem is seen to be very severe and this is a grave concern for many parents that are worried about the education that their children are actually getting. When year-round schooling is addressed, the teacher retention problem must also be coupled with it so that both concerns are handled.

There are only 33 states, as well as the District of Columbia, that require teachers to take a test in their subject of knowledge in order to receive a license (Exstrom, 2003). Most of these requirements are only for those who teach elementary school and even fewer states require majors in subjects taught for teachers that work in middle school or high school settings (Exstrom, 2003). Most teachers teach classes outside their field of study and there is seen also to be a teaching gap in that schools that do not have a lot of money often have teachers instructing their students when the teacher himself or herself is not certified in the subject that is being taught (Barr & Parrett, 1995). In middle schools the problem is particularly difficult because studies have shown that at least half the students in middle schools that are in high poverty areas take at least one specific class from a teacher that does not even have a minor in the specific subject that he or she is teaching (Clark, 1983; Comer & Poussaint, 1992).

This is one of the main reasons that the No Child Left Behind Act was created, because the lack of high-quality and highly qualified teachers in many states is becoming so severe that researchers, legislators, and other individuals are extremely worried about the future education of children. but, was there a better way to address the problem? Would changing the school calendar to a year-round option help the student to retain more and make up for some of the deficit in teaching without having to comply with the Act? Since children are such a precious resource in this country they must be taught in the best way possible and when teachers are not qualified to teach the subject that these students must learn, or when the students do not have the time and the resources to learn it properly, it becomes questionable as to whether students will actually learn anything valuable from the teacher that they have (Exstrom, 2003).

Naturally, there are many implications for highly qualified teachers and middle schools. As has been noted, many middle schools in poor areas with low income, minority students often have difficulty retaining teachers that are highly qualified (Exstrom, 2003). Approximately 13% of students in higher income suburban middle schools take a class from a teacher that does not even have a minor in the subject taught. This is alarming enough but it is seemingly less significant when considered against low income and rural schools where fully 26% of students in these middle schools take a class from a teacher that does not have a minor in the subject that is being taught (Exstrom, 2003). This does not necessarily indicate that these teachers are not qualified.

It does, however, mean that they are not highly qualified. Highly qualified teachers are those who have passed schooling and licensing issues that deal with the subject that they are teaching (Exstrom, 2003). Because teaching is traditionally a rather low-paying profession unless one is a tenured college professor, the concerns regarding schools and the implications for highly qualified teachers continue to grow. Retaining teachers is very difficult today because many of these individuals find that they can make more money by moving to different states where the schools are better or by switching professions altogether and doing something else.

Naturally, these individuals cannot be blamed for trying to make a better life for themselves and their families, but if they could do this by getting better pay as a teacher and by having a more rewarding career through the use of a year-round calendar model, there would be a larger benefit to a higher number of people. However, the blame generally should rest on those that work to acquire these teachers and retain them because it appears that the job that they should be doing is not getting done. If it were, highly qualified teachers would be in every classroom and they would be paid sufficiently that they would not wish to leave their jobs.

Coming up with money for this problem may be very difficult but it is something that legislators and lawmakers should look at very clearly. The future of the country may depend upon it. Money is not the only issue, of course, but it is one of the most significant ones, since the Act has not really been properly implemented in a lot of states. The school districts there are simply unable to meet the guidelines, which indicates that there must be a better way to handle this kind of problem and to address the situation that is taking place in the schools within this country. Whether the year-round calendar is the way to show the improvement that is needed is something that must be looked into.

Leadership and how the principal operates a school is also vital to its success, especially if the school plans to transition to a year-round option. Leadership studies by Dinham et al. (1995) revealed that the principal's role is "complex, ambiguous, and that he or she must attempt to cope with long days punctuated with numerous interruptions, many short-term interpersonal contacts, not always of their instigation, many issues at various stages of resolution being juggled concurrently, and a general perception that he or she arrives late, leaves early, and wanders around the school in between times."

With this perception in mind, how is it that the principal is able to be an efficient and effective leader and incorporate all significant issues into the everyday fabric of school life?

It would seem like the principal would need to be a multi-faceted individual that would be able to do many different things at once and not take everything personally. The principal would also need to juggle many different issues and deal with problems effectively. Principals must work very hard and diligently to ensure that the students and faculty of the school are treated fairly, and that problems that they may have are handled quickly and properly before they become worse (Jose-Kampfner, 1994).

In a study by Dinham (1995) the author examined student, teacher, and community expectations for education. The study was also concerned with the manner in which these expectations are communicated between the various parties involved in education. The study was undertaken in two stages. The first stage of the study consisted of a survey of teachers, students, parents, and businesses within a representative range of nine comprehensive high schools and communities.

Schools were then chosen to represent the socio-economic and cultural diversity evident in Western Sydney. Stage two consisted of in-depth study in three of these schools, which were selected both on the basis of their diversity, and because they were considered by students, parents, and teachers to display evidence of effective communication. It was the desire of the researchers to see why it was that these schools seemed to function more effectively than others. Apparently, they had something that other schools did not.

Data in stage one was collected using a single survey. This survey included a list of objectives that the literature suggested comprehensive high school were attempting to achieve with their students. The survey was tested at a single comprehensive high school with 82 students in years 7-10. With minor modifications, the surveys were subsequently administered to the nine schools during March and April 1991, in order to determine if these schools met the specific criteria for comprehensive high schools and what they were attempting to achieve.

Stage one provided 3,567 surveys for analysis, comprising 2,713 surveys from students, 232 from teachers, and 622 from parents. In addition, 100 surveys were sent to business groups with a return rate of 49%. The questionnaire was comprised of 60 questions organized into two sub-groupings. The majority of questions required subjects to use five-point rating scales to provide judgments on priorities for schooling (should) and their perceptions of what currently occurs in schools (does).

For all these questions, means and standard deviation were calculated. Subsequently, selected Spearman rank order correlations were calculated and quadrant and discrepancy scale analyses were conducted to determine the common matches and mismatches in perceptions and understandings of educational needs and priorities in these schools.

Conclusions from the study indicated that the aspects of the leadership of each school, particularly that of the principal, had influenced school climate, educational performance, and teacher, student, and community satisfaction. However, the authors concluded that leadership is also a two-way process and it was equally apparent that the behaviors of the leaders were also in part a product of the school environment and interactions with others.

The following are several important and worthy implications for school leadership effectiveness:

An open-door policy and principal accessibility and approachability are important, particularly to staff and students.

Hands on" leadership and attention to detail are also important, but need to be balanced with preparedness to delegate the importance of this against the interruptions and loss of time that being "open" necessarily results in.

Consultation and collaboration have important symbolic as well as practical benefits.

The principal needs to be a source, facilitator, and conduit for both formal and informal communication within and without the school and to utilize consciously a variety of communication measures.

It is important for the principal to espouse and encourage forward thinking, a sense of purpose, and a collective vision.

A balance needs to be struck between attention to detail, policies, and procedures, and the more symbolic and intangible aspects of school organization, culture, and reputation.

The importance of a school's physical environment with regard to school climate and staff as well as student and community perceptions of school effectiveness has been underestimated.

Public recognition of student, staff, and school achievement is important, but efforts also need to be made to ensure higher levels of student and staff participation in such "high profile" sporting, academic, and cultural activities which only involved a minority of students and staff at the schools studied.

Extracurricular activities are also important as symbolic "rallying points" in building the perception and reality of a "good" school.

The aim of true, representative, and meaningful student (and to some degree staff) involvement and empowerment in school decision-making processes remains seemingly unfulfilled.

Representative parent and community involvement is important yet was also lacking in those schools studied.

Many of the implications raised above hinge on the notion of "balance" in a school. It seems that the principal of a school needs to be capable of making professional judgments which involve finding a personal position between sometimes opposing ends, e.g. "hands on" verses delegation, attention to detail versus "big picture," procedural vs. symbolic action, and so on.

Can leadership training be provided to assist the principal, first to identify the most appropriate position on any continuum of the "essentials," and then to adopt this?

According to the authors, it is difficult to separate the principal from the organizational climate of the school, as there are cause and effect relationships at work, with the principal influencing and being influenced by the school and those involved within and without it. The principal often becomes so deeply integrated into the school environment that he or she is not seen as a separate entity with his or her own identity and values.

Overall, it was apparent that in this study students, parents, and teachers shared a common belief that it was a 'good' school. The principal had a strong influence in setting the general tone or "climate" of the school and had a marked "hands on," "open door," positive attitude, being at the center of much that was happening within and concerning the school. The principal despite the large size of the school appeared to deal effectively with the variety fragmentation and brevity of contacts with others that have been found to typify the lot of the principal. This is largely what made the school 'good,' as parents and others in the community believed that the principal displayed an atmosphere of caring and compassion that was necessary to show an interest in the student and faculty and their well being.

This study shows that there is some correlation, at least at the particular school studied, between the principal's beliefs and involvement, the culture of the school, and the safety of the school in question. Some of the opinions about safety and security can be evidenced by the fact that the parents and teachers, as well as the students, rated their school highly.

Students and others who do not feel safe at school would not choose high marks for that particular establishment. This is significant as it works to display the suggested correlation between school culture and school safety and indicates that the principal may play a central role in this. This is valuable information for those who are looking into changing their school over to a year-round calendar, because this will change the culture and some of the safety aspects of the school. These kinds of changes must not be ignored.

Chapter III: The Method

Population and Sample

The population that I have chosen to study is the school districts within the United States that have chosen to implement year round education. The population is mostly focused on elementary schools that implement year round education as that is where YRE seems to be most utilized. The independent variable in this study is the year round education calendar/schedule. The dependent variables are the students who attend year round schools.

The other facet of implementation is the track. Single-track year round education involves an entire school using the same calendar and getting the same holidays off. Multiple-track year round education has groups of students attending school at different times with different vacations. Multi-tracking usually occurs because it is a way for school districts to save money, and offer alternatives in overpopulated school districts. Year round education is a very complex topic with many variables that must be considered, not the least of which is the motivation behind a school district's decision to change their current calendar (Kelly, 2008).

Methods and Procedures

The research design that I have chosen to implement in this study is qualitative content analysis. Content Analysis is a method of studying human behavior indirectly by analyzing communications, usually through a process of categorization (Fraenkel & Wallen, 2006). Using content analysis for the study of Year Round Education seemed to be the best choice since most of the information that I obtained for this study was through books, newspapers, journal articles, and internet data bases.

Qualitative v. Quantitative Studies

Where research is concerned, the way that it is conducted is highly important. Due to this, it is important to examine the idea that there are two specific ways to conduct this research - the quantitative approach and the qualitative approach. Sometimes these are taken together and called the 'mixed-method' approach, but they will be discussed separately here. In order to discuss them there will be four specific areas that will be looked at. These are: (1) Types of data collected, (2) Instruments used to collect the data, (3) Fundamental differences in how both types of research are conducted, and (4) Procedures used to analyze the data. For each one of these areas, at least four examples will be addressed for both types of research methods so that the comprehensiveness of these methods can be seen.

The use of quantitative research helps to reveal information that is subjective, since the participants' input is what is used as the primary source of information for the researcher (Creswell, 2001). There are a lot of different types of data collected in quantitative research, and these include answers that are given on surveys, statistical information that is found through the use of surveys or a more expanded study, comparison data that is collected between one individual or group and others, and data that is raw and that needs to be coded on a yes/no type of basis, instead of the longer answers that are quite often collected and analyzed in qualitative research where opinions of the subjects are examined (Diaz & O'Hanlon, 2001). Instruments used to collect the data include statistics, surveys, comparisons, and SPSS services. There are also fundamental differences in how both types of research are conducted which will be discussed later in this document, along with the procedures that are used to analyze the data.

Qualitative research generates data that is based on the participants' own categories of meaning, it is useful for studying a limited number of cases in depth, and tends to collect data in naturalistic rather than empirical settings (Creswell, 2001). Types of data collected generally involve the opinions and beliefs of the researcher and the subjects that are being examined, through the use of various instruments. Instruments used to collect the data include case studies, interviews, focus groups and observation (Creswell, 1994).

Creswell (2001) describes qualitative research as an exploratory focus, while quantitative research focuses on explanatory inquiry. In addition, with the qualitative approach the researcher is more subjective. In other words, qualitative research is used when the researcher's inquiry is based on the participant's opinion about a particular phenomenon. In that method, the researcher wants to gather subjective data, therefore his personal knowledge and research methodology influences the research to some degree (Herndl & Nahrwold, 2000). One of the most important outcomes with this method is that it highlights the researcher's views during the research process.

The similarities and differences between qualitative and quantitative research approaches are based more on the philosophical perspective of the researcher who is able to participate in the activities being studied (Herndl & Nahrwold, 2000). Quantitative studies are based on scientific methods of inquiry and measure the analysis of causal relationships between variables. Qualitative research is based on gaining insight and understanding about an individual's experience and having a sense of reality in a way that does not generally involve attachment of a number to observations.