US Public Schools Should Go to Year Around School

¶ … Round Schooling: Implications for the Current State of Public Education

The media has recently reported an array of problems with the public education system including criticisms of teacher effectiveness, lack of funding, and continued decline in academic achievement in comparison with other nations. Schools are facing a rise in class size with reduced support in regards to materials, finances, and staff. Despite government legislation, including the No Child Left Behind Act which has received billions of dollars in funding, lack of academic achievement and closing the achievement gap are consistent problems facing the education system (Koretz 803). These current issues have been a cornerstone of the year-round school debate which focuses on increasing the instructional days for students and reducing extended vacation times. Implementation of year-round education addresses these problems including helping to improve academics, reduce the achievement gap, and decrease classroom size.

According to research learning loss is a well documented issue (Huebner 83). Specifically, across long school breaks students tend to lose academic ground in the areas of math and spelling. Additionally, students of low socio-economic backgrounds show an even greater loss during the summer break in achievement including progress in reading. Alexander, Olson, and Entwisle (175) found an achievement lag for students of a minority background from Kindergarten through high school. The authors assert that the disadvantage of long summer breaks for these students specifically contributes to the continued achievement gap. Higher socio-economic classes have the advantage of summer camps, enrichment classes, and tutors over the summer. Whereas such resources are frequently unavailable to students with lower socio-economic backgrounds (Dessoff 36). Thus, one avenue to reduce to inequalities in the education system would be to consider a year-round school system.

Advocates of year-round schooling also propose that increased instructional time is correlated with improved academics. Meta-analysis have shown that students in year-round schooling do as well or better than students in traditional schools (Huebner 83). Additionally, year-round school allows students who have fallen behind to enroll in tutoring or enrichment throughout the year during breaks. This gives students continual access for such remedial times rather than the traditional summer school. One successful year-round schooling change took place in Arizona. A small school district increased its schooling calendar to 200 days. District administrators reported improved reading scores and classification of the schools as performing or higher based on No Child Left Behind standards (Patt 2010). This case study is one example of the effectiveness a year-round calendar can have on overall achievement. Therefore, such a schedule can be beneficial to students in retaining information which allows for faster growth in academics.

Another significant impact on academic progress is smaller class sizes. Research has repeatedly shown that decreased class sizes improve academic achievement (S. Lubienski, C. Lubienski, and Crane 100). However, due to budget restrictions, public schools continue to increase class sizes and even close schools. Year-round education can support schools in reducing class sizes without additional financial costs. For example, some year-round schools use a multi-track approach which involves dividing the student population into groups. Vacation breaks from school are then scheduled at different times. In this approach, more students can be taught without building additional schools. Thus, a significant benefit of moving towards a year-round calendar is improving class room size which in turn has shown positive affects of increasing academic achievement.

Despite the positive outcomes and research on year-round schooling, criticism continues to be prevalent. One area of concern is a heavy reliance on correlational data (Huebner 83). However, due to the nature of research conducted, a laboratory cause and effect approach is not possible. In regards to these criticisms, current research have generally shown positive outcomes of year-round schooling and continued research would be beneficial in continuing to support this conclusion. Other criticisms include concern about increased cost and lengthening teacher work years. As proposed early, the multi-track system helps to save the district money by not having to build additional schools and allowing an increased population of students to be served. Other schools have also used federal stimulus money and the increased pupil spending money based on the academic school year length (Patt 2010). Therefore, even with budget cuts, year-round school can assist in saving money long-term by not having to build new schools and districts can access additional government financial support. Another concern involves whether teachers, students, and parents would support such a system. However, research studies have shown that stakeholders have generally reported overall positive experiences when year-round education is implemented (Huebner 83). Thus, despite the criticism increased instruction time has multiple benefits that outweigh current risks.