Yre Year Round Schooling American

YRE

Year round Schooling

American education system is on a continuous reform process with the implementation of new programs and policies to cater to the growing demands and expectations of the corporate market. Year round schooling is one such change, which is being tested widely in the last two or three decades. Some schools have already switched to the year round calendar which permits shorter breaks and a continuous period of education. As per the 2007 statistics released by the National Association of Year Round Education (NAYRE), more than two million American students are enrolled in schools that offer year round education. Various factors have driven schools into testing out the year round schedule as opposed to the traditional nine-month academic year with three months of summer break. Proponents of the system believe that restructuring into the year round system would not only benefit the students in better assimilation and retention of information and better the learning process but also improve the working condition for the teachers. While several studies have shown significant benefits of the year round schooling there is also a huge outcry against the system. Let us have a brief overview of the year round education system with a view to understanding the pros and cons of such a reform.

Year Round Education (YRE)

Though, only in the last two decades, we are intensely debating the policy of year round schooling the idea is not a new one and in fact had been first implemented way back in 1904 in Bluffton, Indiana. [Mollie Louis Trewartha] Don Glines the director of Education Futures Projects, Sacramento, California, describes Year round education as, "Calendar modification that requires students to begin school earlier and end later than normal, with the lost summer vacation redistributed in blocks throughout the year" (Glines, 2002, 2698). Thus year round education has the same number of working days as the conventional schooling system except that the working days are equally distributed throughout the year. Statistics show that a total of 2764 schools throughout the U.S. have Year round education system with more than 2,024, 950 students enrolled in them. This however represents only 3 to 4% of all schools in America. California tops the list for the number of schools offering year round programs followed by states such as Arizona, Texas, and Hawaii. The figure is even miniscule in private schools with only a total of 52 schools implementing the year round program. Virginia has the highest enrollments with more than 13,500 students from its 26 private schools offering year round classes. [NAYRE]

Schools are motivated by many different factors into testing out the year round schooling system. Overcrowded classes with budgetary constraints that do not permit infrastructural expansion is one of the main reasons. Schools that embrace a full year learning schedule can either follow a single-track system or a multi-track system depending on their needs. Multi-track schedules typically have the following working days to vacation days ratio: 45-15, 60-20 or 60-15.

Overcrowded schools for example, can use the multi-track system to optimize resource allocation while still maintaining the quality standards. Around 59% of YRE schools follow the single-track system while 41% adopt the multi-track system. [Deborah, 2004]

There is a growing body of research pertaining to year round educational system. Some studies report that long vacations impairs recollection of previously learnt information resulting in teachers having to spend as much as 4 to 6 weeks in reviewing lessons learnt in the previous year. [Simpson, 2001] Other researchers have also reported that there is greater retention and less "summer learning loss" in the year round system. [Shields, 2000, 101]

There is also a decrease in absenteeism both of the students as well as the teachers in the year round educational system. To quote Mr. Ballinger, executive director of the NAYRE, 'Schools that have gone to a year-round calendar notice higher attendance rates among both teachers and students because of more frequent vacation'. [Deborah, 2004] a study by Prohm & Baenen, (1996) for example pointed out that students in YRE schools had two lesser-unexcused absences and 1.1 lesser-excused absences compared to conventional schools while Palmer & Bemis (2002) reported a decrease in teacher absenteeism by around 1 to 3 days compared to data from conventional schools. Another significant benefit of the year round system pointed by the proponents is that the YRE system offers year round assistance for children who need additional time to catch up. As intersession classes are followed up immediately children do not have to wait until summer classes to catch up with their difficult subjects. "While changing the calendar year in itself can provide many benefits, the importance of intersession instruction cannot be overstated. Those additional instructional days and weeks can spell the difference between success and failure for many students" (Stenvall, (2001) p. 21).

On the other hand there are also disadvantages to the year round education system. First and foremost is the administrative burnout. Management working round the year can feel it quite stressful and the same applies for teachers as well. Most teachers use the summer breaks to complete their certification requirements and other courses and the year round schedule just makes it all the more harder for them. "Teachers cannot complete certification requirements or get higher degrees during the summer" (Kneese, 2000, 13). Another major disadvantage of YRE is that it disturbs family vacations and childcare. With children attending different tracks or different schools it would not be possible to have family time together. Last but not the least is the cost of air-conditioning for YRE and it is only profitable for most schools if enrollments are higher.

An Evaluation of YRE