Dear Teachers Q & A
The Pros and Cons of Year-Round Schooling
Question: As our school district switches to year-round schooling next year, I wonder what the advantages of doing this are as well as the disadvantages. I hate seeing the kids’ long summer vacation vanish. Just how widespread is year-round schooling in the United States? – Unhappy
Answer: With all the talk, parents are likely to think that year-round schooling is becoming the norm everywhere. This simply isn’t true. Only about 10 percent of all public schools have year-round schooling. The most common schedule is 45 days of schooling followed by a 15-day break. The usual holidays are built into the schedule, and the summer break is 30 days. The next most common schedule is 60 days of school followed by a 20-day break with a four-week summer break. And some schools have a 90/30 schedule with a 35-day summer recess.
The typical length of the school year remains 180 days. It is usually the same with most year-round schedules, although some school districts may add as many as 20 extra days.
Some year-round schools operate on a multitrack system in which students are assigned to one of four or five tracks. At any one time, one of the tracks is not attending school—thus expanding the capacity of the school. This works smoothly in elementary school but makes it more difficult to schedule high school courses.
The top advantage to year-round school, according to advocates, is that it reduces summer learning loss. Shorter breaks can help students retain material that they learned during the school year. A significant advantage at some schools is that an enrichment session may be offered between regular sessions that gives excelling students a chance to explore new areas of interest. And at some schools, remediation is offered during the intersession, which can help struggling children build basic skills and reduce their chance of failing. Intersession programs may just half a day or last all day with morning classes and extracurricular activities in the afternoon. Another advantage to year-round schooling is that it reduces burnout for both students and teachers.
Year-round schooling does have some disadvantages. For parents, it complicates finding child care and making family vacation plans. For teachers, it limits their time to attend summer school or to get jobs to increase their income. It also makes it more difficult to improve school facilities and costs districts more to operate. Furthermore, it does not give students the opportunity to participate in lengthy summer recreation activities.
Loads of studies have been trying to determine whether year-round schools really have advantages. The results are quite mixed. Overall, the results may be positive—but not significantly so. In addition, the challenge of switching to a year-round school is made more difficult by the need to convince both teachers and parents of the benefits of the plan.
Parents should send questions and comments to DearTeacher@DearTeacher.com, and visit the DearTeacher.com website to learn more about helping their children succeed in school.
©Compass Syndicate Corporation, 2022
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