Tell me about Year Round Schools?

Question

just tell me what you know about year round schools.

Answer 1

Year round school started in the 1970’s as a response to overcrowding. The idea was that there would be three “tracks”. There were different types of set ups, but on average a track would go to school for 6 weeks and then have two weeks off. While “off track” another set of students would be “on track”. The idea was that the school would be able to “service” more children this way.

Proponents of year round school toted that this was not only a good solution to over crowding, but a superior academic one also. Six weeks was the perfect amount of time to teach a unit in each area. Children would get a rest between units so that they would be excited to learn new things upon their return to school. The two week rest was the perfect amount of time for the information to solidify in a child’s brain, but not long enough for them to forget it. The lack of a long summer vacation helped to insure that the children wouldn’t forget new material

In reality, there seemed to be many more issues. While some families reported that they loved the idea of being able to go on a family vacation on the “off season” since it was often cheaper and less crowded, and some families, usually those with only one parent working, felt that they could now spend quality time with each child, most people had a problem with year round school.

Although some school districts worked hard to accommodate families with multiple siblings, not all did or could. Parents often found their children on different tracks. For single parents, or families with two working parents, child care became an even more overwhelming issue. Special intercession” programs started popping up, yet many parents had problems spending money that they had put away for special activities, such as summer camps and enrichment programs, on little more than ”baby sitting ”. Low income parents had a hard time paying the prices in general and often resorted to leaving their children at home, much to the dismay of landlords and so on who now found children being left unattended not just for the summer, but for year round. For teachers of lower income second language learners it turned out to be a real nightmare. Since they were now immersed in their home language day and night, there was a regression in their language acquisition. Teachers in general hated the idea of taking down and putting up a classroom every six weeks. The idea that one teacher left a classroom on a Friday and the other teacher had to be teaching on Monday meant a lot of teachers spending every few weekends working on setting up their classroom. The problem was often exacerbated in districts where teachers didn’t have weekend access to their classrooms, and/or the teacher already in place didn’t empty their classroom on time and the incoming teacher had to wait until Monday morning to set up theirs.

Lastly, research found that the year round schedule in actuality led to less true academic time since classrooms were gearing up or down more often.

Over the years most school districts have returned to “traditional” schedules, yet a few year round programs remain. In my area, parents actually have moved to insure that their children attend a school on a traditional track.

Answer 2

I live in Indianapolis, and the year around schools that I know about have several long breaks throughout the year, but no summer break. So they will have 2-3 weeks off in the fall, 2-3 off for Christmas, then another 2-3 off during the spring and again in the summer. So they end up with 8-12 weeks off, just not all lumped together June, July and Aug. Oh and here the whole school is out at the same time.

Answer 3

Year round schools do not have summer vacations but part of the school goes on vacation and then when that part comes back, another part goes. Its sort of like taking turns going to school throughout the year.

Answer 4

i really don't think its a good idea but the evidence shows?