YEAR ROUND EDUCATION
Imagine a child, on a hot summer day... no baseball, no swimming, no picnics or amusement park rides. Instead of spending time doing all of the things kids like to during summer vacations, this child, is attending school. Year round education (YRE) has been around since 1904, with 3,000 schools and 2 million students currently using the program (National Association). Students in year round schools go to school the same 180 days that traditional schools attend. In YRE, the summer vacation is eliminated, replacing it with shorter, more frequent breaks. There is a number of ways the year round school can operate, including: 90/30, 45/15, and 60/20. The most popular of these calendars is the 45/15, where the year is divided into 4 nine week terms, separated by 4 three week vacations (National Association). YRE has been a debated issue in education almost since it began. Supporters of YRE say this schedule improves the learning process. The biggest debate, however, comes from the parents and teachers who believe there are no proven studies that YRE helps the learning process at all. So, is year round schooling a good choice for the education of your children? YRE will not only hurt the education system, but it will create chaos fo
Works Cited Burgoyne, Becky. "Backgrounder: The Never Ending School: Year Round Education. 12 March 2000. "Endless Summer? Not for Children in Year-Round School; Education: Prompted by overcrowding or by belief in its effectiveness, more and more school districts are shifting to a 12-month calendar, The." Electric Library. 15 March 2000. Glass, Gene V. 7 March 2000. Inger, Morton. "Year Round Education: A Strategy for Overcrowded Schools." 12 March 2000. The National Association for Year-Round Education page. 12 March 2000. Naylor, Charlie "Year Round Education:Is it worth the Hassle?" 7 March 2000. Prisoners of Time page. 7 March 2000. "Should kids go to school year round?" Electric Library. 15 March 2000. "Should School Be Held Year Round?" Electric Library. 15 March 2000. Time to Learn page. 16 Feb 2000. r the lives of the students attending and their families. Supporters of YRE believe year round schools are more cost effective than traditional schools. With population in some districts rising rapidly, YRE is said to reduce overcrowding of schools and classrooms. In many cases, school calendars are changed in response to population growth. By running schools all year, districts can pack in more students and postpone building new schools (Endless Summer). Supporters of YRE say that by staggering vacations and schedules, schools can increase capacity by 25-50 percent (Should Kids go). Supporters argue that the costs for the transition form a traditional calendar to year round schools are modest compared to the construction costs of new schools (Inger, Morton). However, those against YRE feel that expenses will only be reduced temporarily. According to a "Year Round Education Study" conducted by the Lewisville, Texas Independent School District, "Findings of a year-long study concluded that there is no financial benefit to operating a Single Track System. The system would cause a modest increase in operational expenses without providing any instructional benefits" (Time to Learn). In Iowa, the Carroll School Board found that the costs of the district moving to a year round education system could range from $16,786 to $32,412. Taylor Elementary School, in Cedar Rapids, spends more money according to the classroom teachers that any other elementary school. Schools in Davenport reported that the switch to YRE will cost an additional $36,000 in salaries, $3000 per year for equipment, and supplies, and $22,300 as a one time expense for teacher training. Plus, the move to YRE would also cost the district an extra $92,626 to fully air condition the school building. In Des Moines, Moulten schools spend about $80,000 annually for year round schooling. If YRE were implemented, Indianola school districts would spend an additional $3,655 for middle school and $5,000 for elementary school to pay for the addit
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1901
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)
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