I think it might be good to improve retention of concepts learned, provided the mobile family doesn’t still take summer vacations regardless of the change in the school calendar!
- Linda Manley, Curriculum Coordinator, Eisenhower Middle School, Topeka, KS
Year round school has its pros and cons.
The students would retain more if they were in year round schooling.
But on the other hand, many families enjoy extended vacations during the summer months, and would miss school. Also it would interfere with many students sports activities during the summer months, as many baseball players are gone for several days at a time out of town playing on traveling teams. Some teachers also like to work another job during the summer to make extra money. Many teachers would probably argue that they would want to get paid more for the extra couple of months, and I don’t think that would be in many budgets to do so.
- Thomas Crubel, 8th Grade Social Studies Teacher, Eisenhower MS, Topeka, KS
I think year round school would be good. Kids aren’t really allowed to work in the summer due to all the laws, etc. The kids are bored after a few weeks of vacation and they tend to forget some of the skills they get during the school year. With the kids staying more involved at school, I think they would be less likely to get into trouble which would help the crime rates.
I think that having a quarter of school and then a 3 or 4 week break would be better. Especially if the courses were broken into quarters. The benefit being, say if a student failed first quarter Algebra I. When second quarter started, they would be placed back into first quarter Algebra I. This way the student would have more time to develop the basic skills needed and wouldn’t have to go through a whole year of the course and fail and then have to use another whole year to catch up. Of course each quarter of a course might have to be taught each quarter.
- Deann Bartell, Special Education Teacher, Eisnhower MS, Topeka, KS
I’ve actually been in a district where year round school was implemented. It seemed to work well in that the year started in mid July: we taught 12 weeks, were off for 6 weeks, taught for 12 weeks, off for another 6 and then taught for the final 12 weeks were off for 6 weeks and then the new year began. During the 6 weeks off, there were intercessions for the kids to take classes for learning enhancement for those that needed extra instruction-like summer school. I liked it personally because the first 6 weeks off started around Thanksgiving and went to January. It made the holidays a bit freer of stress. The students seemed to like it as well. This district was trying to utilize their buildings effectively and so there were three or four different tracks so that all buildings would be used at all times. I’m not remembering quite how that worked.
- Susan Ross, Guidance Counselor, Eisenhower MS, Topeka, KS
I have no experience with Year-round school, but think it would be a great idea, IF teachers’ salaries were increased to a competitive year-round salary. The only way that a teachers’ salary is competitive is if the teacher has a supplemental income such as a summer job. With 4-6 week breaks every few months, they could not have that extra job. From an educational standpoint, I believe students would learn more, because less instructional time would be wasted on reviewing concepts from the previous term, since it would have been only a few weeks ago rather than a few months. I also agree that there would be less of a chance for boredom, which would lessen the chance for trouble during school breaks.
- Tisha Jones, Math Teacher, Eisenhower Middle School, Topeka, KS
