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It's been tried in many districts in Texas, and most, if not all, have eventually gone back to the traditional school year. The main reason is cost. The electric bills in Texas are notoriously higher than most states, and the cost to cool schools during our triple digit summers is truly daunting.
My career is child care, and in the 10,000 sq ft child care center I was in for 11 years the electric bill would hit $2000 easily. That's a major increase over the fall/winter/spring bills. Imagine the electric bill for a school that holds 2000 kids........
Another point is regarding summer jobs and child care. Child care would have a very difficult time providing care for school aged children in 2-3 week increments. Typically a teacher/provider for school aged children is hired for the summer only. Often it is college students looking for summer work. They would not be available during the 2-3 week increments throughout the year.
The possibility of anyone agreeing to work 2-3 weeks, then have no job for 9 weeks and back again is next to impossible. About 50% of what a child care center brings in goes for paying payroll, and it isn't cost efficient to have an added employee on the payroll that is only needed for those 2-3 week increments. There also simply isn't extra staff that can step away from another job to take on that one for a couple of weeks, then go back to what they were doing. Staff/child ratios just don't bend like that.
Added to that, there are tons of summer jobs where employers will not hire someone who cannot work the entire summer. Six Flags and water parks in particular as they are only open during the summer and must have full coverage all summer long.
Retail stores, movie theaters, food services and grocery stores hire summer help because they have to cover vacations of regular year round employees in addition to having increased business during different hours of the day than the rest of the year.
For instance, retail and grocery stores typically have a fairly slow start to business when they open with a pick up during lunch hour and a drop off until late afternoon. However, during the summer they start out busier at opening and stay more consistent throughout the day so they need fuller coverage all day long.
A movie theater might not have a first showing until 1 or 2 PM normally, but during the summer many theaters start with 10 AM showings, so they need additional staff earlier and more to cover the concession because of increased attendance. Same goes for food services. More people are out eating at lunch and into the early afternoon (and later into the night than normal) so they need more staff than usual during those times.
All those things are bigger impacts than some may think.
Regarding child care, Douglas County, Colorado has had year round schools since 1984, 27 years now. The child care providers there seem to have adapted. There is some child care provided at the schools. 3/4 of the students are in school at any one time; 1/4 are off at any given time. So it's not like the child care providers are working for 2-3 weeks and off for 9. It's just different groups of children tracking in and out. My own experience with finding child care for the summer was that some providers couldn't take any more kids due to legal limits. That would be alleviated somewhat if ALL the kids weren't out at the same time.
Well, comparing the elementary/middle school issue to this one is a big, fat non sequitur. One is a matter of how kids are divided up, while the other deals with how much time the kids get off and when.
Sorry, but I went through the changes from k-8 to jr. high and jr. high to middle school. There was NO compelling reason to change this either.
The educational research was not there. Now, it was done in some cases because of space constraints in the old k-8 schools, but that has nothing to do with the educational needs of the children.
Now that it has been done, we all accept that it is good for the kids, but it may not really be any better than the old k-8 alternative.
Year round, btw, is no different in the amount of time kids get off. The difference is in when the kids are out of school.
The research, just like the research on having middle schools is ambiguous.
Why are we determining a school calendar on availabilty of day care? The day care industry will adjust to whatever it has to. It's not like we have a shortage of workers these days. I don't care when they hire, they'll find people to take the job.
Seems we're letting everything determine educational policy EXCEPT what will actually enhance education.
Year round schools do away with the long summer break during which kids forget much of what they learned last year and get VERY BORED by August.
Year round schools on a trimester system mean that kids can remediate sooner if they are failing a class (high school).
Year round schools, with prep time built into the year for teachers, mean less teacher burn out and better prepared teachers.
The structure of year round schools (trimsters) will allow for more intensity in the classroom because time to recharge comes more frequently AND breaks will occur between trimesters instead of scattered through the year (ie Christmas break which comes three weeks before semester finals ) so they'll really be breaks not just pauses.
Don't be ridiculous. And actually read my initial posts. As a parent, it is far easier to arrange childcare for ten weeks than it is for two, and do so in ways that are fun and meaningful for the child.
Further, what happens when two children within a family attend two different schools with two different tracks? Lest you scoff, we had two different family friends who found it next to impossible to schedule a summer vacation because their children in elementary, junior high, and high school all were on differing schedules.
As far as your remark about summer jobs being non-existent...are you kidding me? Yeah, unemployment is kind of high, but there remain all kinds of jobs for kids. Heck, my grocery store down the street makes a policy of hiring 14-, 15-, and 16-year-olds as baggers and cashiers. Fast-food places, recreation facilities, retail locations, lawn care companies, etc. etc. The list goes on and on. Heck, just two days ago, I was at the grocery with my 14-year-old son and the manager strolled up and asked him if he wanted a summer job. I declined this year because of a busy June, but told him that we'd check back in July.
Finally, there's simply no clear-cut proof that year-round school makes much difference. This website contains the abstracts of any number of studies that either disprove the notion entirely or stress that year-round school is only a good idea in very limited circumstances such as learning disabled children. YRS research summary So what you're really talking about is taking away a nice long break for the kids for illusory benefits.
Oh, one other thing. Damned straight I'll blame the parent. Because show me a child of normal intelligence who isn't succeeding in school, and I'll show you a parent who is asleep at the switch. And if a kid isn't a good student on a traditional schedule, he isn't going to be a good student on a year-round basis either.
This is what I'm interested in, a study that shows the outcome. Year round school makes sense to me, but if there is no real improvement, then why change?
Just to dispell one myth: pretty much every commercial building in the civilized world is cooled, not heated. This is because the equipment needed to operate the building--lighting ballasts (even when the lights aren't on, the ballasts consume energy and generate heat), mechanical equipment, meters, conveyances, etc. and simply the building mass itself generate enough heat that the building has to be cooled even in the wintertime. In very very cold climates, like international falls, MN, they may simply resort to intake of unconditioned outdoor air, rather than conditioning it.
But short of places like hot yoga studios, commercial buildings are always cooled, not heated.
So from an energy standpoint, there is no advantage to closing school in the winter to avoid heating it.
To dispel a myth, buildings DO have HEAT-real HEAT, boilers, radiators, etc. Those of us that actually live in the north can attest to that. You are simply wrong.
This is what I'm interested in, a study that shows the outcome. Year round school makes sense to me, but if there is no real improvement, then why change?
If, for no other reason, you'll reduce teacher stress and burn out.
I'm certain you'll reduce student burn out too. I'm pretty sure year round schools would help the bottom of the class by reducing what they forget over the summer. I don't think it would matter much to the top of the class.
I remember summer vacation as a kid. By the end of July, I was BORED. By the time school started, I was so far into do nothing mode that it took weeks to get back up to speed. We spent the first month or so just reviewing what we learned last year. IMO, that is a waste of time. Year round schools can reduce the amount of review time needed which means more material can be taught.
Improved School- Related Attitudes, Behaviors, and Skills2
Additional time for learning often translates into improved student achievement
through the enhancement of school- related attitudes, behaviors, and skills. In the
past, related program outcomes included:
· increased interest in school and learning,
· increased time on task,
· improved attendance,
· improved study habits, and
· improved school-related skills and behaviors (e.g., listening quietly, counting, teamwork, research skills)
It is very difficult to separate out how much of any improvement is due to the extended school year and how much is due to other improvements made at the same time.
However, parent and student satisfaction with the extended year and learning opportunities was at 90%.
I have been participating in this thread as an intellectual exercise. However, Colorado has a lot of experience with YRS because of rapid growth in certain areas. None of these dire issues the "anti" people on this thread have brought up have come to pass.
I think some of the issues with middle and high schools could also be worked out, if the desire was there. Take sports, for example. One issue is that students have to be in school and taking a certain number of credits to be able to do a sport. However, if a student is enrolled in school and on break, what is the issue? Currently, schools have different break times, especially spring break, and the high school sports go on. These breaks are only 3-4 weeks, not a whole quarter. There would be two more breaks for the family to use for vacation. Why should high school athletics drive the school schedule?
I have been participating in this thread as an intellectual exercise. However, Colorado has a lot of experience with YRS because of rapid growth in certain areas. None of these dire issues the "anti" people on this thread have brought up have come to pass.
I think some of the issues with middle and high schools could also be worked out, if the desire was there. Take sports, for example. One issue is that students have to be in school and taking a certain number of credits to be able to do a sport. However, if a student is enrolled in school and on break, what is the issue? Currently, schools have different break times, especially spring break, and the high school sports go on. These breaks are only 3-4 weeks, not a whole quarter. There would be two more breaks for the family to use for vacation. Why should high school athletics drive the school schedule?
Could you elaborate on the model they are using? I think YRS are a great idea but I would guess that some models work better than others. On one hand I favor a trimester system (allows for quicker remediation) but on the other, I kind of like a semester model with a 5 week break between semesters and a one week break between quarters. One thing I know is we need about four more weeks of school per year to have even a chance of covering all of the content we're supposed to cover.
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) so they'll really be breaks not just pauses.
