Introduction
Dating back to over 100 years, the public school system has been a part of American history. Many Americans have advanced through primary, elementary and middle school institutions. Past American school practices informs us that the reason school systems have used the 10-month calendar was because of the large contribution to community income from agricultural farming. Fast-forward to today’s society, community based farming practices are very rare and region specific. This shift in community economic income has introduced the popular topic within local educational government towards the move to year round schooling. Year round schooling can be categorized into two types: the extension of schools days or the rearrangement of the school calendar. The purpose of this study is to examine the pros and cons of year round schooling from an administrative perspective. The opinions of administrators will provide a different insight into the support, success, and problems year round schooling provides. This study will examine the following year round schooling issues: educational academic success in student growth and test scores, cost factors, calendar planning type, and community concerns. My study will be among the few who have elicited the opinions and experiences of administrators in both traditional and year round schooling.
Statement of the Problem
There are many problems administrators will face when dealing with the ideologies of year round schooling. The lack of consistent administrators in the field of education is a huge problem. Many administrators lack the years of experience to compare and contrast the benefits and set backs of traditional versus year round schooling. This in turn skews data because of the lack thereof. There is little research to pull from that shows the continuation or termination of such data based methods.
Year round schooling has obtained the false reputation that student achievement is evitable, when in actuality research proves an equal representation of both growth and stagnation. As an administrator there are many factors that affect a student’s ability to achieve academically, and many are out of the institutions control. These factors range from socio economic status to English as a second language. Majority of year round schooling research has been based in areas where students do not struggle with the above factors. Because of this it is difficult to prove validity of academic success in congruency with year round schooling methods.
Many state funded schools struggle with the limited budget they receive from their state-funding model, while other schools are in stable business funded communities with numerous sources of tax support. This gap in funding can be a stumbling block to an administrator that wants to implement the year round schooling model within their district. The cost of year round building maintenance and overall operating cost can weigh heavily on a small rural district school. Funding must cover school expenses such as but not limited to; teacher salary, insurance costs, and bus transportation.
Year round education is not focused on the delivery of curriculum, but an alternative way to construct a school year calendar. Year round calendar breaks are broken into blocks or “tracks”. With each type of block or track variation comes with advantages and disadvantages such as; over crowding, complication with matching surrounding off days, and after school activity scheduling.
Lastly, the concerns of the community weigh heavily on the success of implementing year round schooling. Guardians and community members voice numerous concerns when looking into year round education. Our society has coddled the idea that long summer vacations are inevitable and mandatory; the idea of taking away this allotted time frame seems absurd. Summer based organizations such as the YMCA, Boy Scouts, and other community camps will no longer have the attendance needed to stay open in normal summer months. Also the difficulties coordinating extra curricular activities are why many secondary schools opt out of year round education and primary schools lead in research data.
Research Questions
Research Question #1
Does year round education show growth in overall student academic achievement?
Research Question #2
Does year round schooling lower operating and maintenance costs in schools?
Research Question #3
Is one block or track type schedule better to use in year round calendar planning?
Research Question #4
Are the concerns of community and parents enough to create a significant level of concern towards year round schooling?
Hypothesis
Administrators in education will conclude that the pros of year round schooling outweigh the cons, and are better than the traditional school system.
Null Hypothesis – Administrators will have no opinion or con opinion about year round schooling.
Limitations
The demographics and location of many researched schools for year round schooling are vary similar and do not provide variety. This allows the data to be very specific to the population it serves as an example to. If you are a new to administration and find interest in year round schooling, you may deter from it because of the lack of empirical data for your community type. Having vast amounts of data from an array of regions, states, economic levels, races, and grade levels would help in this methodologies reliability.
Definitions
Year round schooling – school calendar is organized into nine-week quarters and organized by tracks.
Year round education – education days are still 180 days, but stretched over the entire year with shorter breaks.
Academic achievement – refers to the level of schooling you have successfully completed and the ability to attain success in your studies. An example of this is grades or grade point average (GPA).
Operating cost -are expenses associated with the maintenance and administration of a business on a day-to-day basis
Administrator – a group of people who manage the way a company, school, or other organization functions.
English Language Learner – are defined as students whose primary or home language is other than English and who are eligible for services
Extra curricular activities – organized student activities (such as athletics) connected with school and usually carrying no academic credit.
Abbreviations
YRS – Year Round Schooling
YRE – Year Round Education
Admin – Administrator
ELL’s – English Language Learners
Restatement of problem
The pros and cons of year round schooling are equal to an administrator, and do not prove to be a better choice than traditional schooling.
Review of Literature
Opheim, C., Mohajer, K. H., & Read, R. W., Jr. (1995). Evaluating Year-Round Schools in Texas. Evaluating Year-Round Schools in Texas, 116(1), 116-120. http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mckendree.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=7b1c6a07-6ade-4ceb-bd4a-61b597daa16a@sessionmgr4008
In this article, the attitudes of school principals in Texas were examined as they studied both a year-round and traditional elementary school. They surveyed the following year-round school issues: professional staffing and development, administrative issues, student achievement, parental and community concerns, and cost factors. This study is amongst the first few to survey administrators in both YRS and traditional schools. The provided insight is a very “unique and valuable perspective to the success and problems of YRE” (Opheim, Mohajer, & Read, 1995).
One of the hypothesis created by the researchers focused on how YRS creates significant administrative benefits. This large and rather vague category was broken down into four specific areas: administrative burnout, teacher/staff/student absences, utilization of facilities, and student discipline. The topics of utilization of facilities and administrative burnout support my research topic. During summer months, the facilities of most schools sit idle and are not used over a two through three-month period. When YRS are in session, staff and students use facilities more efficiently. YRS calendars schedules differ greatly than traditional schools, and have many different variations and optional tracks. “One potential worry for administrators in YRS systems is more difficulty in scheduling” (Opheim, Mohajer, & Read, 1995). Although this may seem like a great opportunity for administrative preferences, it in turn can complicate the scheduling process. When an administrator is on a multi-track system where different groups of students are in and out of school at the same time, this causes scheduling conflicts. More planning between parents, staff, administrators, and the local community is necessary and not optional. Even when an admin chooses a single-track system, they must coordinate and schedule possible enrichment programs that fill the frequent breaks in YRS.
Hypothesis number three spoke on the YRS effects of student achievement. The biggest debate surrounding YRS is that it enhances student learning and academic retention. The current research about this argument is limited and not conclusive. The studies conducted are small, isolated and show minimal increases in YRS student scores on standardized tests. In spite of the lack of studies supporting student achievement due to YRS, there is a lot of general agreement on its benefits to disadvantage, special education, or bilingual education students. “Alcorn reports that, on average, disadvantage students lose significantly more knowledge in the summer months than advantage students” (Alcorn 1992). Other researchers say that special education children do well with YRS because it establishes a consistent routine.
Year-round schooling creates significant parental and community concerns encompasses hypothesis number four. Summer vacation time has been apart of the American culture for decades; the thought of taking this away has caused many community groups to push away the idea. Community groups such as; Save Our Summers (SOS), Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA), and others have many financial ties in organized summer activities. The primary reason many year-round schools are elementary focused is because of the difficulties in coordinating extracurricular activities for secondary students. Many parents find it very inconvenient to have on child in traditional schooling and the other in YRS. “This may be why parents have been much more supportive of YRE if it is offered as an alternative rather than a mandatory program” (Read 1992). Over time many families do not have the financial resources to travel like traditional American families have done in the past. Therefore supporters of YRE understand that a large number of students have nothing to do in the summer months, and occupying their free time with schooling can help.
Hypothesis five contains two parts; operating maintenance costs are higher in YRS and multi-track scheduling reduces total costs. There have been no definitive studies to support total savings when conducting YRE. One school district would report savings in one area, while another school district would report costs. The area in which YRS is implemented has a big impact on what costs are considered savings or debts. Operating costs can extend to teacher salaries and facility maintenance. Some year round schools are paying teachers a higher salary to cover the intersessions and enrichment programming. The extension of year-round insurance will attribute to the overall costs since school will be in session for a longer period of time. During summer vacation schools usually conduct major repairs and renovations, with YRS in effect this can no longer occur in the idle summer months. The second part of the hypothesis gives an alternative to the cost concerns of YRS through a multi-track scheduling. Under a multi-track schedule, school facilities are used 240 days of the year, and students attend only 180 days. Spreading the costs over a larger student population allows for savings to occur. The original purpose of multi-track YRE was to remedy crowded schools and reduce the need of building new schools.
This Texas school research study gave me the opinionated support concerning YRS through the views of administrators. This topic is still relatively new and has limited research from the perspective of an administrator. An admin is a decision maker, usually has classroom experiences, and considered a community leader in some way. The survey they conducted received the thoughts and views of admin in both YRS and traditional nine-month schooling. Their overall findings support that admin do not see the cons of YRS as a negative obstacle to its implementation. They often saw that YRS possessed many benefits that are positive in nature. The grade levels of each admin did give a different response on subjects such as scheduling conflicts and community support. Overall the pros and cons of YRS schooling did not create a non-responsive opinion from the surveyed admin in this specific study.
Moore, Kimberly and Verstegen, Deborah A. (2004) “The Year Round Calendar: An Analysis of Student Outcomes,” Educational Considerations: Vol. 31: No. 2. https://doi.org/10.4148/0146-9282.1250
American schools have always supported the top-achieving students while low, average, or poor students simply drop out and work minimum wage jobs. “It appears that schools must change their ‘one size fits all’ mentality” (Moore & Verstegen 2004). Despite all of the changes over time to public schooling the one thing that remains unchanged is the school calendar. If all students are expected to achieve highly academically, schools must learn to accommodate the time needed for different students to gain the same knowledge and skills. The research study conducted by Kimberly Moore and Deborah Verstegen looks into student outcomes academically based on factors such as: socioeconomic, gender, ethnicity, special education, giftedness, and family structure. The answer to this global concern may be seen through the implementation of YRS. This study examines the learning differences of students in an academic year school versus YRS.
Teachers, admin, and parents have discussed that children loose a lot of educational information over the summer time. The option of YRS has been seen as the alternative to this issue. Learning loss over the summer can be very damaging to disadvantage students. Research shows that low or average students loose a lot more knowledge over the summer than upper class students. This claim was supported by a research study conducted in Atlanta. “After controlling for socioeconomic status…[it was found] that although learning slowed over the summer, advantage students made gains…while disadvantage students gained no additional learning” (Viadero 1972). During the school year poor children were able to compete effectively with the wealthy students, but fell behind during the summer months.
A longitudinal study of 790 Baltimore students were used in this research study, beginning in first grade and going through high school graduation. The baseline data showed that low socioeconomic students entering first grade with low-test scores learned at the same rate as high socioeconomic students during the school year. These same groups of students were compared in the summer months and the achievement gap negatively impacted the low socioeconomic students. Common summer school programs were looked to as the solution but did not help remedy the gap. Often times summer school programs did not cater to poor students therefore did not aide in closing the summer achievement gap.
The calendar of YRS is very similar to a traditional school calendar. Year round schools requires the mandatory 182 schools days but two optional intersessions, one in the fall and one in the latter part of winter. These extra days are full days and bring the total number of YRS student attendance days to 192. Some YRS allow for intersession days to be optional, but within this study student participation rates were almost 100%. When you compare traditional and YRS calendars, the programs and curriculum were identical. “Both year round and traditional classes used the same curriculum, class sizes were similar…and the teachers’ level of education and years of experience were roughly the same” (Moore & Verstegen 2004).
A pleather a of variables were controlled within this case study but there are many other factors that cannot be accounted for and compared within the realms of test scores. Overall, the school observed in this study showed a positive academic effect on students who were a part of YRS in mathematics and history. The most critical finding was the closing of the gap between poor and wealthy students with YRS.
This in depth study of student achievement helps support my overall thesis. Administrators who are in charge of many schools across the nation are becoming increasingly accountable for student learning by the state and federal government. It is important that all methods and modes of increasing academic achievement are looked into and possibly implemented. Year round schooling is one possible option for student academic achievement.
Wildman, L., Arambula, S., Bryson, D., Bryson, T., Campbell, K., Dominguez, T., . . . Watkins, M. R. (1999). The Effect of Year-Round Schooling on Administrators. The Effect of Year-Round Schooling on Administrators, 119(3), 465-479. Retrieved June 27, 2018, from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mckendree.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=4&sid=fe1e58ee-67b2-482c-aa34-04152434344b@sessionmgr4006
Year round schooling has been a big topic when it comes to the success of the students, but what about the success of the administration? This article review looks at the viewpoints and opinions of experienced admin who have taught in year round schools and or traditional schools as well. They will delve deeper into the impact it has on administrators.
The article begins with a few testimonials from seasoned admin who currently work in YRS. One admin who served as a year round school principal for two years stated, that she really never had a break and once one track ended another one began. Two more admin commented similarly; year round schooling is never ending, they never really received a break, and their personal lives became stressed and limited. As a admin you are not suppose to let your team see you sweat, but what do you do when you are on the verge of a burn out? Many admin expressed that the limited time between each track session start date left them little to no time to reflect of their past decisions, growth or the lack thereof. One admin even reported never using one vacation day until after the first two years as YRS principal. Those long summer breaks are rather short for admin on a traditional school calendar. They are always at work preparing, reflecting, and revamping from last years data results. Without these long extended vacation times they are unable to plan and look forward to anything but basic levels of survival for the next group of incoming students. People often forget that administrators have families and personal lives as well. The long-term effects on admin who teach in YRS are worrisome to both researchers and current admin. Admin expressed that it was very hard for them to take the allotted personal time off because they felt obligated to work through vacation times. The research showed a high “unwillingness to give up control” (Wildman 1999).
Administrators who placed their school on a multi-year round track expressed that all school events must be done more than once to accommodate those who were unable to be present the first time. Communication problems arose because of the large groups of students and staff that would be in and out of the school at any given time. Admin who are in charge of YRS have to become familiar with delegation to ensure that responsibility is shared throughout the staff. Picking up the slack for one another may aide in the uneasy feeling of being burnt out or overworked. The researchers also interviewed a superintendent who adamantly expressed admin have to use their vacation time. He implemented a ‘use them or loose them’ policy to ensure all staff where forced to take personal vacation. He later stated, “If a hospital can run year-round, then public education can do it” (Wildman 1999).
Overall many of the views and opinions collected in this study exposed the lack of willingness to let go as an administrator. The idea of delegation and shared responsibility was a fear amongst surveyed admin. This article supports the idea that the cons an admin might see in YRS like less time off and limited breaks between sessions, may be a personal choice rather than the actual systems downfall. Although YRS does take more work from the schools staff and community as a whole, it really falls on the shoulders of the admins willingness to work with the team and not against it.
Little, L. (2011). Year-Round versus Traditional Schools. Year-Round versus Traditional Schools.
Comparisons between traditional schooling and YRS come down to viability and cost effectiveness. These two topics are the most important to a community when they are considering switching over to YRE. This journal review explains the differences between both school systems in the areas of academic achievement, operational costs, and teacher motivation. Together these major factors play a part in the acceptance or denial of the new way of education.
Access to learning is a major key in academic success for all students. Many low income and impoverished students struggle in summer months to retain knowledge acquired over the school year. During those summer breaks they often do not have the funding to participate in quality educational summer programming. Research shows an equal amount of success and failures with this specific group type in YRS and traditional schools. The calendars of year-round schools are only as good as the plan of enhanced instruction. The full effectiveness of YRS can be seen when “teachers and administrations plan wisely and use time sensibly for helping student attain their goals” (Little 2011).
Administrators can see the benefits of YRS in students and teachers as well. Often time’s schools that have switched over to YRS have seen teacher moral boosted and teacher retention increase. Teachers who schools use a single track system teach for less time than traditional calendar teachers, and adds to more flexibility in their personal lives. Multi-tracked teachers will obtain a pay increase compared to that of a traditional calendar teacher. A good admin knows that if their teachers’ morale is increased so will the quality of their teaching, and their students achievement.
Cost effectiveness is a difficult factor to compare in YRS. Each individual districts funding differs and has a different impact on that specific community. Year round schooling may not be a good choice for a community who is not located in an already wealthy area that doesn’t depend on private donations or state funding. The idea of YRS was started to help low socioeconomic students in low-income areas. Implementing this system in an already impoverished area with little to no support from the community or state funding could be very detrimental and bring about a negative outcome.
The article shows much support for YRS in which is supports student academic success, teacher by in, and operational costs. The main idea of YRS is to provide a quality lasting education for all students in a manner that supports instructional methods. The best method for this is YRS.
Rodgers, L. (1993). THE PROS AND CONS OF YEAR-ROUND EDUCATION AT THE ELEMENTARY PUBLIC SCHOOL LEVEL. THE PROS AND CONS OF YEAR-ROUND EDUCATION AT THE ELEMENTARY PUBLIC SCHOOL LEVEL, 1-107. Retrieved May 27, 2018, from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED370160.
Year round schooling is trend that is sweeping across the states. The reason why I label it as a trend is because many people view YRS differently. Some sources such as community members consider it a good alternative to inactive summer breaks for students. Taxpayers are happy to see school facilities used year round, and others testify to limiting student’s abilities to forget what they have learned throughout the school year. Even though these are all good points, there are just as many cons as there are pros when it comes to year round education. Areas of concern range from financial strains to academic concerns. The evidence to build a case supporting or disclaiming YRS is limited and inconclusive. Regardless, this relatively new concept warrants some deeper research.
Year-round education is defined as an organized school calendar across the time span of a year. Year round schooling includes three types of track options; single, multi, and extended. Both the single and multi-track options include calendars days such as: 45/15, 60/20, 60/15, and 90/30. An extended school year schedules can include an all year or eleven-month plan. In YRS vacation times occur more often and optional “intersessions provided opportunities for remediation and enrichment” (Rodgers 1993). In order for a school to be labeled or classified as a year round school, their campus must be in use for all four season for educational purposes.
A single-track school method places all students on the same school and vacation calendar. Single-tracks are usually favorable for admin who want to provide multiple short breaks and improve the quality of education. All students come to school and leave for breaks and vacation all at the same time. In the multi-track school method, different groups of students have different schedules and vacation times. When one group of students are on vacation the other group is still in school. Sometimes groups of students can be divided by grade level. Multi-track methods are favorable to schools that struggle with over crowding. The breakdown of the calendar is very unique to both track methods. A single track includes 180 days of instructional teaching and three months of summer vacation. Single-track calendars can also be divided even further based on the needs of a specific school district. The 45/15 divides the year into four nine-week terms separated by three-week vacations, also known as intercessions. For example: teachers and students attend school for 45 days and then enjoy a 15-day vacation. This same example applies to the 60/20, 60/15, and 90/30 single-track calendar method as well. During a multi-track schedule students are divided into at least two groups and up to about four. Any time throughout the year a group is “off track” or on vacation. This method works best with a large student population of 600 or more. Multi-track schools are usually viewed as a “school-within-a-school” (Rodgers 1993).
Parental buy in is vital in the success of YRE in a district, without their support many schools who attempt YRS will fail. A survey was mailed to parents of 6th graders and asked for their opinion in four areas: family schedules, student grades, parent-school communication, and student learning retention. Scores were rated using an A through F scale. No parent gave a failing grade, but more than eighty percent rated YRS better or the same as traditional schooling. The negative feedback from parents really differed based on each family’s ethnic or socioeconomic background. Mexican-American parents disliked the YRS methods because it interfered with summer field jobs that help with family finances. On the other hand African-American families responded well to the idea of YRE. Families that made some or most of their income from farming did not favor the idea of YRS, for the same reason as Mexican-American families. Parents who disliked and rejected the idea of YRS were because of the following; children at home without siblings or friends, already satisfied with the current calendar, future difficulties in scheduling vacations, community activities are not available during the breaks, and children were bothered by the new schedule. Many parents expressed that students need time to relax; military families spoke about difficulties transferring schools, and some worried about the lack of outdoor activities. United States family dynamics really struggle with the idea of no summer break. But everyone is not a farmer or works in the agricultural field. Parents have different professions that have high peaks of business in summer or fall months. “Many employers prefer to have their employees on vacation throughout the year, instead of only the summer months” (Rodgers 1993). This helps with shift and work coverage at many if not most jobs types. Some families even expressed the desire to spend time with one child at a time, which a different track system could provide. The last and most major concern for parents was childcare. Many admin will have to make it a point to purposefully work with local childcare centers when creating their yearly calendar. When districts, parents, and childcare facilities have all worked together; parents have stated that it was easier to get a sitter for three week rather than those long summer months.
Administrators have to look out for the student’s best interest along with those of the teacher. When a teacher is happy it can rub off on their teaching styles and students. Several teachers commented that student behavior during a year round schooling method improved. Teachers felt as though it was because of the multiple breaks mixed into consistent teaching. Based on the track an admin chooses, it can help alleviate teacher burn out and the use of more unused vacation time. Providing more steady and consistent breaks can help teachers with energy and internal/external passion. With the shortage of teachers and the level of burnouts, admin are seeing more teachers on sick leave. Most if not all can be justified as mental health days, and needed for the overall health of a teacher during a traditional school calendar year. Implementing YRS could cause a change and display fewer teacher absences. Administrators however do hit a few barriers when choosing YRE, one of which is scheduling conflictions. It is already very difficult to schedule a school with a traditional school calendar, and even more difficult with one that has chosen a multi-track method. There wont be a time where a full staff would not be needed; so scheduling vacation times could become a hassle. Even principals who support the idea of YRE admit there is no time for long-term planning. The additional responsibilities of students, scheduling of events, and loss of summer planning time were some of the main concerns of YRS admin. The large number of adjustment areas for an admin seemed to outweigh the pros of YRS. Difficulties in communication to students on breaks, new teacher or family move ins, and upcoming events are only a few. Admins must really be aware of what systems if any work for them within the YRS methods.
Facility upkeep and maintenance differs in traditional and YRS systems. In a traditional school system a schools facility will stay unused for about one-fourth of a calendar year. The cost that many districts have placed in renovating or building schools does not equal the way they are used. Using them year round will make those previous investments more cost effective. Year round schools force districts to lengthen their teacher contracts and earn larger salaries, in all this converts into the district saving money. The reason behind this is that teachers are serving more students and the need for additional salary costs are divided amongst the new student additions. The air, staff, and extended maintenance support costs do not outweigh the savings in buses, textbooks, and insurance. The cons if any really depend on who is viewing this study; those same factors that are considered savings can be translated into costs. More facility use will in turn result in over time facility wear and tear.
The issues with fully supporting or disclaiming YRS are the lack of data and research studies. The results found create an equal and balance effect for both sides of the argument. Overall, any admin within a school district need to really take the time to research YRS before implementation. The main focus should always be the betterment of student education and or their wellbeing. Admin need to be aware that YRE is not a perfect or the best fit for all community types. Research and community support is very important for an implementation of this magnitude.