Year-Round School

2.6 months of learning is lost per year because students forget what they learned over the summer (Priddy). The traditional school calendar, which gives students three months of relaxation and no education, is having negative effects as the years go on. Year-round school, 45 days of learning followed by 15 days off, would provide students a less stressful year and other benefits as well. There are currently 3,253 year-round schools in the United States such as, Beecher Community and Flint High School. California currently has 130 year-round schools making it the leader in America (“Year-Round School Education Statistics”). The most common year-round plan has 15 days during the fall, three days for Thanksgiving, 15 days for winter break, 15

Teachers face a lot of stress when there are not enough breaks to catch up on grading and relax away from pesky students. Renata Hyrman is a teacher at a year-round school in Canada. She travels around presenting facts and statistics to schools debating transferring to a year-round program. She states that 70% of sick days taken by teachers have been reported stress-related (Sagan). The days teachers take off cause students more stress as a result. Furthermore, if year-round school was established, teachers will not be under as much pressure, which could impact the number of days they take off work positively. With year-round school teachers will have to spend less time reviewing and more time teaching lessons required by the government. Teachers need to follow guides and requirements for the classes they teach. They often feel rushed in teaching all the required information in one school year because of the time spent reviewing forgotten information (Priddy). Teachers are also pressured to cover certain lessons and topic for each grade. With time spent reviewing lost information they feel rushed to catch up and meet the requirements. Students are stressed during the school year because they have too few breaks. Stress from school can lead students to a lack of motivation. Year-round schools have an average dropout rate of 2% while a traditional school’s dropout rate is

American students are falling behind students in countries who have shorter summers because of year-round education. In a recent study of 34 countries, done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 15-year-old Americans were positioned 14th in reading, 17th in science, and 25th in math (Granderson). American students are falling behind in their studies in comparison to other countries. Higher test scores from year-round schooling will benefit not only the students but the economy. The U.S. could potentially “gain $41 over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010” if in the next 20 years if students improve their score in reading, math, and science by 25 points. Year-round school provides an efficient way to accomplish this goal to bring America more money (Granderson). America is no longer leading in the world’s smartest countries and it is having a negative impact on students and the economy. By implementing year-round school, test scores will sky rocket and bring in more money. Countries with more effective schooling from year-round education have fewer dropouts. 26 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development study done had a higher graduation rate than us. All of the schools that beat America had school year-round and went more days than 180. Finland, for example, has a dropout rate of less than 1%. Finland’s