Attitudes

**Studen** **t Attitudes, Motivation, and Attention Span in Year Round Schooling** by Stephanie Fuller, Erica Gyimesi, Jillian Miller, and Lauren Sibiski

When it comes to evaluating **student's attitudes**, **motivation**, and **attention span** during year round schooling, many research studies have found that, students view the subject matter in a positive light because it offers them more frequent breaks from school.

One study discovered that students had **positive** feelings toward year-r  ound schooling after experiencing one year of the 60-15 calendar (Palmer & Bemis, 1998). While one found no differences, the other two did report significant differences in favor of year-round education in at least a subsample of the stud ent population (e.g., fifth- grade girls showed significant differences; boys did not) (Palmer, et al., 1998).

 - " As one researcher suggests, students make their own decisions about how they will allocate their time and effort to learning tasks, andstudents who are highly motivated to learn will do so. According to one study, when students are highly interested in a learning a ctivity, they will learn more in a given period of time than when they are less engaged. In addition, increasing student motivation has been demonstrated to lead to better student attendance, thus increasing the amount of time students spend in school and, therefore, their potential to benefit from appropriate instruction" (Aronson, Zimmerman, & Carlos,1998).

-Studies show that "**53%** of students favored year round schooling during the summer before implementation, while **79%** of the students f avored it at the end of year," after they experienced year round education. Unfortunately, students felt that year round schooling prohibits them from having summer jobs and/or internships that would be important for their career (Imperial, 2005).

-University School on the campus of East Tennessee State University switched to a year round schedule and released the evaluation of their transition to the year round schedule in July 2001. The evaluation included an analysis of both survey data and student performance data. The University School collected surveys at the end of the first year after implementation for five years. These surveys were given to students, parents, teachers, and staff. The evaluation found that student attitudes toward the year round schedule improved a lot after actually experiencing it and students were "overwhelmingly favorable" to the switch to year round education. Also, the evaluation said students seemed to be very pleased with "not only the academics, but the environment, activities, learning process, intersession activities and vacation opportunities" and that students were pleased with their test scores and felt motivated to go to class ("University School," 2001).

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Parent/Student testimony begins at 0:39

 **Although many students have positive attitudes toward year-round** **schoo** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 21px;">**ling,**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 21px;">**is it worth it in the end?**  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 21px;">﻿  <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 21px;">Despite the fact that many students embrace year round schooling after they are exposed to it, it's hard to determine if the benefits outweigh the negative aspects. At times, school work can become very difficult and rigorous; if there is constant pressure to do well and be focused, students may become apathetic or frustrated with year round schooling. Just because students enjoyed one year of year round school, does not mean that they will enjoy it every year for the rest of their academic careers. But, on the other hand, students will now not have to wait for summer school to catch up to their fellow classmates, they will be able to take remedial classes earlier in the year. Unfortunately, many students feelings about year round schooling change on a daily basis, so no data collected will ever be 100 percent accurate.

<span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 24px;">**<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 19px;">﻿References ** <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Aronson, J., Zimmerman, J.,& Carlos, L. (April 1998). //Improving stud// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 16px; line-height: 23px;">//ent achievement by extending school: is it just a// ﻿//matter of time?// Retrieved from http://www.wested.org/online_pubs/po-98-02.pdf

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Palmer, E. and Bemis, A. (1998). //Year-Round Education.// Retrieved <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">from ﻿http://www.cehd.umn.edu/carei/reports/docs/year-round.pdf

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">University School releases evaluation of transition to year round schedule. (2001). Retrieved from <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; line-height: 21px;">http://www.etsu.edu/etsu/news/20010184.htm

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Year Round School. (2005). //Teen Ink.// Retrieved from http://www.nayre.org/Teen%20Ink.pdf