Parents+and+Public+Attitudes+Towards+Year-Round+Schooling

Parents & Public Attitude Towards Year-Round Schooling Stephanie Robbins, Margaret Decker, Kelli Hishon, & Michael Grzeskiewcz This wiki is designed to share with you the attitudes and thoughts of parents, as well as the public, on their opinions of year-round schooling. You will have knowledge of parents who are for it and against it and why, as well as the public. First, What is year-round schooling? - Year-round schooling is a type of school that has classes all throughout the year - Instead of a long summer vacation they have a schedule with shorter scheduled breaks sporadically - Some have breaks set up like this: - Summer vacation - 6 weeks - Spring vacation - 3 weeks - Winter vacation - 4 weeks - Fall vacation - 3 weeks

Click this link to watch a video of a debate on year-round schooling @http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=3055109n

Parents Fight AGAINST Year-Round Schooling Parents argue against year-round schooling and these are some of there reasonings: - Whether the students are on a break for 10 weeks (normal summer) or 3 weeks (year-round schooling breaks) they will forget things, therefore the teachers will have to review what was taught in the past anyways - Students who normally partake in summer camps or want a summer job will be at loss - Schools will need to purchase air conditioners <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Sport games will be effected because everyone is on different schedules <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Parents could have children on different schedules at the same school <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">- If not every school in the school district does this, students could have friends at a non year-round school <span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">- If a parent has a babysitter taking care of their children it might be harder to find one for shorter time periods rather than a full summer (Nguyen, 2005).

<span style="color: #0080ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Local News: [] <span style="color: #ffaf00; font-family: Georgia,serif;">- In Howard County, Maryland a group of parents started a petition against year-round schools <span style="color: #ffaf00; font-family: Georgia,serif;">-Howard County was 1/6 school districts last year that won grants towards year-round schoolng <span style="color: #ffaf00; font-family: Georgia,serif;">- Governor William Schaefer was pro year-round schooling <span style="color: #ffaf00; font-family: Georgia,serif;">-He believed it would hold down building costs <span style="color: #ffaf00; font-family: Georgia,serif;">-Whether or not they are doing year-round schooling is not settled yet, but for now they are not

<span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">Parents say costs for schooling will increase because of increased days, teachers <span style="color: #ff0000; font-family: Georgia,serif;">needed, school lunches, transportation, and extra-curricular activities.

<span style="color: #ff00ff; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 130%;">Summer Plans? <span style="color: #8500ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">-Parents worry YRS will effect summer plans <span style="color: #8500ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">-summer vacations <span style="color: #8500ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">-babysitters and caretakers <span style="color: #8500ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">-summer activities (sports, camps, clubs) <span style="color: #8500ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">-Doesn't give students time to relax and hangout with friends during the summer months

[] <span style="color: #0080ff; font-family: Georgia,serif;">The link above is an article from Wake County, North Carolina. 22 of their schools were decided to have mandatory year-round schooling. After this decision parents protested, they believed YRS should be a last resort.



Parents are in support of Year Round School because: · Kids won’t forget what they learned over the summer. · Schools will save money because they don’t have to fund summer school. · Easier to schedule family vacations. · Parents don’t need to hire house sitters to take care of their kids because they will already be at school during the summer. · Kids will learn the information better with more time spent in the classrooms and with the teachers. · Obama is in s upport of year round schooling and believes that the change should occur soon. · Many States are in support of year round schooling and some have already made the change.



A school in Chicago that already has Year round School []

**Public Fights FOR Year-Round Schooling**

Some reasons why the public argues for year round schooling :
 * such a long summer break away from school often causes students to forget learned material, whereas a shorter break decreases the chance of forgetting
 * other countries around the world use this system
 * more students can get the accommodation they need at one school through multitracking
 * vacations can be scheduled easier because there is less traveling at the same time
 * students become bored and unproductive over summer break
 * short breaks can provide time for students to receive enrichment education
 * schools not used over summer are inefficient

[]

Above is a link to an article called, "Year-Round School Gains Ground Around U.S." This article was written by reporter, Alex Johnson and was retrieved from msnbc.com. This article contains different facts, reasons, and quotes all supporting the idea of year round schooling. Many people feel that based on the drop out rates, test scores, and academic achievement levels, our method of schooling is not working. This article also goes into discuss how, well-off children may have access to academic camps or tutoring over summer, but students without such advantages may struggle come time to go back to school. It is also stated in this article that by 2012, education groups estimate that more than 5 million people and 10% of all children enrolled in American public schools could be going to school year round.

[|Obama Interview!]

Above is an interview with Obama discussing his opinion on year-round schooling. Obama thinks the idea makes sense. The interview starts out with the interviewer discussing how "a third of students dont graduate, a third of students arent college ready when they graduate, and only 35% of 12th graders are proficient in reading". Obama also begins the interview by discussing how "historically, we were ahead of a vast majority of the world educationally, and now they have caught up and are even surpassing us".

[|http://www.nayre.org/] ` **NAYRE**

NAYRE is the National Association For Year-Round Education. Above is a link to their home page website. NAYRE describes themselves as a "nationally recognized organization of educators, parents, and businesses working to increase students achievement through its focus on creating effective time on learning. The association promotes a balanced academic calendar to reduce learning loss and extensive review time that decreases time for new learning." This web page holds a lot of facts, evidence, and information on why the association believes in year round schooling. There are studies, speeches, and reports available on the topic, their are news articles, and conference presentations. There is even a study called "Lasting Consequences of the Summer Learning Gap" from the American Sociological Review.

[]


 * CNN **

This is a link to a CNN article titled, "We Need Year-Round School To Compete Globally". This article had many valid key points as to why people want year-round schooling...


 * American 15 year olds ranked 14th in reading, 17th in science, and 25th in math in a study of students in 34 nations
 * The organization estimates that by boosting out scores for reading, math, and science by 25 points over the next 20 years, the United would gain $41 trillion over the lifetime of the generation born in 2010.
 * At 180 days, we have the shortest school years of the countries tested
 * More than a month of teaching time at the beginning of the school year is spent reteaching the stuff kids forgot about over break

<span style="background-color: #ffff00; color: #0f27eb; display: block; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 150%; text-align: center;">**Public Fights AGAINST Year-Round Schooling**



**<span style="color: #5e555f; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; line-height: 115%;">As year-round schooling becomes more common in the United States, primarily in the west, a majority of the public is still opposed to it and believes that a nine-month school year is better. **

** Case Study ** <span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 14px;">- Research was done in the mid-western United States regarding people’s opinions on year-round schooling

- A total of 30 individuals living in northwestern Ohio and southeastern Michigan completed an opinion survey on year-round education

<span style="color: #7030a0; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 115%;">- Sixty percent opposed year-round schooling, 27 percent favored it, and 13 percent were undecided

//(Vanderhooven, 1994)//

** Public Reasoning for Opposing Year-Round Schooling ** ** - ** They found it to be an unnecessary change

- Concern with changing the traditional summer vacation

**<span style="color: #006c31; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: 115%;">- ** Unaware of any benefits to students and/or the community as a whole

- Aren’t kids busy enough as it is?

· Opponents of year-round schools also suggest kids today, who tend to be involved in more extracurricular activities than their parents ever were, are busy enough and need the traditional summer break to relax and regroup

//(Pros and cons of year-round schools, 2008)//

**<span style="color: #002060; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">Are there significant educational benefits for a year-round education? Research says no. ** <span style="color: #002060; font-family: Arial,sans-serif;">- Although teachers and parents may have observed some improvement, the results of standardized tests showed no such improvement

- [|Dr. Gary L. Peltier] (1991) notes that when the scores of year-round school students were compared to those of traditional calendar students, no significant difference was seen

- The result of such findings have a majority of the public agree that educators should concentrate more on improving the quality of time now being spend in school



**<span style="color: #000000; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; line-height: 19px;"> Alexis Avila, Founder and President of Prepped and Polished, responded to // Time // Magazine's article ** [|"The Case Against Summer Vacation"].

// To see video, click here: // <span style="color: blue; font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 110%; line-height: 115%;">[]

References:

<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">(2008, September). Pros and cons of year-round schools. //Straus News//. Retrieved May 5, 2011, from []

Granderson, L. (2011). We need year-round schooling to compete globally. //CNN//. Retrieved from []- -school/

Johnson, A. (2011). Year-round school gains ground around U.S. //Today//.Retrieved from [] -gains-ground-around-us/

Kelly,M. (2011). Year round education: pros and cons. //New York Times//. Retrieved from About.com

Ng, L. (2006). Wake parents protest year-round school. //The Chronicle.// Retrieved May 6, 2011, from dukechronicle.com

Nguyen, L. (1995). Parents circulating petitions against year-round schooling. //The Baltimore Sun.// Retrieved May 7, 2011, from baltimoresun.com

Pepper, S. & Ballninger, C. (2009). NAYRE Specialists in Time and Learning. Retrieved from http:www.nayre.org/

VanderHooven, K. (1994). <span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">Opinions regarding year round education: a survey among the public. Retrieved May 5, 2011, from EBSCO. Year round education is not a good idea. //Year-Round Education//. Retrieved May 5, 2011 from, Sally Student.

Morin, A. (2011) The Pros and Cons of Year Round School. Retrieved from http://childparenting.about.com/od/schoollearning/a/year-round-school-pros-cons.html