Proposition-
Resolved: that the United States federal government should initiate a policy that would require all public schools to adopt year-round “single track” school year.
I. Issue one: The current school calendar is impractical and hinders the United States in the global competition for higher intelligence levels.
1. “Single track” - Provides for a one hundred and eighty day instructional year. Permits a modified vacation schedule.
2. “In some neighborhoods, parents can afford to keep their children busy in the summer by sending them to summer camp or taking them on trips and so on. That doesn’t happen in most cases here. The kids have a long summer and, after a month there’s nothing to do” (Diotte).
3. “...Parents often can’t afford to keep kids busy during a two-month summer break. That leaves kids with nothing to fill their time but trouble” (Evans).
4. “A lot of people don’t realize that when kids are in school for long stretches, they too experience a lot of stress and boredom, just like adults would... You can’t learn very well if you’re stressed and bored” (Diotte).
5. “ ‘The nine month calender was never designed for education in the first place,’ says Charles Ballinger, the association’s executive director. ‘It was designed to aid the agricultural industry of the past century. All schools in the United States have been trying to educate on a noneducational calendar’ ” (Nguyen).
6. “ ‘If we looked at it today and started with a clean slate, I don’t think we’d ever come up with a nine- month calendar and say, yeah, it’s a good idea for people to take three months off and do no school work at all’ Mr. Splitek said, who is San Antonio’s associate superintendent of planning” (Wertheimer).
7. “Year round schooling solves the problem of overcrowding in a school, because only 3/4 of the people will be there at once” (Pederson).
8. “During the break, the students often forget some of what they’ve learned. and teachers spend the first few weeks reteaching” (Vance).
9. “That made sense years ago when the majority of the population was farming. But now the vast majority of the people live in urban or suburban environments” (Vance).
10. “Japan seems to be beating the socks off of US in the K-12 education range. It might be that we could learn something from Japan” (On-line source).
II. Issue two: Our plan solves for the incompetency of the current system and increases academic levels, due to a revised schedule which spreads out the 180 days of the traditional school calendar.
1. “Don Royan of the Calgary Board of Education says a 1997 study showed that both teacher and student attendance had improved. As well, 87 per cent of Calgary’s year-round teachers said they felt students had better retention of their lessons” (Hunter).
2. Carolyn Shields, an associate professor in the faculty of education in the University of British Columbia...looked at performance of schools in Utah, where year round education is widely instituted. Over six years, Shields says, 20 per cent of the scores for traditional schools were below the predicted range, while only four per cent of multi-track [a type of year round schooling] schools fell below (Hunter).
3. “Research on the [year round school’s] schedule’s effect on students has been inconclusive. Some studies and evaluations show improvement in achievement; others show no change. Educators said they know of no studies that show a negative impact.” (Wertheimer)
4. “There is no educational reasons for opposing the concept of an alternative calender.” (White Water School Board Community Team)
5. “The vast majority of the more than 2,700 schools [with Year-round schooling calendars] show improved academic success, with the same amount of days per student.” (Domenech)
6. “The shorter terms and more frequent vacations associated with year-round schooling appear to reduce dropout rates. The Jefferson County (CO) schools, for example, found that the dropout rate went from 5% to only 2%.” (Inger)
7. “In the 19 studies that were taken in 1995, there were 64 possible categories or areas that compared year round education with nine month calendar programs. The categories were given plus, minus, or mixed result grades. Of the 64, 54 (or 84%) of the categories were rated plus, meaning that in those categories year-round education students outperformed their nine-month calendar counterparts. Three of the 64 (5%) were rated minus, and seven of the 64 (11%) were mixed results.” (Winters)
8. “There were statistically significant differences in favor of the YRE in both math and reading achievement for all students, and especially in reading for at-risk students. Statistical significance in favor of YRE was also found in both reading and math for low SES schools. The year round school also yielded practically significant results in 17 out of 20 data analysis comparisons, with effect sizes ranging from .21 to .88” (Winters)
9. “It is much harder to learn, and teach with crowded classrooms. Year round schooling solves the problem of overcrowding in a school, because only 3/4 of the people will be there at once.” (Pederson)
10. “A high school teacher reported that general morale among the teaching staff seemed to improve [since the beginning of their Year-round school plan], quoting students as saying ‘Teachers aren’t so crabby;’ and ‘We are listening more and teachers are nicer’” (White Water School Board Community Team).
III. Issue three: Prevents the need for districts to build costly new schools to accommodate the quickly growing population, reduces amounts of overall funding needed.
1. A teacher teaching the 270-day school year gets 50% more pay. That teacher works 50% more time. Two teachers teaching the 270 day school year would do 50% more work each, and therefore the same work as another teacher teaching 180 days. Therefore, the teaching costs per student remains the same. The teachers get more pay, but do more work.So there is no additional teacher cost per student under year round schooling. (Novak)
2. “ No matter which year round plan is adopted, the chief reason for converting to YRE is to avoid the cost of building a new school. Expenses would be incurred for building, design, engineering, construction, and furnishing as well as for infrastructure, reconstruction (streets, sewers, water, utilities, furniture).” (Igner)
3. “Costs for transition to the new schedule include those for feasibility studies, administrative planning time, and teacher in-service training. But these are modest compared to the avoided construction costs.” (Igner)
4. “Teachers also benefit from year round schooling. Since the teacher begins and ends at different times than the traditional school, ordering and buying textbooks will not only be easier and quicker, but more economical.” (Pederson)
5. The new laws that are being passed, such as the laws in Illinois are allowing school districts that want to make improvements to borrow more money to do so. (Mitchell)
6. “The tax payers save some 30 mills a year in taxes because fewer buildings will be needed. And they save on the $6,000- $10,000 per year in additional fringe benefits for each new teacher that isn’t needed. If year round schools resulted in only 100 less new teachers,needed, $600,000 in additional benefits payments per year would be saved.” (Novak)
7. “Think of it. By implementing year-round schools, PVSD can save some $57 million in construction costs.” (Novak)
8. “[In] a study done for the California State Board of Education indicated that it would cost nearly $4 million to build a 24 classroom elementary school (720 students), and more than $6 million to build a secondary school addition to accommodate 720 students” (Inger).
9. “But, through the Education Reform Act of 1990, the state [of Kentucky] provides schools with additional funding for before-, after- and summer-schools programs” (Vance).
10. “School districts that respond to temporary increases in enrollment by constructing new buildings run a serious risk of costly over-building” (Inger).
IV. It works now. Children, parents and teachers agree that the system is a definite improvement over the old system.
1. April Cocks, a fourteen year old at Eastwood high school, who used to have trouble in school, comments that “in between the year you get (an extra) break so you let all your stress out. My grades improved five- to seven-percent because I got to release all my stress over the breaks and study more” (Evans).
2. “The city of approximately 6,500 citizens has maintained a tuition-free, year round school program at PMHS since the 1973-74 school year.” (Dr. Bradford)
3. “Year round schooling alone cannot guarantee success for teachers and students. It is a process that must be accompanied by improvement of curriculum and instruction. Resources must be provided to facilitate the necessary changes, new activities must be initiated by the school and the teachers to promote learning, and communication is a necessity between administrators, teachers, and parents in order for this to continue to work and be successful.” (Unknown Author)
4. “With the Year-Round School program now intact, attendance is up and stress levels for kids and teachers is down. Most importantly, kids have improved their scores on provincial tests.” (Diotte)
5. “The older system promotes vandalism in the later summer months because the kids get bored and have nothing else to do” (Diotte).
6. “A high school teacher reported that general morale among the teaching staff seemed to improve [since the beginning of their Year-round school plan], quoting students as saying ‘Teachers aren’t so crabby;’ and ‘We are listening more and teachers are nicer.’” (White Water School Board Community Team)
7. “ A combination of factors should exist in order to maximize cost effectiveness but if some of these factors are missing, then the likelihood of savings appears much reduced” (Naylor).
8. “Year round schooling solves the problem of overcrowding in a school, because only 3/4 of the people will be there at once.” (Pederson)
9. “ ‘At first, everybody’s going to think it’s really weird when you’re in school and everyone’s going to play street hockey,’ said Jamey Dempsey, ‘But it’s real good. Its not that crowded and it’s fun’ ” (Nguyen).
10. “ ‘It gives a real mental health break for my teachers,’ said Reinhardt principal Jill Barney” (Wertheimer). |
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