pro+elemenrary+year+round+schooling

Mordecai Salvino ISTC 201.006 Year-Round School: Does it increase academic achievement? School for an average elementary school kid; 180 days, winter break and spring break, 6-7 hours a day, and then summer. Although this is the traditional school system around in modern times, some people feel it is time for a change. What is this change? Well, it’s called year-round schooling.

Year-Round schooling is this concept of having school all year long, even through summer. Although this concept may seem ludicrous, there is a calendar that has been proposed for this system; the 45/15 calendar. Basically, schools would be in session for 45 days, followed by a period of respite consisting of 15 days. Now, if this system is approved by school systems, will it increase academic achievement among students?

A recent study was done by a man named Bradley J.Mcmillen. He did a study down in North Carolina to see if there would be rise in academic achievement of kids in grades 3-8. He found that there is a consistency between traditional and year-round schools in that kids academic achievement is the same. But, there is evidence that year-round calendars may be particularly beneficial for lower achieving students. (Mcmillen, 2001). Evidence shows that there was a correlation of .11 for reading and .13 for mathematics.(Mcmillen, 2001).It may be a small increase, but it is still significant when it comes to education.

Whatever happened to the “No Child Left Behind” act? Does the U.S. really want these lower achieving kids not be academically successful in their lives? If so, these kids will probably end up in poverty, trouble,or low-paying jobs.This isn't a life that kids should ever experience. The kids are our future and the school education systems shall do whatever measure possible to make sure every student in the U.S. succeeds academically.

McMillen, B. (2001). A Statewide Evaluation of Academic Achievement in Year-Round Schools. Journal of Educational Research, 95(2), 67. Retrieved from Education Research Complete database. http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail?vid=1&hid=109&sid=410b6790-4f22-4f6b-b241-35f0b1d586a1%40sessionmgr114&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#db=ehh&AN=5927073