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IT'S CATCHING ON
Despite potential risks, an increasing amount of American school districts are witnessing dominating benefits of year-long calendars. Subsequently, such districts have implemented this system using several different approaches, each tailored to their own community.
Tweet by John B. Gordon III, Chief of Schools at Chesterfield County Public Schools, addressing Bellwood Elementary's recent switch to year-round schooling in North Chesterfield, VA.
Madeline Will explains that in the United States, the number of public schools utilizing a year-round calendar increased by over 20 percent from 2006 to 2012, ultimately coming to a total of around 3,700 schools (Will 6).
Similarly, current Rutger’s University School of Law graduate and former Washington D.C. public school second grade teacher, Mary Therese O’Sullivan, points out that by 2013 the number of American schools with shorter summer vacations had doubled in comparison to several prior years (O’Sullivan 403).
This proves that the United States within recent years has been moving toward a more extended model of a school year. The twenty-percent increase in the abundance of year-round academic calendars serves as a suggestion that the attributes of such a schedule may have notable benefits in certain American school districts; officials are starting to notice them more and more. If these schools have continued with it, a year-round system could possibly be worth considering for other districts throughout the nation.
However not every school district experiences the same needs. Widespread implementation of any system must be monitored and tailored carefully to ensure that the schools involved are actually benefitting from the change.
Dr. Opheim explains that there are two main types of year-long calendars, those being school calendar extension and school calendar rearrangement; the first adds school days into slots where long summers would be and ultimately keeps children in school for more days, while the latter inserts short and frequent breaks throughout a full year of schooling (Opheim 115).
Of year-round school models that have been implemented, these two types are most common. Regarding the extended school calendar, while more school time in general would benefit impoverished students, the structure leads to more extensive costs such as maintenance, supplies, and faculty and staff salaries. Such expenses are rarely achievable through public school funding, especially in areas of low income.
This has led to the inevitable development of calendar rearrangement, which permits for the traditional amount of school days, however they are redistributed to be dispersed throughout the year rather than having a longer summer vacation. Teachers are working the same number of days and school buildings are being used the same amount as with a traditional academic calendar. This second method makes year-round schooling more achievable for public schools, even in areas of low socioeconomic status.
Charts by International Friends School. They compare the traditional school calendar to their "IFS Balanced Calendar," a schedule similar to the calendar rearrangement discussed by Dr. Opheim.
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