Cutting summer vacation short and having schools open all-year-long is not a new topic of education discussion, but more and more school districts are actually implementing it. Certainly the big benefit is not having kids undergo the summer slide where they lose some of the gains they made from the previous academic year. Year-round schools would also alleviate cramming a lot of material into the last few weeks of school, giving proper time to subjects that either get glanced over or discarded altogether.
Sounds like a great idea, but there are hurdles. Not the least of which involves notifying and acclimating parents to the changes. In Indianapolis, despite repeated notices and a media blitz, there were many absences on the first day of school this year after the switch to year-round schooling, according to a recent Indianapolis Star article. Another problem is ending such things as summer vacations, summer road trips, summer camps, and summer jobs for older children.
Indianapolis schools went year-round partly in response to a failing Adequate Yearly Progress label for No Child Left Behind. Hopefully, the trade-off will be worth it.
As the rest of the country gets ready to head back to school, let’s keep an eye on Indianapolis and other areas that instituted year-round schooling. Let’s stay open to the possibility that year-round schools could very well help academic progress.
I teach at a year round school in NC and have been here for twelve years. Having taught on both the traditional calendar and the year round calendar I can say that I wouldn't go back to a traditional calendar! We are nine weeks in school and three weeks off. It's wonderful for students, parents and teachers!