Being an active father and working in the education industry now, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about education in general. From my perspective, it seems that the education system in America is sorely lacking. In our local school district, I’ve had several “run-ins” with the administration concerning my children’s education. It seems that the school has no real interest in anything other than getting the kids through school with the least effort possible. I’m generalizing, of course, as there are some outstanding teachers we have encountered. Unfortunately, they are the exception rather than the rule.
I’m not exactly sure what to blame, but it seems that the school is more willing to ignore bad grades, toss out papers, etc. than to actually teach the students. Unfortunately, this is often done without parental knowledge. We have experienced this directly, however, when questioning the number of incorrect and uncorrected papers our child brought home. Instead of offering to go over the papers with the students, the school instead insisted on throwing them out so we “wouldn’t be bothered by them.” Brilliant suggestion.
Another problem I see is that students seem to spend an inordinate amount of time re-learning everything each year. In some cases, my children have spent the first 2-3 months of the school year reviewing the previous years learning. While I’m a firm believer that repetition leads to better understanding, I’m also of the opinion that spending this much time on review is detrimental to the student in the long run.
Instead, perhaps it’s time to change the system. The material review is necessary each year because students do not retain material they have learned over long periods of time. It’s new material to them, they have not practiced it enough to truly learn the concepts, and there is a large break during the summer where they are likely not engaged in any educational activity. However, there is a solution. Modifying the school year so that it encompasses the entire year can help cut down on these problems. Initially, I believe keeping the existing 180 day school year is necessary, but it can be spread out over the year, leaving 1-3 week breaks at various points. Additionally, I think the year should be split into two distinct semesters. This allows a break point at the beginning and end where testing and review can occur. Review would still be necessary, but should take a much shorter time to complete.
There’s much more to this than merely re-arranging the school calendar, though. The curriculum needs to be adapted to this new schedule. Educators need to spend time reinforcing concepts over time, perhaps coming back to earlier skills throughout the year. Reinforcement of skills at various periods throughout the year keeps them fresh in the minds of the students, and allows them the practice they need to succeed. Additionally, breaks should have definitive goals set for them. Perhaps the reading of a book over the break, additional practice sheets, etc. The student won’t be engaged full-time over breaks, but they can still practice.
In fact, I think it’s high time we start leveraging some of the technology we have available and use it for this purpose. I remember getting homework, occasionally, over holiday breaks. Depending on my mood, I would either spend the first day or two finishing all of it, or wait until the last day to do it. Waiting until the last day helped to refresh some of the concepts in my mind, but defeated the purpose of having work to do over the break. Instead, using new technology, this material can be provided to the student at specific intervals during the break. Websites can provide the necessary material to the student at specific intervals, enhancing the practice they get.
I believe that, done correctly, even slower students will be able to keep up with the class given this type of schedule. From my own observation, it seems that students that fall behind do so because they miss a key concept, be it through not understanding, or through absence on a critical day. Either way, once this concept has been lost, it becomes a major struggle to regain ground and catch up to the class. However, a year-round type of school would lend students additional time during which they can catch up with a key concept. With reviews being spread out over the year, educators can devote more time to teaching initial key concepts. They can spend two days instead of one. They can provide additional help to students who struggle while the rest of the class reviews recent concepts. Overall, I believe students will be able to stay with the class, allowing educators to delve deeper into subjects, providing a deeper understanding to students.
However, a recent study, back in 2007, seems to indicate that there is no advantage to year-round schooling. The study found that there was no significant increase in test results between students from traditional 9-month schools and students from year-round schools. I find fault with this study, though. To begin with, they state that the year-round schools they looked at mostly suffered from overcrowding and that the year-round scheduling was adopted specifically because of this overcrowding. In contrast to this, the traditional 9-month schools did not have this problem. In my opinion, overcrowding generally results in educators that are resource constrained, overworked, and constantly struggling to keep up. It seems to me that if they were able to provide their students an education comparable to that of non-crowded schools, then they did pretty well.
Additionally, the study concentrated on test schools from year end testing of kindergarden and first grade students. These are students that are just learning the basics, barely able to write, let alone take tests. I don’t believe they have the experience at that point to benefit from year-round schooling. I would be more interested in how the test scores vary from year to year over the students entire education. At what point do the test results begin to vary, if at all? My guess is that they begin to vary somewhere around third grade and up.
There are, of course, drawbacks to year-round education as well. For instance, many schools are older and, while they have heating systems, they do not have adequate cooling systems. As a result, the school gets rather hot during summer months, leading to a less than desirable condition for students. Various summer-oriented institutions, such as summer camps, will suffer. Summer staffing, often filled by older students, will suffer as students will not have time to devote to a job.
All of these problems can be overcome, though, if people are willing to support better education for our children. President Obama himself has supported modifying school calendars, and there are parents out there who support the idea as well. There is definitely more to learn in this area, and I think we need to spend the time and money to do it. Our children’s education is at stake here, as is the future of our workforce.
More information about year-round schooling can be found at the website of the National Association For Year-Round Education.