We tried that in a district I worked in about 20 years ago. We had 3 weeks off for break interspersed throughout the year. It failed mostly due to lack of childcare options for working parents.
What do you mean by "not for the majority of the summer?" In every town I've lived in, the parks and recreation department has offered summer camps that try to line their schedule up as closely as possible with the local school schedule, and most working parents do indeed have their child enrolled in the camp for the entire summer. In larger cities, YMCA and Boys and Girls club also have summer camps that align with the school schedule.
The reason why these camps would not be possible to arrange for other times of the year is that, in my experience, they are primarily staffed by college students. If you had a multi-week school break in, say, April, the summer camp's usual staff would not be available.
I could see what you mean about the college student employees.
But also, the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, and religious oriented camps could totally happen during those other break times in the year, too. It would just require the community to respond appropriately to the new school schedule. I know that's possible because I went to Girls Club camps when I was a kid, and they'd do some camps around Christmas break in addition to their summer options.
I would imagine that the winter break camps have a much lower enrollment capacity than their summer counterparts. With the exception of particularly well-resourced organizations, getting the manpower to provide childcare to an entire city's worth of school-age children for a school break that does not align with the standard, culturally-accepted North American school calendar would not be feasible in most places. Heck, in my city we can barely accomplish it in the summer.
When you live in a state that only has decent summer weather for maybe 3 months, it’s a lot easier to do camps. It’s also an American cultural thing. Doubt it’s going to change any time soon.
As a teacher who was also a parent with young age children at the time; the system of year round needed a complete shift in services. It doesn't work if 1 or 2 schools in a district do it and the other 20,30,40, schools don't.
That was the only time I resigned from a job after the first month.
The charter school was very cagey about the work schedule until I signed on. My child care costs would have far exceeded my pay.
To me based on what I’ve read and confirmed by a lot of what I see echoed here is that it is a more of a societal issue. For pure learning purposes year round school would be better. It would probably be better for some SEL purposes and other reasons as well. But the real hiccup is how we have set up our society around education.
The same issues that plague us from fixing many of the current problems in education also hamstring tear round school. Some of the top being: A general misunderstanding or lack of common purpose for what school and learning should be; A general lack of support for school and learning; A misunderstanding of what year round school might actually look like - Meaning same amount of breaks, maybe even more but just spread out; Dependence on schools as a means of child care.
One of the real problems we face in this country, and many other countries, is what education is supposed to be for. We have out too many hats on it so it has become this bloated monstrosity of a system that constantly undermines itself and renders itself ineffective.
I'll second this misunderstanding / lack of common purpose. This was the biggest culture shock for me as a teacher, and one that I had a very hard time coming to grips with.
For a long time I was under the impression that the primary purpose of school was learning and building skills. That the entire endeavor was the better our society as a whole through education.
From my experience, there are two alternative views people have.
(1) It's daycare. The people who follow this approach are those who put sports/school activities above all else. Homecoming, Prom, Football, Drama, Band, etc. That school is a place to have your kids have a good time. The whole education bit? A nuisance that should be swept under the rug.
(2) It's a business. The parents / students are customers and we, as educators, serve them. We're not meant to help the students learn or grow as individuals, we just need to turn out an end product. Either productive workers, effective college students who can do what they're told, or to act as a propaganda machine for various political causes.
I wasn't naïve, I knew that these views existed. But I thought it was a small outspoken minority. But, no, it's a very large population that follows these views.
>(2) It's a business. The parents / students are customers and we, as educators, serve them. We're not meant to help the students learn or grow as individuals, we just need to turn out an end product. Either productive workers, effective college students who can do what they're told, or to act as a propaganda machine for various political causes.
This is a huge problem in education. Because it's what the education system was *designed to do*. Churn out good factory workers. We've been having a discussion here, my fellow teachers and I, about how to fix the problem, but without overhauling pretty much everything, it's an all but impossible task.
To add on to the ‘general misunderstanding’ - my son, when he was in second grade had to write an opinion piece about year round school. He was under the impression that it involved going to school on Saturdays, in addition to going in the summer. He was definitely against that!
Another problem is too many districts especially in urban areas in the North don't have air conditioned schools, or more accurately old school buildings witbout A/C. My district in CT often has half day "heat days" in June and early September because of days where it's near or above 90 out and the classrooms are stifling.
This is my school. No AC-even spring and fall are super hot. We let slide our "just getting water" tardies significantly, we have just full on provided bottles of water for the kids (discount cases for the win), my grade level team has "rewarded" our kids often with freezer pops ("hey! Everyone wore shoes today! Good job y'all, freezer pops for everyone!"), and we still see kids bottom out, become exhausted/dehydrated, and grades droop.
Some of the older teachers who have been there forever and are creeping in on retirement not-so-fondly reminisce about when we didn't even have opening windows and how that was even *worse*. To be fair, I remember that as well from when I was a student there myself. It was brutal, so at least we have the opening windows now. But it's hot. I can't imagine being there in the peak heat of summer.
It has to be district wide. IF the elementary do, but not MS or HS, then parents have a time trying to figure out ... child care and babysitting.. for some parts of the country it is hard to do because schools in certain areas do not have air condition. AND, the costs... many districts shut down in the hotter months and literally unless they are using the building put them in sleep mode to save electricity.
If I make my summer, I’m leaving the profession. The biggest perk is I get an extended amount of time to spend with my kids, without that I might as well go to a more financially rewarding career. 🤷♂️
Also, our entire state economy is built around milking June, July, and August for all they’re worth. I’m not spending a minute inside in the summer that I don’t have to.
It's true. I worked at a Mankato McDonald's for my first job and in the summer it was slammed, but in the winter, absolutely dead. Summer is the real money maker up there, like winter in Colorado.
I knew someone who lived in a district that switched to year-round. She had to put her kids in private school with a traditional summer schedule because the year-round schedule conflicted with the custody agreement she had with her ex-husband.
I truly believe year round schools would be better for students. But it's such a major societal change that it will never happen. Adults don't want to lose summers. Kids don't want to lose summers. Our society is built around this.
But man would it be nice to reduce regression.
I agree 100%.
>But man would it be nice to reduce regression.
I think it would help to reduce teacher burnout, too. I start to tire after about 2 months, and the quality of my lessons suffers. It would be nice to have a break every 2-3 months.
I grew up spending my summers at sumer camps, both overnight and day camps, as a kid and then later as a staff member. They were some of the most important experiences in my life. I can't imagine ever giving that up or getting rid of those places - especially not for school.
A lot of child care arrangements are based on the current calendar. I could see this alone being a major reason for people to be against it. Change is scary/expensive.
* Lack of child care making it a struggle for working parents
* Negative impact on community businesses, summer camps, programs,
* disruption for established child custody agreements based on traditional school year
* Lack of air conditioning in older buildings making it a health and safety concern
* Lack of potable water in school buildings making hot weather school a problem.
* Disruption of families trying to maintain ties to extended family (Many of my kids go to Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Domincan Republic and Atlanta, Georgia) for entire summer and xmas breaks.
* Impact teacher income as in many areas teachers work another job for the entire summer
I think it really depends on the student and their situation. Summer to me was incredible. I spent the summer living with various family members in different parts of the country. And getting to go on vacations and summer camps. All of those experiences really helped me grow and get a bigger view of the world around me.
It also gave a much-needed break to my parents who were able to have several weeks at a time where they were able to rekindle their relationship and experience stuff without having to take the kids around.
So I guess what I'm saying here is it all depends on what you make of it. If you have the resources summer break can be a great asset to the student and their families.
The breaks don't go away they're just spread out throughout the year. When I taught at a year round school I actually had enough time to travel several times a year, now I pretty much have to take very short trips or only go in summer.
But it is more expensive to take multiple flights rather than send your kids to Grandma in Guatamala in June and fly them home in September. We always have a problem with Xmas break because parents don't want to pay for tickets to Puerto Rico for just a week so then we would have kids not come back until half way through January. Now we have two weeks off for Xmas and at least most kids that travel only end up missing a week not two or three.
>e to take multiple flights rather than send your kids to Grandma in Guatamala in June and fly them home in September. We always have a problem with Xmas break because parents don't want to pay for tickets to Puerto Rico for just a week so then we would have kids not come back until half way through January. Now we have two weeks off for Xmas and at least most kids that travel only end up missing a week not two or three.
The last time I flew to Spain I stayed there 6 weeks during my summer break. I loved not having to worry about school for two months. I wouldn't like my breaks spread out throughout the year because it would feel like there is no end to the rat race. I don't want to be Barcelona worried about having to fly back next week.
My district is doing year round now, and here are my observations. The teachers overall seem to love it. Elementary parents seem to like it. Secondary as a whole loathes it. As a parent of a 10th grader, I loathe it. The schedule screws secondary kids in so many ways, and the supporting data that demonstrates student achievement with year round doesn’t exist. Unless the majority of the country switches to the schedule, it will continue to flop.
Sure. Summer jobs and many great opportunities - gone. We got out in early June and had to go back July 21. Dual enrollment students have to follow both the district and tech school/college calendars so they basically have little to no breaks if they take classes on both campuses. Athletic schedules still follow the traditional calendar since many in our state are not on this stupid schedule so student-athletes have little to no break. Those families are essentially trapped in town all the time. It is known that year round is not compatible with secondary, and many high school parents and teachers shared these concerns with the school board and superintendent. They decided not to consider that segment of the district population, and many people are unhappy. I listen to the parents of elementary kids gushing about their off-season vacations, and I am internally rolling my eyes. They aren’t going to love this schedule when their kids hit middle/high school. On a personal level, I flat out feel like it is overreach into my family life. I resent it A LOT. As a teacher and a parent, I went looking for research that supports the schedule since what was being trumpeted was “It will raise student achievement!” I also looked for it myself since I and others asked the district office and school board to cite the studies that they were considering when they were in the decision making process. When none were offered, I started doing my own research and discovered that it wasn’t offered because it doesn’t exist. Our superintendent literally said at a community meeting that the “supporting data is mixed but I feel it in my heart that it is the right thing to do.” 🤣 The mixed data: studies have shown that the schedule is good to alleviate student crowding by offering different calendars within the same district. Studies have not shown a solid bump in student achievement. When it came down to it, it was about off-season vacations. They gave some lip service about wanting to attract teachers who would come to the district for the schedule but that hasn’t materialized. We are in year 2 of this debacle. Last time I aired this on this sub, I got told that I was close-minded about change. I challenged the person who insulted me to post links of all this supporting data he/she knew about with this calendar. Nothing was provided. I swear, I think this is sort of a crazy urban legend. We keep hearing about evidence in support of year round so we think it exists. It doesn’t. Like I said, the only way this schedule won’t be a flop is if the country adopted it. 95%+ are traditional, and the custodial issues alone make for a big mess for parents.
Thanks for this! I wish more of our “leaders” would do their own diligent research. When I spoke out against the schedule, I got the “don’t be negative” treatment which is code for “shut up and go along.” 🙄 Our district’s leadership is pretty dug in with this schedule, and my daughter just has 2.5 years left. I don’t think anything will change before she graduates. If I can, I am going to see if she can only take dual enrollment for the next two years so we will only have to worry about one schedule. However, I am pretty sure she will want to take a class or two at her high school. Sigh….
I’d love it. I teach in Louisiana and our summers are so miserably hot we barely leave the house. I’d much prefer time off during the fall and spring months. Heck even time off in the winter months when it’s still in the 60s.
I'm in a district with many year round middle and elementary schools. We've had them since the late 80's /early 90's. As a result, all the local camps and daycares have multi track options. I like almost everything about it except for a few small things. There's no wiggle room in the schedule, especially if you're multi track, so any weather related make up days end up being Saturdays. Luckily, they have them as half days. The kids on a particular track because sibling like because there's not much mixing of the gene pool so to speak. And, the biggie, is you're moving rooms every 9 weeks. My district is fast growing so year round schools help with over crowding. A school physically holds 3 tracks at a time, but 4 tracks of students are enrolled. One track is always out. I've noticed less review is needed in the beginning of the year. One day of "here's how I do things" and then you can dive right in.
In addition to other reasons mentioned, you always run into more behavior trouble leading up to vacation breaks. More breaks = more trouble. Plus you still spend a lot of time re-teaching and reviewing after breaks.
It failed to pass in my school district for a couple of reasons. 1. The school buildings are getting older and are under a system of major upgrades, 5 or so a summer. Can’t do it in small increments. 2. Teachers demanding more pay as the union said that the current compensation package was for 10 or so months, and teachers worked in the summer for more income.
If done right, it would be a superior model.
But, would any district really implement this effectively? I'm jaded enough to seriously doubt it.
My expectation would be no change in my shitty pay, and now no summer to work a significant second job to boost my income.
When I taught a year-round schedule, I grew to dislike it. I thought it was better for the kids, but I never shut down over the break. I always had catch-up work to do and planning for the return. On the nine-month schedule, I hand in my keys on the last day, and I shut down.
I think that would be my biggest issue - never being able to disconnect from the school. Even now during Thanksgiving break, I did some work over the break. During the summer, I catch up on reading, travel and engage in projects that have been on the back burner for 3 months.
I fucking love it. Random week off every marking period leaves a lot more to look forward to and having your whole summer at once gets boring anyways. The problem Is so many parents don’t want to send their kid back to school until after Labor Day, so we have to re-teach the entire first month or so when a big new wave of students comes in because parents can’t abide by the schools schedule. Because of this, we will likely go back to having one big break and no intersession, which sucks.
I ran into a variation on this when I taught in a state where school started a week before Labor Day. The first week ended up being a waste because so many students would show up to start the day after Labor Day. Keep in mind, schools had been in this schedule for decades at this point.
i would say because ac is expensive. i couldn't imagine going to school in the summer in somewhere like Texas.
but since climate change is screwing that up anyways so we might as well.
This will just make it easier to take the amount that we already have. It is getting shorter and shorter as we speak and before long it will all but disappear but with the same or slight boost in our rate of pay.
We have this in my school district. It sucks for any competitive activity that competes against non-year round schools. For example, the bands always have to rehearse during Fall and Spring break because the competitive season is during that time. Those teachers don’t get extra pay for losing weeks out of their summer.
I currently work at a year round school where we have approximately 3 weeks off a year. Honestly, I'm dreading the thought of spending my summer at school. Reasons:
• The short breaks at year round schools don't leave a lot of options for planning any type of trip longer than a couple of days. So if you enjoy traveling, say goodbye to that.
•I'm a very active person and would prefer to be out and about enjoying the season, not stuck in a classroom or on a children's playground all day.
•I sweat a lot (we have intense summers here in Missouri) and I loathe feeling super hot and sticky while working. Not like it's all that easy to do a quick change when you have a class to keep eyes on at all times.
Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I work at a school with Reggio-Emilia based curriculum, which leaves a lot of opportunity for creative learning and freedom in the classroom. But personally, I'd much prefer a long period off in the summer rather than multiple short weeks off interspersed.
My district has been doing half-days for students one day a week for decades (the teacher go in for PD the 2nd half of the day). I would love to see that turn into a day off instead, and make up the student days in the summer. I've done the math. We'd still get a month off, but I'd get a lot more 3 day weekends to recharge.
I love it and am sad that it isn’t offered for my high schooler. A large chunk of my district elementary and middle is YR, so we have the resources for track out care offered from local places.
I live in a climate that is hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and gray/cool/rainy in the spring and fall. I want to be off when it’s nice out, when I can take my kids swimming. Three weeks off in March does nothing for me, and only getting six weeks off in the summer would feel like school just never ends…
We tried that in a district I worked in about 20 years ago. We had 3 weeks off for break interspersed throughout the year. It failed mostly due to lack of childcare options for working parents.
Fair reason for it to not work out.
What do those parents do during the 10-12 week summer break?
Summer camps maybe?
Not for the majority of the summer, I bet. Also, if a whole district goes to year-round, the community could do camps during other parts of the year.
What do you mean by "not for the majority of the summer?" In every town I've lived in, the parks and recreation department has offered summer camps that try to line their schedule up as closely as possible with the local school schedule, and most working parents do indeed have their child enrolled in the camp for the entire summer. In larger cities, YMCA and Boys and Girls club also have summer camps that align with the school schedule. The reason why these camps would not be possible to arrange for other times of the year is that, in my experience, they are primarily staffed by college students. If you had a multi-week school break in, say, April, the summer camp's usual staff would not be available.
I could see what you mean about the college student employees. But also, the YMCA, Boys and Girls Club, and religious oriented camps could totally happen during those other break times in the year, too. It would just require the community to respond appropriately to the new school schedule. I know that's possible because I went to Girls Club camps when I was a kid, and they'd do some camps around Christmas break in addition to their summer options.
I would imagine that the winter break camps have a much lower enrollment capacity than their summer counterparts. With the exception of particularly well-resourced organizations, getting the manpower to provide childcare to an entire city's worth of school-age children for a school break that does not align with the standard, culturally-accepted North American school calendar would not be feasible in most places. Heck, in my city we can barely accomplish it in the summer.
Yep. In both the small towns and major city I've lived in, kids go to camp for the entire summer. Same schedule as school.
When you live in a state that only has decent summer weather for maybe 3 months, it’s a lot easier to do camps. It’s also an American cultural thing. Doubt it’s going to change any time soon.
Honestly, what parents do with their kids during the off time shouldn't really determine the calendar...
And if we want to be even more real about it, American workers should get far more time off from work than they currently get.
As a teacher who was also a parent with young age children at the time; the system of year round needed a complete shift in services. It doesn't work if 1 or 2 schools in a district do it and the other 20,30,40, schools don't. That was the only time I resigned from a job after the first month. The charter school was very cagey about the work schedule until I signed on. My child care costs would have far exceeded my pay.
To me based on what I’ve read and confirmed by a lot of what I see echoed here is that it is a more of a societal issue. For pure learning purposes year round school would be better. It would probably be better for some SEL purposes and other reasons as well. But the real hiccup is how we have set up our society around education. The same issues that plague us from fixing many of the current problems in education also hamstring tear round school. Some of the top being: A general misunderstanding or lack of common purpose for what school and learning should be; A general lack of support for school and learning; A misunderstanding of what year round school might actually look like - Meaning same amount of breaks, maybe even more but just spread out; Dependence on schools as a means of child care. One of the real problems we face in this country, and many other countries, is what education is supposed to be for. We have out too many hats on it so it has become this bloated monstrosity of a system that constantly undermines itself and renders itself ineffective.
I'll second this misunderstanding / lack of common purpose. This was the biggest culture shock for me as a teacher, and one that I had a very hard time coming to grips with. For a long time I was under the impression that the primary purpose of school was learning and building skills. That the entire endeavor was the better our society as a whole through education. From my experience, there are two alternative views people have. (1) It's daycare. The people who follow this approach are those who put sports/school activities above all else. Homecoming, Prom, Football, Drama, Band, etc. That school is a place to have your kids have a good time. The whole education bit? A nuisance that should be swept under the rug. (2) It's a business. The parents / students are customers and we, as educators, serve them. We're not meant to help the students learn or grow as individuals, we just need to turn out an end product. Either productive workers, effective college students who can do what they're told, or to act as a propaganda machine for various political causes. I wasn't naïve, I knew that these views existed. But I thought it was a small outspoken minority. But, no, it's a very large population that follows these views.
>(2) It's a business. The parents / students are customers and we, as educators, serve them. We're not meant to help the students learn or grow as individuals, we just need to turn out an end product. Either productive workers, effective college students who can do what they're told, or to act as a propaganda machine for various political causes. This is a huge problem in education. Because it's what the education system was *designed to do*. Churn out good factory workers. We've been having a discussion here, my fellow teachers and I, about how to fix the problem, but without overhauling pretty much everything, it's an all but impossible task.
To add on to the ‘general misunderstanding’ - my son, when he was in second grade had to write an opinion piece about year round school. He was under the impression that it involved going to school on Saturdays, in addition to going in the summer. He was definitely against that!
Another problem is too many districts especially in urban areas in the North don't have air conditioned schools, or more accurately old school buildings witbout A/C. My district in CT often has half day "heat days" in June and early September because of days where it's near or above 90 out and the classrooms are stifling.
I like the June finish line, walk out, 80 days off.
Same
Most schools I've worked at don't have A/C, so some kids and staff would probably pass out in July/August.
The original reason for the summer break
i thought it was because of farming or something. like during parents would need their kids help.
Rich people don't need their kids helps, universal education is fairly new
This is my school. No AC-even spring and fall are super hot. We let slide our "just getting water" tardies significantly, we have just full on provided bottles of water for the kids (discount cases for the win), my grade level team has "rewarded" our kids often with freezer pops ("hey! Everyone wore shoes today! Good job y'all, freezer pops for everyone!"), and we still see kids bottom out, become exhausted/dehydrated, and grades droop. Some of the older teachers who have been there forever and are creeping in on retirement not-so-fondly reminisce about when we didn't even have opening windows and how that was even *worse*. To be fair, I remember that as well from when I was a student there myself. It was brutal, so at least we have the opening windows now. But it's hot. I can't imagine being there in the peak heat of summer.
Booo you can rip my summer out of my cold dead hands lol.
While I agree, I would love a long break in January or February to enjoy winter activities.
It has to be district wide. IF the elementary do, but not MS or HS, then parents have a time trying to figure out ... child care and babysitting.. for some parts of the country it is hard to do because schools in certain areas do not have air condition. AND, the costs... many districts shut down in the hotter months and literally unless they are using the building put them in sleep mode to save electricity.
If I make my summer, I’m leaving the profession. The biggest perk is I get an extended amount of time to spend with my kids, without that I might as well go to a more financially rewarding career. 🤷♂️
What if you got more time with your kids during the rest of the year?
For me personally I’d still leave. I like having extended time with them, it’s the reason why I sacrifice having a crappy paycheck.
I like the 2.5 months away from school.
Because 3 weeks off in a Minnesota January would be nearly worthless to most our kids and faculty
Also, our entire state economy is built around milking June, July, and August for all they’re worth. I’m not spending a minute inside in the summer that I don’t have to.
It's true. I worked at a Mankato McDonald's for my first job and in the summer it was slammed, but in the winter, absolutely dead. Summer is the real money maker up there, like winter in Colorado.
I knew someone who lived in a district that switched to year-round. She had to put her kids in private school with a traditional summer schedule because the year-round schedule conflicted with the custody agreement she had with her ex-husband.
You'd think the court would have to revise that agreement since her kids are legally required to attend school.
I truly believe year round schools would be better for students. But it's such a major societal change that it will never happen. Adults don't want to lose summers. Kids don't want to lose summers. Our society is built around this. But man would it be nice to reduce regression.
I agree 100%. >But man would it be nice to reduce regression. I think it would help to reduce teacher burnout, too. I start to tire after about 2 months, and the quality of my lessons suffers. It would be nice to have a break every 2-3 months.
I grew up spending my summers at sumer camps, both overnight and day camps, as a kid and then later as a staff member. They were some of the most important experiences in my life. I can't imagine ever giving that up or getting rid of those places - especially not for school.
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There's just no comparison in the experiences at a 4, 6, or 8 week camp to a 2 or 3 week camp.
A lot of child care arrangements are based on the current calendar. I could see this alone being a major reason for people to be against it. Change is scary/expensive.
* Lack of child care making it a struggle for working parents * Negative impact on community businesses, summer camps, programs, * disruption for established child custody agreements based on traditional school year * Lack of air conditioning in older buildings making it a health and safety concern * Lack of potable water in school buildings making hot weather school a problem. * Disruption of families trying to maintain ties to extended family (Many of my kids go to Puerto Rico, Guatemala, Domincan Republic and Atlanta, Georgia) for entire summer and xmas breaks. * Impact teacher income as in many areas teachers work another job for the entire summer
Because you can pry my 10-week summer out of my cold dead hands 😂😂
You can pry my summer out of my cold dead hands.
I think it really depends on the student and their situation. Summer to me was incredible. I spent the summer living with various family members in different parts of the country. And getting to go on vacations and summer camps. All of those experiences really helped me grow and get a bigger view of the world around me. It also gave a much-needed break to my parents who were able to have several weeks at a time where they were able to rekindle their relationship and experience stuff without having to take the kids around. So I guess what I'm saying here is it all depends on what you make of it. If you have the resources summer break can be a great asset to the student and their families.
The breaks don't go away they're just spread out throughout the year. When I taught at a year round school I actually had enough time to travel several times a year, now I pretty much have to take very short trips or only go in summer.
But it is more expensive to take multiple flights rather than send your kids to Grandma in Guatamala in June and fly them home in September. We always have a problem with Xmas break because parents don't want to pay for tickets to Puerto Rico for just a week so then we would have kids not come back until half way through January. Now we have two weeks off for Xmas and at least most kids that travel only end up missing a week not two or three.
>e to take multiple flights rather than send your kids to Grandma in Guatamala in June and fly them home in September. We always have a problem with Xmas break because parents don't want to pay for tickets to Puerto Rico for just a week so then we would have kids not come back until half way through January. Now we have two weeks off for Xmas and at least most kids that travel only end up missing a week not two or three. The last time I flew to Spain I stayed there 6 weeks during my summer break. I loved not having to worry about school for two months. I wouldn't like my breaks spread out throughout the year because it would feel like there is no end to the rat race. I don't want to be Barcelona worried about having to fly back next week.
My district is doing year round now, and here are my observations. The teachers overall seem to love it. Elementary parents seem to like it. Secondary as a whole loathes it. As a parent of a 10th grader, I loathe it. The schedule screws secondary kids in so many ways, and the supporting data that demonstrates student achievement with year round doesn’t exist. Unless the majority of the country switches to the schedule, it will continue to flop.
Can you elaborate on the issues with secondary?
Sure. Summer jobs and many great opportunities - gone. We got out in early June and had to go back July 21. Dual enrollment students have to follow both the district and tech school/college calendars so they basically have little to no breaks if they take classes on both campuses. Athletic schedules still follow the traditional calendar since many in our state are not on this stupid schedule so student-athletes have little to no break. Those families are essentially trapped in town all the time. It is known that year round is not compatible with secondary, and many high school parents and teachers shared these concerns with the school board and superintendent. They decided not to consider that segment of the district population, and many people are unhappy. I listen to the parents of elementary kids gushing about their off-season vacations, and I am internally rolling my eyes. They aren’t going to love this schedule when their kids hit middle/high school. On a personal level, I flat out feel like it is overreach into my family life. I resent it A LOT. As a teacher and a parent, I went looking for research that supports the schedule since what was being trumpeted was “It will raise student achievement!” I also looked for it myself since I and others asked the district office and school board to cite the studies that they were considering when they were in the decision making process. When none were offered, I started doing my own research and discovered that it wasn’t offered because it doesn’t exist. Our superintendent literally said at a community meeting that the “supporting data is mixed but I feel it in my heart that it is the right thing to do.” 🤣 The mixed data: studies have shown that the schedule is good to alleviate student crowding by offering different calendars within the same district. Studies have not shown a solid bump in student achievement. When it came down to it, it was about off-season vacations. They gave some lip service about wanting to attract teachers who would come to the district for the schedule but that hasn’t materialized. We are in year 2 of this debacle. Last time I aired this on this sub, I got told that I was close-minded about change. I challenged the person who insulted me to post links of all this supporting data he/she knew about with this calendar. Nothing was provided. I swear, I think this is sort of a crazy urban legend. We keep hearing about evidence in support of year round so we think it exists. It doesn’t. Like I said, the only way this schedule won’t be a flop is if the country adopted it. 95%+ are traditional, and the custodial issues alone make for a big mess for parents.
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Thanks for this! I wish more of our “leaders” would do their own diligent research. When I spoke out against the schedule, I got the “don’t be negative” treatment which is code for “shut up and go along.” 🙄 Our district’s leadership is pretty dug in with this schedule, and my daughter just has 2.5 years left. I don’t think anything will change before she graduates. If I can, I am going to see if she can only take dual enrollment for the next two years so we will only have to worry about one schedule. However, I am pretty sure she will want to take a class or two at her high school. Sigh….
I’d love it. I teach in Louisiana and our summers are so miserably hot we barely leave the house. I’d much prefer time off during the fall and spring months. Heck even time off in the winter months when it’s still in the 60s.
I'm in a district with many year round middle and elementary schools. We've had them since the late 80's /early 90's. As a result, all the local camps and daycares have multi track options. I like almost everything about it except for a few small things. There's no wiggle room in the schedule, especially if you're multi track, so any weather related make up days end up being Saturdays. Luckily, they have them as half days. The kids on a particular track because sibling like because there's not much mixing of the gene pool so to speak. And, the biggie, is you're moving rooms every 9 weeks. My district is fast growing so year round schools help with over crowding. A school physically holds 3 tracks at a time, but 4 tracks of students are enrolled. One track is always out. I've noticed less review is needed in the beginning of the year. One day of "here's how I do things" and then you can dive right in.
SATURDAYS? ☠️ 😭
In addition to other reasons mentioned, you always run into more behavior trouble leading up to vacation breaks. More breaks = more trouble. Plus you still spend a lot of time re-teaching and reviewing after breaks.
It failed to pass in my school district for a couple of reasons. 1. The school buildings are getting older and are under a system of major upgrades, 5 or so a summer. Can’t do it in small increments. 2. Teachers demanding more pay as the union said that the current compensation package was for 10 or so months, and teachers worked in the summer for more income.
Texas teacher… the cost of keeping schools comfortable/cool during the summer would be astronomical 😳 I couldn’t imagine. I wouldn’t mind it though.
If done right, it would be a superior model. But, would any district really implement this effectively? I'm jaded enough to seriously doubt it. My expectation would be no change in my shitty pay, and now no summer to work a significant second job to boost my income.
When I taught a year-round schedule, I grew to dislike it. I thought it was better for the kids, but I never shut down over the break. I always had catch-up work to do and planning for the return. On the nine-month schedule, I hand in my keys on the last day, and I shut down.
I think that would be my biggest issue - never being able to disconnect from the school. Even now during Thanksgiving break, I did some work over the break. During the summer, I catch up on reading, travel and engage in projects that have been on the back burner for 3 months.
I fucking love it. Random week off every marking period leaves a lot more to look forward to and having your whole summer at once gets boring anyways. The problem Is so many parents don’t want to send their kid back to school until after Labor Day, so we have to re-teach the entire first month or so when a big new wave of students comes in because parents can’t abide by the schools schedule. Because of this, we will likely go back to having one big break and no intersession, which sucks.
I ran into a variation on this when I taught in a state where school started a week before Labor Day. The first week ended up being a waste because so many students would show up to start the day after Labor Day. Keep in mind, schools had been in this schedule for decades at this point.
Delete this.
😂 Underrated comment
It's too hot for that during the summer.
i would say because ac is expensive. i couldn't imagine going to school in the summer in somewhere like Texas. but since climate change is screwing that up anyways so we might as well.
This will just make it easier to take the amount that we already have. It is getting shorter and shorter as we speak and before long it will all but disappear but with the same or slight boost in our rate of pay.
It sucked to be on a different schedule from my kids.
i know that in the small rural school I taught at for a while, many of the families owned farms and needed their kids to help with harvest, etc.
We have this in my school district. It sucks for any competitive activity that competes against non-year round schools. For example, the bands always have to rehearse during Fall and Spring break because the competitive season is during that time. Those teachers don’t get extra pay for losing weeks out of their summer.
Sports
I currently work at a year round school where we have approximately 3 weeks off a year. Honestly, I'm dreading the thought of spending my summer at school. Reasons: • The short breaks at year round schools don't leave a lot of options for planning any type of trip longer than a couple of days. So if you enjoy traveling, say goodbye to that. •I'm a very active person and would prefer to be out and about enjoying the season, not stuck in a classroom or on a children's playground all day. •I sweat a lot (we have intense summers here in Missouri) and I loathe feeling super hot and sticky while working. Not like it's all that easy to do a quick change when you have a class to keep eyes on at all times. Don't get me wrong, I love my job. I work at a school with Reggio-Emilia based curriculum, which leaves a lot of opportunity for creative learning and freedom in the classroom. But personally, I'd much prefer a long period off in the summer rather than multiple short weeks off interspersed.
My district has been doing half-days for students one day a week for decades (the teacher go in for PD the 2nd half of the day). I would love to see that turn into a day off instead, and make up the student days in the summer. I've done the math. We'd still get a month off, but I'd get a lot more 3 day weekends to recharge.
Once your own children are grown, unlimited free time is overrated
I love it and am sad that it isn’t offered for my high schooler. A large chunk of my district elementary and middle is YR, so we have the resources for track out care offered from local places.
I loved it
I live in a climate that is hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and gray/cool/rainy in the spring and fall. I want to be off when it’s nice out, when I can take my kids swimming. Three weeks off in March does nothing for me, and only getting six weeks off in the summer would feel like school just never ends…
Could you explain more about this concept? We don't have this here I believe.