English Language and Composition
Reading Time: 15 Minutes
Suggested Writing Time: 40 Minutes
Directions: The following prompt is based on the accompanying six sources.
This question requires you to integrate a variety of sources into a coherent, well-written essay. Refer to the sources to support your position; avoid mere paraphrase or summary. Your argument should be central; the sources should support this argument.
Remember to attribute both direct and indirect citations.
Introduction
Many school systems have begun offering year-round school, abandoning the traditional 10 month school year with a 2 month summer vacation. Proponents of the year-round school maintain that summer months are detrimental to student readiness. Opponents of year-round school say that students have very stressful school years and need the summer months to just be children and to spend time with their families.
Assignment
Read the following sources (including any introductory information) carefully. Then, in an essay that synthesizes at least three sources for support, develop a position about whether a year-round school or a traditional school year is more beneficial to students.
Refer to the sources as Source A, Source B, etc.: titles are included for your convenience.
Source A (NAYRE)
Source B (Barton)
Source C (Roth)
Source D (ASCD)
Source E (Photo)
Source F (Cartoon)
Source G (Schulte)
The following charts below compare the distribution of days in school and days on break on the nine-month traditional calendar vs. the distribution of school days on a balanced or modified calendar. Weekends are excluded from the charts, with both models detailing a typical year of 258 work days (Monday through Friday). Both charts represent a standard school year of 180 days.
The following is an excerpt of an article discussing one Illinois school district’s success with year-round schooling.
There is a stark change in the emotional environment of a school when you take charge of the clock. Two years ago, Thomas Jefferson Elementary School in Rock Island-Milan (Ill.) School District #41 moved to a year-round calendar. On a recent Friday, Principal Rick Loy remarks, "I haven't had one student sent to the office all week. And I know why. We've just had two weeks off, everyone is refreshed, remotivated and their fire has been rekindled." Instead of hearing teachers and students asking when the next vacation is, Loy says they're just excited to be back.
"Having three months off in the summer isn't appropriate anymore, especially when you consider children who come to school who are already behind ... because of their home environment or [undeveloped] language skills," says Darryl Taylor, principal of Grant Elementary School. "You know these children are going to have serious problems achieving, and the learning gap widens as they get older." With a year-round calendar, he says, "The kids feel less ground down, and the teachers feel more effective and energized."
Located in northwestern Illinois on the bluffs of the Mississippi River, Rock Island has switched all of its schools to a year-round calendar. With the traditional school calendar of nine months in session and three months off, Log and Taylor note that students and teachers were showing significant signs of stress and fatigue by November; absenteeism and student discipline were more prevalent.
But with a year-round schedule, it's different. "We have many students who struggle to achieve academic success in school," says Superintendent David Markward. "We need to take advantage of every opportunity that we think is logical for them to be successful." A modified calendar, he says, has provided "educators [with] a time to step back--a time for teachers to make mid-course corrections before learning problems become achievement gaps."
The following is an excerpt from a newspaper discussing a proposal calling for the end of Virginia Beach’s year-round schools.
The city's four year-round elementary schools have been put on notice.
Year-round schools operate for the same number of days as schools with traditional calendars but have several "intersessions" instead of a long summer break. The idea is that students will need less review time if summer break is shorter.
"When we come back to school, they get started easier," said Edward Timlin, Point O'View principal.
Research on achievement at the schools is inconclusive but shows academic benefits for low-income students. A report in September said the four year-round schools met most academic achievement targets, although three did not do as well when compared with similar Beach schools that use a traditional academic calendar. Corporate Landing outperformed a comparable school on 80 percent of measures. In contrast, Seatack missed a majority of academic targets from 2005 to 2007.
The year-round program costs Beach schools about $982,000 a year in additional expenses.
"Year-round schooling has its merits," said board member Todd Davidson. "B ut during this particular economic season, we have to be as efficient and effective with our money as we possibly can."
Principals of several year-round schools said that although they feel the program is effective, the schools would do well on a traditional calendar.
"I think our community supports us based on what we do for children, rather than the calendar itself," said David French, principal of Corporate Landing Elementary.
The first (I) is commentary given by Donald Patterson, a school board member in Albuquerque, New Mexico, discussing the disadvantages of year-round schooling. The second (II) is a commentary delivered by Maria Tostado, a principal in Los Angeles, California, addressing the advantages of year-round schooling.
I
Year-round education (YRE) is not the cure-all that some claim. Multi-track YRE is operationally much more expensive than a traditional schedule—about $130,000 a year per elementary school.
Some claim that year-round schedules boost students' academic achievement. No valid study documents any improvement in this area. The so-called “summer learning loss” is another excuse for YRE, but most people, including children, have far greater memory loss in the short term (say, two to three weeks). The YRE schedules, with their many two- to four-week breaks throughout the year, not only maximize forgetting, but require teachers to spend far more time on re-acclimating students to school routine than does a traditional schedule.
In addition, YRE puts children in hot classrooms during the dog days of summer and out playing during November and February. In most climates, this schedule makes little sense.
Finally, multi-track YRE might be needed as the absolutely last option for space in some communities that can't build the needed schools. This premise must be understood and accepted by the vast majority of the community, or YRE won't work.
II
The advantages of year-round education far outweigh the disadvantages. Financially, it avoids the building of additional schools and allows more efficient use of the present buildings. Teacher morale is improved 100 percent, because teachers get two vacations instead of one. Faculty members come back to school refreshed and ready to work.
Educationally, two shorter breaks per year are beneficial. Students forget less and need less review. Intersession offerings allow students to make up work as well as take enrichment courses. Moreover, students are serviced all year. Facilities such as the library and professional help from the school psychologist, counselors, career advisor, and nurse are available year round. When students are off track, they can concentrate on other activities, such as their Advanced Placement classes, athletic teams, orchestra, and band, without having to worry about homework, tests, and the regular demands made by classroom teachers.
Flexibility is probably the greatest asset of this type of calendar. There are innumerable options for students and programs, because courses and services are offered year round. Students tap into these resources often and in creative ways.
Despite all these advantages, however, there are some disadvantages. Communication with the off-track students and teachers is very difficult to maintain. Administrative burnout is another problem. Administrators really need to take vacation time to renew themselves. Nevertheless, a year-round calendar is a wonderful boon to the education of our students.
The following image accompanied an article addressing year-round schooling in The NY Daily News.
The following political cartoon accompanied a commentary regarding President Obama’s speech on the American educational system.
The following excerpt is an opinion based piece taken from The Washington Post.
Year-Round School? My Kids Love It. Yours Will, Too.
By Brigid Schulte
Sunday, June 7, 2009
Far from grousing about missing out on the months-long summer break that will start in a few weeks, my kids love year-round school. My daughter had no idea that she was learning chemistry when her Harry Potter class made butter beer and chocolate frogs. My son developed a much better grasp of plot and character when he had to create both on film. I love their so-called modified calendar, too. And so, most of all, do the lower-income parents who've watched their kids thrive on it.
Many middle-class parents left our school rather than lose a long summer. The ones who stayed, albeit uneasily at first, were in for a pleasant surprise. We found that intersession classes gave our children the kind of engaging school experience we had always wanted for them. The lower-income and immigrant parents, who had voted overwhelmingly to support the modified calendar, were convinced from the start that it would help their children academically and give them opportunities they could never provide. One of the most popular intersession classes recently taught children how to swim.
What these children needed was more time to learn and less time to forget. And they needed more exposure to the world beyond their apartment walls, the TV and the 24-Hour Express Minimart. I saw that vividly when I chaperoned an intersession trip of first graders to the National Gallery of Art. As the children gazed up at the giant Calder mobile, the teachers asked who had never been to a museum before. More than half the hands shot up.
It's also controversial. Entire Web sites and organized parent groups, along with the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, are mobilized to fight modified calendars. Some states protect long summers by law. Virginia has what some school officials privately call the "King's Dominion Rule." It is one of six states that mandate that the school year start after Labor Day. Schools wanting to start earlier, like my kids', have to apply for waivers.
And the research on whether modified calendars lift academic achievement is muddy at best. Some schools show great improvement, others little or none. Even researchers who've found that modified calendars significantly benefit students learning English say it's a hard sell. "We know that there's really no basis for the current calendar other than tradition," said Elena Silva, a researcher with Education Sector, a Washington think tank. It wasn't until World War II that the current 180-day school calendar became standard. Before that, some rural districts opened schools only in summer and winter. And some urban districts were in session all year long. "Summer is a sacred cow," said Silva. "But it doesn't have to be a 10-week cow. It could be a five-week cow."