Year-round education (K-12). Why aren't we there yet?

My elementary school was and still is year-round. I enjoyed the schedule, I think families would benefit a lot more from the year-round schedule, especially if they are prone to taking their kids out of school for trips during the school year. We had lots of family vacations that probably wouldn't have happened at a school with a traditional schedule.

I am an academic without summer teaching responsibilities so would be sorry to lose my flexible summers with my kids, but if the empirical research says a year-round schedule is better for kids, I am supportive.

One question -- what do working parents in districts that have year-round school? I assume there are various camps or other care options? We have a nanny, but most working parents I know send their kids to day camps over the summer or use district-run summer programs.

The schedule we have now has nothing to do with teacher preference. As I understand it, it grew out of agrarian needs. And perhaps the lack of air conditioning in older schools.

In fact, many teachers would prefer a year round schedule. It has been implemented in some areas with great success.

I think one major stumbling block is high-tourist areas that depend on kids for the industry. I believe in Wisconsin, for example, schools are not allowed to start until after Labor Day, per tourist season.

Another issue is day care. Parents would need to find day care in spurts, as year round is usually implemented on/off.

Now, if you are talking every day, all day, all year, teachers' pay would need to increase and districts may not be able to afford year round schools. I don't get paid for the 8 weeks I am off during summer. It might be nice to draw that check as opposed to working for free writing curricula, paying for my own professional development, working another job to earn money, etc during those 8 weeks. For me, it's like a factory shutdown. Use vacation days or don't get paid. I don't get to choose vacation days, so I can't do things like a multi day conference or professional development during the school year. Add utilities, maintenance costs, support personnel, etc, and it's a very expensive undertaking.

I think there are many reasons it is not widespread in the US, and I think it has little to do with teacher preference. My employer determines my start and end dates. I don't get a vote. If they want to change it and if I want to keep my job, I would just have to go to that schedule.

NOT debating here, but I am a teacher and this is my personal experience.

Agreed.

And in some areas- sports. 12 weeks on and 3 weeks off wouldn't work well with many sports schedules.

I think once we as a society adjusted to it, year round education would be beneficial.

Yeah... Those effin lazy teachers...

I agree. Illinois us up around 180, I believe.

Oh, that is right. I am one of the laziest people ever....

I also hate the idea of year round school.

Every time the idea is brought up here it is met with very strong resistance from parents, students, teachers, and business, so I am not worried about it ever happening here.

It's not so easy just to add AC to an older school building. The school district my girls went to has 4 days a wk school. Longer days though. They still get the summer off, and 2 wks for cmas. Otherwise they don't take much time off during the school yr. mainly the Friday after Thanksgiving. The kids, parents, teachers and school district LOVE it. The school district which is small saves a TON of money by not having lunch, busing, and heating 1 day a wk. The kids get longer time in class during a reg day. ALL test scores have gone up. We have had kids grad and go on to Harvard, Yale, and West point, and have gone 4 days a wk at a small rural school. I think it's working out pretty good. AND they don't go all year around.

Nope, plenty of teachers would be totally cool with it.  But lots of parents wouldn't be.  Very difficult to get child care in 2-week blocks, but summer care is doable.

The other issue is that if schools aren't aligned, it can be a huge dilemma for parents who have older and younger children (well, it comes back to child care).  If my HS kids aren't in year round but my younger daughter is, we will never have vacation time together and always have to deal with the child care issue.

My family currently has three district schedules to contend with - my district, my husband's district and the kids' district.  Summer at least somewhat coincides.  But we've had years where my fall break is one week, the kids are off a different week and the husband is off a third week.  That's with a regular schedule, I can only imagine what it would be like contending with 2-week breaks here and
there.

And A/C most definitely can be an issue.  Our district has a/c in every school.  But June gets into the high 110's, July is just as hot.  No matter how much you're willing to spend the $$$ on a/c (and with budget cuts every year in AZ, that's not something we need to be spending money on) when you have 36 kids in a class, the a/c simply isn't going to cool it down well enough to get much done.  It's miserable.  My room was at 82 degrees the beginning of last year WITH the a/c running.  Add 36+ warm bodies to the mix and it's really nasty.

I have mixed feelings about it and I'm a teacher. There are benefits to both ways. If you want teachers to have continuous education then they need time to do it and summer is the perfect time for those teachers.

Some students come back from summer refreshed, but some students come back and take 2 months to get back into the routine. Some students slide back and some students don't lose much. Some families love all the extra time during the summer and their kids get a lot of enrichment, but it's not so much fun for others.

Personally, I wouldn't mind a little shorter summer and more frequent breaks. Great for some kids and more disruption for others. From what I recall, the number of days in school doesn't really change.

My grandkids are in a year round elementary school.It's my understanding that the high schools are all traditional, I'm assuming due to sports.