Comment & Debate
Jeanette Wat. “Extended Year-Round Schooling, Extended Success”. Naperville, Illinois – Despite its powerful effect, it is true that only a small percentage of schools in the U.S. currently adopts the extended year-round schooling – less than 4% for the year round and less than 0.4% for the extended systems. However, the trend of adoption has been growing. The number of students in year-end schools has increased four times since 10 to 15 years ago. It takes time to widely change an education program that has been used in this country for many decades. People get used to it, and it is human nature to resist change. Some of the resistance, though, originated from the organizations of summer recreational programs and other summer programs. It is, therefore, important for us to focus on our students and their needs. We then see that we just cannot maintain the status quo on traditional schooling and continue to put our students in a disadvantageous position.
Don Heinzman. “Year-round schooling has advantages”. Hometown Source. – Most school boards shy away from it, because it is controversial and little understood by parents. Communities would rather build more schools than take a chance on a year-round program, even though the multi-track program could reduce the number of buildings by one-fourth.