Do Your Kids Need a Longer School Year?
Is summer vacation a waste of valuable educational time?
Do American students need a longer school year?
Speaking to Matt Lauer on NBC’s “Today” show on Monday morning, President Obama said that among the reforms he’d like to make to the U.S. public school system is to extend the school year by a month.
“We now have our kids go to school about a month less than most other advanced countries, and that month makes a difference,” the president said. “It means that kids are losing a lot of what they learn during the school year during the summer. It’s especially severe for poorer kids who … may not see as many books in the house during the summers [and] aren’t getting as many educational opportunities.”
The president said that such a move would require an investment. “You’ve got to pay teachers, custodial staff,” he noted, “but that would be money well spent.”
What do you think? Would you like to see your kids’ school year extended by a month (think of the summer camp savings!)? Or do you think kids spend enough time in school as it is and need that unstructured downtime to roam free in the summer?
Photo: Ben+Sam
I would be willing to pay higher taxes for a longer school year. Seems like a good investment.
We have a long summer break because historically the kids were needed over the summers to work on the farms. I don’t think we need such a long break. I am all for it.
My kids only get 10 weeks off during the summer and I think it’s too short of a time, actually. I do not support year round school. I think the whole idea is pandering to working parents, rather than focusing on what’s best for kids. My kids do all sort of cool things during the summer (camp, trips to see the grandparents, swim team, reading what they want to read, being outside) and I don’t think they should lose that time because certain parents leave their kids home alone to watch television all summer.
No, my kids don’t need another month of school. If the school is worried about having too little time devoted to instruction, maybe they ought to cut back on these ridiculous half-days. Three days this week the school lets out at 12:40 for parent-teacher conferences. In 9 weeks we do this same song and dance again, plus they let out at noon the Tuesday before Thanksgiving and a bunch of other odd times.
ITA Linda~ WE enrich their lives with a lot of other things in the summer- camp, hiking,creek-walking, excursions to museums, zoos, day trips around the state, swimming lessons, softball- not to mention bonfires after dark, etc.
Once we had kids we made a CHOICE to do it with one income so that I could be at home. I won’t send my kids during the hot summer. I will home school if need be ad they can lose their tax money each year on my 2 staying home.
@Linda: The point isn’t that some parents leave their kids home alone to watch television all summer (although some most certainly do). The point is that the public education system in the USA is simply not up to par with what the rest of the developed world is doing, and as a result, our students are falling behind, which means that when they’re adults in the workplace, they will most likely continue to lag behind, while India, China and various other emerging economies continue to thrive.
Amongst OECD nations, American students currently rank 24th in math, 21st in science, and 17th in verbal skills. This is a problem, especially for the nation that fancies itself the most innovative and productive in the world.
While breaks in general are good for almost everyone, the way that our school year is currently structured is less than ideal, not to mention archaic. Amy is absolutely right in stating that the long summer break is attributable to the days when kids were needed to work on the farm. Those days are passed, and there’s no legitimate reason why children need 10-12 consecutive weeks off in the summertime.
Such an extended period of time spent outside of a structured learning environment results in an atrophication of some of what students learned the prior year, which then needs to be re-learned the following year, or is simply lost for good.
Likewise, by virtue of spending less time in the classroom each year (a MONTH less!) than students in other developed nations, American students are simply learning less than their international peers with each successive grade level.
A much more practical and productive system would involve year-round schooling with breaks of 1-2 weeks between marking periods, and maybe a 4 week break for the month of July. This would mean more time spent learning over the course of the year, and less time spent away from the classroom each summer. It would also leave ample time for students to participate in camps, vacations, sports, leisure and independent learning throughout the year, rather than stuffing it all into one 10-12 week period.
@Goddess: For the record, homeschooling families still pay the same amount of taxes as families who send their kids to public schools, just like families who send their kids to private schools do.
You can’t avoid taxes by yanking your kids out of school.
I am well aware of that Michele. But the school system would NOT be receiving the $10+K if my children were withdrawn from their school system
I know that my taxes remain the same.
$10K plus PER child, to be more accurate
I wonder how they will be getting the money to outfit the all of the schools with air conditioning for those hot summer months. Ones with radiators will need whole forced hot air system installed…..
They moan about not being able to fix leaky roofs and buy new equipment and books….and those dependent on property taxes will likely not be getting new levies passed for those kinds of improvements……
That’s a good point Goddess, but A/C isn’t exactly rare in public schools these days. The metro area I live in has 12 different school districts, and the majority of the schools in all but 1 of them already have A/C.
And I don’t even live in a part of the country where it’s exceptionally hot outside of summertime months. It’s simply an area that has experienced tremendous growth over the past 20 years – so much so that they can barely build schools fast enough, and when they DO build schools, they automatically install A/C.
Besides, I can’t say hot weather is a good excuse for American students lagging so far behind their global peers, as A/C is actually relatively uncommon outside of North America, yet students outside of North America seem to manage.
LOL- it is [rare/non-existent] in our school district! Oh, except for the offices.
But point taken. Still will keep my kids outdoors and unencumbered during the summer. And they are doing excellently in their studies, in spite of that.
BTW- I don’t know if there is a moniker for the process, but the more you acclimate to A/C, the more intolerant of heat your body becomes. During the heat spell here in September, there were kids fainting form the heat in the schools. And we never used to hear of that when we were kids.
From a former teacher’s point of view, I NEEDED those summers to decompress and get rejuvenated to face a new year of working with students (and their parents!). People complain about burned out teachers now, I can’t imagine how many there would be without a summer break.
I think summer vacation is very important, and I want my children to live some amount of their young lives outside the four walls of a classroom. If long summer vacations are more detrimental for lower income kids, then it seems the solution would be free, optional summer programs for everyone.
We need to increase the instructional year and instructional day… especially at the middle and high school level. We are falling behind the world.
If students in other countries are getting an average of one more month of instruction per year, that adds up to 12 months of school our children have less than other developed countries, at a minimum. 1 1/3 school years (here). Maybe we should just add 13th grade if people don’t want to get rid of summer vacation.
Frankly my son, who is on the autism spectrum and FULLY capable of keeping up with his peers academically, would benefit from a shorter break during summer. This is his second year of preschool and we worked the entire year last year to get him to follow the social rules. By the end of the year he was at an acceptable level, nearly caught up to where his peers were. He took only two months off and he’s back at square one.
Who exactly is falling behind though? ALL of our children? Take our top 10%ile- I’d like to know how they rank agianst the top 10%ile in high-performing countries.
I think there are a whole lot of variables out there- and that increasing the days does not address apathy, poor work ethic, poor study habits and cultural attitudes that do not support or encourage students. IOW- do we suck across the board, or is it the bottom dragging it down.
I support a year-round school calendar even though I’m a SAHM primarily because I’ve seen it work successfully. When my husband taught, it was at a year-round public school. Just as parents, students and teachers were getting sick of school, it was time for a break. His schedule was 9 weeks in, 3 weeks out. When school resumed, they hit the ground running rather than having to review basic classroom procedures, study skills, etc. Teacher burn out actually seemed LOWER than at traditional calendar schools. My sister was a teacher at the same time as dh and she complained a LOT more…especially around February, knowing that she still had months to go.
@goddess, yes WE enrich our children’s lives in the summertime as well, but most of those activities can also be done at other times of the year if not during the regular school year. I still take my twins to the library when school is in session so they read plenty of “what they want to read”. They also play outside whenever the weather permits – not just on summer break. But just because WE enrich OUR kids’ lives doesn’t mean every kid gets that same experience. For children who – through no fault of their own – spend a long summer bored at home, what is the answer? Tough noogies? I don’t think so. Why should they be left in the academic dust of our kids just because their parent(s) have to work or have an illness that prevents them having the energy to interact with them or any number of reasons? It’s just luck of the draw that some kids are in better circumstances than others, and no one deserves to be punished for that. In essence, by ignoring less fortunate kids we are punishing them for things they can’t help, and IMO that is not acceptable.
How about OPTIONS- those who don’t have an enriching home life may opt-IN to the programs?
BTW- isn’t this all a HUGE PITA if your kids are in different schools/levels and on different schedules?
Also- I’d really like to know if ALL of our kids are below international standards, or a certain percentage, segment, demographic.
I think there are a lot more factors that need to be addressed than throwing more money, more hours and more work at them.
goddess, to answer your question, I am convinced that even the top 10% of US students do not measure up against the top 10% of students from many other OECD countries. We THINK we are well educated, but we’re mostly just complacent — as in, we feel secure in our ignorance. I was a top performer in one of the nation’s top-ranked high schools, and I can tell you that not until college did I study the kind of advanced math and physics many international student friends of mine had had in high school. I took NY State Regents and AP physics, both of which are a joke in comparison. These friends also spoke several languages (not common here even among the top 10%; in many European and Asian countries it’s common for almost everyone who graduates from HS) and had a superior command not only of global history and government, but of OUR history and government. My own husband and his friends, all products of the Canadian education system (which incidentally sends a much higher proportion of HS graduates to college than the American system), knew more about American history than I did and probably more than most Americans. So…in conclusion, no, we shouldn’t get a pass because we so smugly think we do a better job with an “enriching home life” than all those “other” American families. A good school can overcome a lot of home or family issues, and evidence bears this out. You are right that we just don’t have cultural attitudes that support/encourage students. I’d go further than that and say we don’t really care about education.
YOu bring up some great points MIchelle- and I thank you for taking the time to elaborate on it. See, I’d like to see the standards raised- I think we care, but we need solid information upon which to act. And maybe we need to do more like university in some European countries? Not all kids are cut to for college and I think there should be fast tracks as well as standard and more guided. In trying to equalize- and dummy-down curricula to ensure everyone passes state tests, why not specialize more? I’d be willing to concede that a longer school year *might* be key in the long run- but if it’s more of the same that is ebing dished out now, I don’t think it’s going to be particularly effective.
There is no expectation of multi-language fluency in the US. 2 years, if that, in high school is not going to accomplish much at all. But in raising standards for some, we’ll have to be prepared to accept not all CAN do the same. There will need to be separate tracks at a certain level or age.
Here is a good resource: http://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=1
Another: http://www.saratogafalcon.org/content/us-education-falling-behind-those-other-countries
I think there is more to life than testing well. In my opinion, those that innovate win. And maybe our long summers give us the time to be the innovation champions in the world. I am not sure I would want to give up this edge for knowing a few more facts about history or how to use a radial coordinate system.
Michelle, I understand what the proponents of year round schooling claim are the benefits, I simply don’t agree that what you’re saying is factual or a solution. If it comes to that in this district, I’ll homeschool (at least for my younger kids). My kids aren’t the kids who are risk of all this alleged “falling behind” anyway. I still believe those kids are the one’s who have parent who don’t care about their childrens’ schooling.
Linda, I think you misunderstood my point and President Obama’s point. Even your and my kids are behind if we compare to other countries (these are the people our kids will ultimately compete with). Bet that is true in your district too. Also, I am not sure year-round schooling per se is the only answer; maybe we just need tougher standards. Personally, my husband and I send our kids to private school, but really, really wish we didn’t have to. Also, goddess, I totally agree that we should offer a strong, practical vocational track for kids who are not college bound. Right now we do basically nothing for these kids, and many end up dropping out…in an economy where you increasingly need at least an associate’s degree to have even a prayer of making a middle class income. But I don’t think this means weak academic standards. Even students on vocational tracks in countries like Germany graduate from high school with decent literacy and numeracy skills.
Right Michelle- but I think that we hold back the gifted to accomodate the average and slower learners- and even the slower learners aren’t getting it in the best way, KWIM? I have a smart bight kid in college, a scary-gifted middle schooler, and a quirky smart in science, slow in math and reading elementary kid. Neither th scary-smart nor the one with problems are served well in the current model.
Um, no, Michelle. I understand just fine (@@). I don’t agree that what you’re saying is factual. There’s no nicer way I can say it. And you don’t know anything about my kids (or my district, for that matter.)
First of all, I am jaded and do not believe the people pushing the extension of the school year is for raising our children’s scores.
I do think some educators believe it, and push for it, but I don’t think it’s the driving force by our politicians. It is the liberals who are pushing this to further soak the middle class.
This is for those who look at school as “child care”, and just want the taxpayers to watch and feed their children for another month or two so they aren’t running around with nothing to do.
I guarantee if you did a survey by income level, the higher the income, the less they would want the school year lengthened.
I like my children to have a long summer to recharge their batteries and experience other things they can’t do while in school full time. The summer seems too short as it is, and it’s hard to fit in all the things we need to do and people we like to see in the summer.
Secondly, it is just pie in the sky that there will be all these great high paying jobs if we bring our kids scores higher compared to other countries. There are a finite number of good paying high skilled jobs, and I’m sure there are already too many applicants per job already. A great example is the teaching profession. There are way too many teachers with Masters Degrees who can’t find jobs.
There may be a few nitch jobs out there where skills are lacking, but the dirty secret in the modern world now is, employers DO NOT want overly skilled workers because then they have to pay more. It’s all about money!
Look at all the kids out there with Masters Degrees with good grades who can’t get jobs. As technology improves, this will be the case more and more. If they want our children to get better paying jobs, lets get real. Stop this political nonsense with the longer school year, and start opening up more trade schools and/or charter schools.