The typical school year in America is 180 days. However, many schools are moving away from this typical year. It has been suggested that in today’s society 180 days of school is not enough. Other countries are advancing and educating their children for more days and more hours a day than America.
Others claim that long breaks should not be taken as the traditional American school calendar calls for during the summer. It is believed that these long breaks contribute to the loss of information by students.
Schools and teachers are getting much pressure to raise academics and test scores. School districts are feeling pushed to push the students. The districts and states want to get in as much academics and knowledge as possible.
For these reasons many schools are adjusting their school year calendar to allow for more days, shorter breaks, and longer hours in the classroom. There are many different varieties of school calendars.
Some schools lengthened the school day by thirty minutes. They also now have more shorter breaks during the entire year instead of focusing on one long break in the summer.
Many schools have adopted a year round school calendar. More than five percent of all public school students are enrolled in a year round school.
It is common for the term year round school to be misunderstood. Many believe that when a child is enrolled in a year round school, he/she does not have a vacation. However, many year round schools are in session for nine weeks and then the students have three weeks of vacation time.
Some schools use year round schools to help with population growth. They use a staggered system of when students are in session and when students are on break. One group of students will attend school while another group of students are on a break.
While year round schools may be phase that passes, it seems as though now (in at least some form of variation) it is strong in popularity.