Having a two-month-long summer where you can forget about school is one of the best feelings in the world. However, have you ever felt like you were falling behind because you couldn’t remember the information that you learned last year?
Every district and state has a different intersession which is the amount of days a school is in session and on break. The main concern that students have when they return to school after a long break, like summer, is that they forget most of the information that they learned during the previous school year. Forbes states that “children lose up to 40% of the gains they have made over the school year while on summer break, according to a new study.” A majority of the hard work that students put in in the past year goes away because of this extended period of time where they do not work to maintain the information.
This massive break hurts students at the beginning of the year because if they are in high-level classes with teachers who teach at a fast pace, they won’t have enough time to take a month and reteach all of the information that the students forgot. In subjects like math, all the material builds on each other and if you do not remember the basics, then it is extremely hard to follow along. Year-round schooling gives students a shorter summer break but more holidays throughout the year so that they can retain information better.
Many may argue that switching to year-round schooling is a bad idea because too many changes have to be made to the curriculum. American University School of Education mentions that, “Perhaps the biggest challenge of implementing year-round school is overcoming the doubts and concerns of participants, namely families and teachers. Understandably, supporters of year-round school may face challenges when it comes to buy-in.” Parents of the students will have to be convinced that this new style of teaching is highly beneficial to their children since they have been learning a different way all their lives. Teachers will also have to adjust to their new workload and change in compensation.
If schools do not have the ability to switch to year-round schooling, a possible solution could be to assign a short summer assignment that will easily remind students of the information that they learned and allow them to not forget it as easily. Students should have the choice to complete the assignment, and if the people who do it succeed, then they will have a slight advantage over those who did not because they have a higher chance of remembering the information. Year-round schooling would be beneficial for all schools but too many students, teachers, and parents would not allow the sudden change in schedule, so doing a summer assignment is the best possible solution in order to help students succeed.
