The Question of the Advantages and Disadvantages of Extending the School Year - Research Paper Example

?Extended School Year in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania Background A longer school year has been suggested time and again and more serious debates on this issue are gaining prominence in educational circles. The amount of time spent in schools by children in the United States in comparison to the time spent by children in other countries has assumed greater interest. The National Education Commission on Time and Learning was created by Congress directives in 1991 in order to study the relationship between the time spent and learning acquired by students in U. S. Schools. The final report by this commission was submitted in April 1994 and was titled “Prisoners of Time” and gained considerable attention upon its release. Perhaps the greatest finding of the commission’s report was the fact that students present in other democratic countries (especially industrialized nations) were expected to take up to two times as much instructions in core academic areas during the course of a high school year than students being taught in high schools across the United States. (NECTL, 1994) 2. Relating Time and Learning Investigations into time and learning reveal that the amount of time spent on learning and the total learning acquired are directly related. Learning is affected consistently in a powerful manner based on the time allocated to learning. Moreover it has been found that schools that devote greater student time to learning tend to produce students with greater test scores in comparison to schools where student’s time is used up in other activities. (Walberg, Extended Learning Time, 1991) (Walberg, 1988) On the other hand there is no clear relationship between the amount of time allocated for instructing students in a school and the amount of time that students are engaged in various kinds of learning activities. Research carried out on the issue of time spent by students in school reveals that time is just one constituent that is required to ensure learning for students. This also indicates that merely increasing the time spent in schools is unlikely to produce any major changes in the amount of learning of students. The relationship between the amount of time spent and achievement does not present a strong case. Hence it is apparent that by only increasing the amount of time spent in schools will not produce large gains in learning by students. Therefore policy makers cannot expect to increase the amount of time spent in instructing students either in school days or school years in order to justify tremendous increases in learning. Another aspect often brought to light by most researchers is that the utilization of time is far more important than simple increases in the time spent in school by students. As mentioned before mere mechanical increases in time are not likely to produce any major changes in the amount of learning or in academic achievement. However even then certain states are adding more and more time to their class times with some states adopting the school day approach while others adopt the school year approach. Based on these arguments it is pertinent to realize that time spent in the classroom should be optimized further in order to maximize learning in the classroom. This in turn leads to the question: How do aspects of learning and academic achievement get affected as time in the classroom is increased due to extended school year periods? Moreover should such a system be enforced in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania? 3. Findings 3.1. Academic Achievement The effects of prescribing an extended day or year program for classrooms was only the subject of a very few studies that were reviewed. However the few pertinent studies reviewed indicated that some issues were worth noting. A study conducted on 181 kindergarten students was structured that one half received conventional schooling while the other half received extended year programs at school. The study examined the effect of additional school days on the children’s academic abilities as well as their psychosocial skills. The conventional schooling program consisted of 180 days while the extended program consisted of 210 days. The kindergarteners were assessed using tests of math, reading, general knowledge, vocabulary as well as perceived competence at the beginning (fall) of the academic years. Similar tests were performed at the end (spring) of the academic year as well as at the beginning (fall) of the next academic year. The findings showed that the kindergartners enrolled in the extended learning programs outperformed the conventionally enrolled kindergartners in math, reading as well as general knowledge and displayed higher levels of cognitive competence. The results of the study concluded that lengthening the school year could provide students with better educational achievement. (Frazier & Morrison, 1998) In a similar manner, a study conducted in Detroit showed similar findings. The study was conducted on elementary, middle and high school students over a period of three years extending from the summer of 1995 to the summer of 1997. The scheme was labeled as the Extended School Year Program and teachers as well as parents were taken on board to fully appreciate the effects of the study. The program was limited to the addition of 15 days in school as compared to conventional school programs to serve the same instructive purposes. Information was collected and analyzed in order to evaluate what was required extend each school year. The effects of the program were analyzed using achievement data alone. The results of the achievement tests clearly indicated that the scores for Grade 4 showed improvement. Survey based data collected from teachers indicated that there was a decrease in teacher support as well as teacher belief in the program. However on the other hand around 75% of the student’s parents believed that the extended school year increased the student’s skill levels. In a similar manner around 77% of the parents believed that the program should be allowed to continue further. Yet around 78% of the students undergoing the program indicated that they were not really happy with an extended schooling period each year. The recommendations of the report suggested that the program could be improved further if the program’s goals and objectives were communicated better and if the parents could be involved to a greater extent. (Green, 1998) Another study conducted in Houston for elementary schools using an extended instruction period found improvements similar to the studies related above. The study was conducted between 1988 and 1989 for elementary schools in Houston. The students were provided with supplemental learning in the areas of reading, math and ESL (English as Second Language) in addition to their instructions in the regular learning cycle. The findings of this research showed that students undergoing the extended learning programs performed better than their counterparts in the conventional learning system in the MAT-6 reading, language arts as well as math areas for the second grade to the fifth grade. In comparison first grade students undergoing the extended learning program scored lower than usual on their MAT-6 reading and language tests but performed better on their math tests. Moreover most parents felt that this program augmented the skills of their children. A large majority of students also indicated that they were helped out because of the extended learning program and most felt that they liked the program as well. (Nechworth, 1990) This study’s findings stand in opposition to some of the findings of the earlier studies related. Instead of improvements in all the areas, this study indicates that there are chances that increasing instruction time may also lower academic learning and achievement in certain areas. The current research on this issue is not conclusive as to which areas would be boosted and which would be negatively affected due to extended learning programs. Based on the results and findings of the studies presented above it cannot be conclusively said that increasing instruction time by extending the school year will always increase academic learning and achievement. Other than academic learning and achievement there are other aspects of schools and learning that should be looked into to assess the consequences of extended school year program. One such aspect is the social behavior and adjustment that children achieve when placed within the school environment. 3.2. Social Behavior Only a very few studies have addressed the issue of social adjustment and social behavior of children placed in extended learning programs. One of the most noteworthy of these studies investigated the effects of extended school years with juvenile delinquency. There is an established close relationship amongst school vacation periods and peak periods of juvenile delinquency. As a consequence, certain researchers have also suggested that extending the school year could lower juvenile delinquency by a significant amount. A study conducted in some 79 schools in the United States that had either extended school year programs or all around year school programs presented significant results. The results indicated that some 60% of the responding school officials indicated that juvenile delinquency rates had decreased as a result of extending school years. These results were based on the observations of school officials prior to conducting the extended school year programs and after conducting such programs. However some 54% of the responding school officials stated that there were no major differences in juvenile delinquency rates before and after conducting extended school year programs. In a similar manner some 51% of the responding school officials stated that the amount of vandalism in schools had decreased when compared before and after the implementation of extended school year programs. (Richmond, 1977) The results of this study clearly indicate that there is a lack of overwhelming evidence to prove or disprove the notion that extended school year programs could contribute to improving the rate of juvenile delinquency. Hence it can be suggested from this conclusion that introducing extended school year programs may not effectively contribute towards modifying the social behavior and the social adjustment of children. In this respect, another aspect of children’s behavior in extended school year programs is that of attendance. The introduction of greater time periods in the classroom may serve to dissuade certain groups of children from taking any part in the class and may eventually lead to greater absence from school due to the dread for more time in class. 3.3. Attendance The effects of extending school year cycles have been investigated little in respect of attendance in schools. The few studies that have taken absence from school into consideration have indicated that students begin to dread school and eventually tend to drop out from classes in order to find more free time. A study conducted to assess the impact of extended school year programs on the academic standards as well as the dropout rates of students indicated a trend towards absence from school especially for students that were already at risk. The findings of the study indicated that around 27% of the responding schools indicated that the dropout rates had increased when comparing dropout rates before and after the implementation of the extended school year period. In this respect it is pertinent to note that around 15.8% of the schools that had reported an increase in the dropout rates had also increased the length of the school day. Based on this evidence it can be suggested that increasing the school day period as well as the school year periods tend to affect academic achievement negatively because they impact school attendance directly in a negative way. Moreover another startling finding of the study was the fact that an increase in the overall academic standards due to the implementation of extended school year periods had much more negative consequences for black, Hispanic and other minority ethnic groups in comparison to the majority white groups. This finding introduces another aspect to the extended school year cycle which indicates that students who cannot cope as well or feel left out with increasing academic standards tend to miss out on school on purpose. (Tanner, 1989) As a consequence of the results of this study it is hard to distinguish if the dropout rates in high schools increased due to increased time in the classroom or due to greater struggle required to survive in class due to higher academic standards. Hence, the results of this study fail to provide any concrete evidence for one reason or the other for increased dropout rates and can be seen as stuck in the middle like the results of previous studies related in this text. However what the results of this study clearly show is that an increase in the current school year period has negative consequences for students as well as academic achievement in the longer run. 3.4. Parents and Teachers Satisfaction Studies on the issue of extended school years and the satisfaction of teachers and parents have not been conducted for this purpose alone. Instead studies documenting the impact of extended school year period have also documented parents and teachers satisfaction. The study of elementary, middle and high schools in Detroit related before clearly indicated that parents felt more satisfied after the school year was extended. (Green, 1998) One reason for this satisfaction may result from the decrease of parent’s inputs required when children are occupied in schools longer than usual. However the response of teachers to extending the school year remained poor and indicated displeasure. Moreover some parents too complained that their children were not getting enough time at home or for vacations. 4. Conclusion Based on the evidence presented above it is apparent that increasing the length of the school year has both positive and negative impacts for students as well as academic achievement and other forms of learning. However it must be noted that the negative impacts outweigh the positive impacts by a large margin. Hence the enforcement of extended school year periods in New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania may not have desirable outcomes for students and learning. 5. Bibliography Frazier, J. A., & Morrison, F. J. (1998). The influence of extended year schooling on growth of achievement and percieved competence in early elementary school. Child Development 69(2) , 495-517. Green, C. (1998). The extended school year programs consolidated report: Achievement test scores and survey findings. Detroit: Michigan Eductional Assessment Program. Nechworth, J. (1990). Chapter 1: Extended Day on-campus/off-campus program. Texas: Eric. NECTL. (1994). Prisoners of Time. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Press. Richmond, M. J. (1977). School as a deterrent to juvenile crime. Education 97(3) , 252-256. Tanner, C. K. (1989). Positive educational policy with negative impacts on students. High School Journal 72(2) , 65-72. Walberg, H. J. (1991). Extended Learning Time. Washington: Department of Education. Walberg, H. J. (1988). Synthesis of research on time and learning. Educational Leadership 45(6) , 76-85. Read More