Altering the Traditional Calendar to Enhance Education

According to some studies in the world's wealthiest superpower, the United States fell to the 15th place in education. The American traditional grade calendar is 180 days a year. In this type of educational calendar, children usually have two and a half long breaks and two short breaks, usually one to two weeks. Because the US education ranking continues to fall, politicians, educators and parents are always looking for solutions.

Educational discussions are widespread in today's society. Currently, one of the biggest educational debates is whether schools should keep the calendars of traditional schools or convert to calendar of the full year. The main focus of discussion is the idea that using a full-year calendar provides a more consistent learning plan for children, thereby improving school performance and reducing learning loss in the summer. The year-round calendar is quite different from the conventional calendar.

In the tradition and annual school calendar, lessons of 180 days are possible. Of course, the traditional calendar is divided into 9 months 'teaching and 3 months' summer vacation. The annual calendar breaks these long-term educational / vacation blocks into shorter units. The most typical educational / holiday annual model is called the 60/20 calendar (60 day guidance, then 20 days vacation, the second most popular is 45/15, not common

Perhaps the main reason why educational supporters shifted from traditional calendars throughout the year is that they believe school education can provide better education for students throughout the year. Educator Susan Morse (1992) argues that the longer the student takes a vacation, the less the materials they hold. She added that year-round education can improve the academic performance of students who do not rely on home care. This seems logical, but Morse did not provide backing evidence that education throughout the year actually improved student academic performance. Indeed, Teresa Greenfield (1994) discovered that teachers and parents may have observed some improvement, but the results of standardized tests did not show such improvements. Furthermore, Dr. Gary Peltier (1991) pointed out that there is no big difference when comparing the student's score throughout the year with the student's score of a conventional calendar year.