Traditional ways may work for many things, but that’s not the case for  American schools’ calendars. The ten-month school year with summers off worked fine a century ago, when kids were needed to help on family farms, but it would be smarter to modernize the school calendar, much like in European schools. 

One major issue American schools face at the beginning of every school year is that kids seem to forget what they’ve learned over the summer. However, if school districts switched to a year-round schedule, this learning lapse could be avoided. 

Students would be in school for two-three months at a time and then have one-to- three weeks of  break. Students would be more likely to retain the information they learned with a shorter break. 

Learning loss affects low income and minority students in particular,   as their at-home environments can lack the resources to retain school material over the summer that middle-and-upper class students often have.

According to Jennifer Graves from the Department of Economics at University of Oklahoma, “A multitude of studies have established that summer learning loss exists and occurs disproportionately for minorities and disadvantaged students. These findings have led some to conclude that disadvantaged and minority students would be disproportionately helped by year-round schooling because it eliminates the lengthy summer break, during which the performance gap between these students and other students widens.”

Not only would students have  better academic records since they retain more information. And even if some do continue to struggle it says in reports from the California Department of Education it also says that year long schedules can make it easier for students to access tutoring. 

Students remembering more of what they learned  would also help teachers cover more of the curriculum. They would no longer need such a long review period at the beginning of the year, allowing more time to teach new content. 

Many suspect frequent breaks would help students and teachers recharge as well. Often with the ten-month  school year, students and teachers alike burn out. 

Families would also be able to travel during not-as-popular travel seasons. They would pay less to travel during the off season and have the chance to stay longer than a weekend with week-long breaks. 

If we as a country still relied on kids to help run farms, then our current school calendar would work great. However times have changed and America’s school schedule should too. It’s time that we switch out the outdated school calendar for the new and improved calendar many other countries have begun to use,