We need a longer school year
Dylan O'Connor
Author’s Main Idea: “Considerable research shows that the primary reason the achievement gap between poor children and their more affluent peers widens over the course of their school careers is the long break in learning over the summer. It's called summer slide... ...We should expect our schools to furnish today's students with the education they will need to excel in our global society. But we must also be willing to provide schools the tools they need to ensure this outcome, including the flexibility to turn the lazy days of summer into the season of learning.”
In My Own Words: Studies have shown that over the course of summer vacation, the learning curve between different socioeconomic classes is dramatically different. Due to enrichment activities and the life style of middle class families, the students continue to progress in academic subjects over the summer, while in poorer families the children actually lose progress over summer break. As a result, lengthening the school year may level the playing field.
Jennifer Davis’ opinion is made quite clear by the title of her article: We need a longer school year. Though I hate to hear myself say it, as a high schooler on my last day of summer break, I tend to agree with her. There is inarguable evidence that shows the achievement gap between different classes of children widens over the course of the summer months, spent free from the school curriculum. In the book, Outliers: The Story of Success, the author presents an identical argument to that of Davis, showing evidence of the idea’s success through what is known as KIPP (Knowledge is Power Program). The program has successfully proven to be able to help impoverished children rise above their class, yet I like Davis’s idea more. The research she has presented shows that only ten additional days make a colossal difference. The KIPP program on the other hand does not compromise between, virtually living in school and the current American summer break. All in all, I believe it is possible to extend the year and close the achievement gap; yet the idea can easily be taken too far, and I believe it is important not to let it reach that point. In a society that bases so much on personal achievement, it is all to easy for students to be overloaded, and overstressed. I think that spreading out the learning process over a greater period of time in order for it to be more thorough, is the way to go. This way the teaching material can be ingrained deeply into the long term memory of the student, which in turn means less time spent reviewing the next year.