Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Shift to year-round school calendar | detnews.com | The Detroit News


Shift to year-round school calendar detnews.com The Detroit News:

"Idea 36: Free Michigan's schools to set up a year-round calendar.
Why: The 10-week vacation from mid-June through the end of August hurts learning and doesn't make students competitive globally with counterparts who have a longer school year. Students tend to lose a month's worth of learning during the summer, according to a Duke neuroscience professor. Students from low-income or second-language families can lose even more learning. The practice is an outdated tradition that traces back to when children were needed on the farm in the summer. More schools are embracing the a year-round school calendar -- about 3,000 nationally teaching 2.1 million students in 2006-07, according to the National Association for Year-Round Education."