Is it a better way for students to learn and to keep them out of harms way?
Chicago school leaders think so, and they're making a move to more than double the number of year-round schools in Chicago. There are currently 65 schools that operate on a year-round schedule.
CPS CEO Ron Huberman explained that students would get the same holidays and still end around the same time. While students would still be in the classroom for 170 days, the breaks would be spread out and shorter.
District officials pointed to state test results the last two years showing that year-round schools did better than the district average, the Chicago Tribune reported. But a 2007 Ohio State University study found test scores at year-round schools around the country were about the same as students in schools with traditional schedules.
Some skeptics have argued that parents with unusual schedules may not welcome the change for their kids, but the proposal has a strong-enough majority to get the plan in the books.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that the schools include: Ashe, Avalon Park, Barnard, Beethoven, Ronald Brown, Brunson, Calhoun North, Carroll, Cather, Clark , Cook, Cuffe, Dett, DePriest, Drake, Dunne, Earhart, Edwards, Ellington, Esmond, Fernwood, Frazier Magnet, Goldblatt, Harvard, Hay, Hearst, Hefferan, Herbert, Herzl, Higgins, Hoyne, Charles Hughes, Irving, Jensen, Kellman, King, Kohn, Kozminski, Libby, Lovett, Lowell, Mann, McDowell, McNair, Melody, Morgan, Nash, National Teachers, Ninos Heroes, Nobel, O’Toole, Peck, Penn, Piccolo, Pope, Prescott, Randolph, Ryder, Ryerson, Sherman, Shoop, Smyth, Till, Walsh, West Pullman, Williams Prep, and Zapata.
