The Case Against Summer Vacation
By David Von Drehle Thursday, Jul. 22, 2010
Deprived of healthy stimulation, millions of low-income kids lose a significant amount of what they learn during the school year. Call it "summer learning loss," as the academics do, or "the summer slide," but by any name summer is among the most pernicious — if least acknowledged — causes of achievement gaps in America's schools. Children with access to high-quality experiences can exercise their minds and bodies at sleep-away camp, on family vacations, in museums and libraries and enrichment classes. Meanwhile, children without resources languish on street corners or in front of glowing screens. By the time the bell rings on a new school year, the poorer kids have fallen weeks, if not months, behind. And even well-off American students may be falling behind their peers around the world.
And what starts as a hiccup in a 6-year-old's education can be a crisis by the time that child reaches high school. A major study by researchers at Johns Hopkins University concluded that while students made similar progress during the school year, regardless of economic status, the better-off kids held steady or continued to advance during the summer — while disadvantaged students fell back. By the end of grammar school, low-income students had fallen nearly three grade levels behind. By ninth grade, roughly two-thirds of the learning gap separating income groups could be blamed on summer learning loss.
Year Round Calendar
BiggerPicture believes that operating schools on a year-round calendar provides the best solution for increasing capacity by:
•Minimizing the amount of reassignments necessary, which provides for a more stable school community•Simplifying the feeder patterns into schools, allowing more classmate continuity from elementary to middle school•Utilizing a building that currently exists rather than waiting for new construction.•Operating that building at greater efficiency, which provides better stewardship to taxpayers and is reflective of the current economic environment•Spreading students out over tracks, allowing for a "smaller school" feel which leads to improved learning•Increasing calendar continuity for the majority of students which would come from year-round elementary schools About Wake County’s Year-round Schools
Wake County has been operating schools on the year-round calendar since 1990 http://www.wcpss.net/history/year_round/index.html. Over the past 17 years thousands of students, parents and teachers have embraced the year-round calendar as an educational equivalent -- and some believe superior – alternative to the traditional calendar.
Regardless of calendar, year-round schools have the same challenges and rewards as traditional calendar schools. The significant difference is that while traditional schools continue to take the entire summer off, year-round schools space that three-month vacation throughout the school year with three-week “track-outs” every nine weeks. Year-round proponents maintain that this schedule maximizes academic retention and provides teachers and students with scheduled breaks at regular intervals. A review of
year-round research conducted at Duke University found that students on a year-round schedule do have a slight advantage over their peers when it comes to retention.
To learn more about how year-round operates visit
Track Out Camps
Magnet Schools
Fourteen Wake County Magnet Schools were selection as Magnet Schools of Excellence or Magnet Schools of Distinction.
2010 National Magnet Schools of Excellence
•Bugg Creative Arts and Science Magnet Elementary
•Conn Active Learning and Technology Magnet Elementary
•Joyner Center for Spanish Language /International Baccalaureate PYP Magnet
•Millbrook International Baccalaureate PYP Magnet Elementary
•Wiley International Studies Magnet Elementary
•Ligon Gifted and Talented Magnet Middle School
•Garner International Baccalaureate MYP/DP Magnet High
2010 National Magnet Schools of Distinction
•Combs Leadership Magnet Elementary
•Brooks Museums Magnet Elementary
•Douglas Creative Arts and Science Magnet Elementary
•Hunter Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary
•Washington Gifted and Talented Magnet Elementary
•Centennial Campus University Connections & Leadership Magnet Middle
•East Garner International Baccalaureate MYP Magnet Middle
Magnet Schools of America is a national collaborative network of magnet schools that provide leadership for innovative instructional programs promoting equity, diversity, and academic excellence for all students in public school choice programs. The schools were selected from a national field of over 2,000 magnet schools based on rigorous criteria that includes innovative instructional strategies, student achievement, diversity goals, and parent and community involvement in the magnet school. As WCPSS proceeds with the Curriculum Management Audit's call to evaluate all programs, the accomplishment of these schools shows the level to which WCPSS magnet programs meet and exceed the national standard for magnet schools.
Magnet schools are innovative instructional programs that promote equity, diversity, academic excellence, and public school choice for all students. Magnet Schools have goals of improved academic achievement, diverse student enrollments, higher attendance rates, higher graduation rates, and lower drop-out rates. Magnet schools can bring more parental involvement, more personalization through theme-based education, and specialized programs providing a sense of a safer environment for learning.
What we can do:
1. Encourage businesses to become actively involved in magnet schools.
2. Encourage the Wake County School Board to support magnet schools
3. Encourage legislation at both the local,state, & national levels that promote magnet schools
4. Provide parents and community members information on the benefits of magnet schools.
5. Provide support, advocacy, and leadership for all magnet schools and other public schools
6. Communicate and educate of the values of equity, diversity,and academic success
