Year Round Education Essays - Youth, , Term Papers

Year Round Education Imagine a child, on a hot summer day... no baseball, no swimming, no picnics or amusement park rides. Instead of spending time doing all of the things kids like to during summer vacations, this child, is attending school. Year round education (YRE) has been around since 1904, with 3,000 schools and 2 million students currently using the program (National Association). Students in year round schools go to school the same 180 days that traditional schools attend. In YRE, the summer vacation is eliminated, replacing it with shorter, more frequent breaks. There is a number of ways the year round school can operate, including: 90/30, 45/15, and 60/20. The most popular of these calendars is the 45/15, where the year is divided into 4 nine week terms, separated by 4 three week vacations (National Association). YRE has been a debated issue in education almost since it began. Supporters of YRE say this schedule improves the learning process. The biggest debate, however, comes from the parents and teachers who believe there are no proven studies that YRE helps the learning process at all. So, is year round schooling a good choice for the education of your children? YRE will not only hurt the education system, but it will create chaos for the lives of the students attending and their families. Supporters of YRE believe year round schools are more cost effective than traditional schools. With population in some districts rising rapidly, YRE is said to reduce overcrowding of schools and classrooms. In many cases, school calendars are changed in response to population growth. By running schools all year, districts can pack in more students and postpone building new schools (Endless Summer). Supporters of YRE say that by staggering vacations and schedules, schools can increase capacity by 25-50 percent (Should Kids go). Supporters argue that the costs for the transition form a traditional calendar to year round schools are modest compared to the construction costs of new schools (Inger, Morton). However, those against YRE feel that expenses will only be reduced temporarily. According to a "Year Round Education Study" conducted by the Lewisville, Texas Independent School District, "Findings of a year-long study concluded that there is no financial benefit to operating a Single Track System. The system would cause a modest increase in operational expenses without providing any instructional benefits" (Time to Learn). In Iowa, the Carroll School Board found that the costs of the district moving to a year round education system could range from $16,786 to $32,412. Taylor Elementary School, in Cedar Rapids, spends more money according to the classroom teachers that any other elementary school. Schools in Davenport reported that the switch to YRE will cost an additional $36,000 in salaries, $3000 per year for equipment, and supplies, and $22,300 as a one time expense for teacher training. Plus, the move to YRE would also cost the district an extra $92,626 to fully air condition the school building. In Des Moines, Moulten schools spend about $80,000 annually for year round schooling. If YRE were implemented, Indianola school districts would spend an additional $3,655 for middle school and $5,000 for elementary school to pay for the additional secretarial, administrative, and custodial time during the summer (Time to Learn). Costs will not only be incurred with the schools, but also with the state and with taxpayers. Cost savings for one of these groups may create cost increases for the other (Naylor, Charlie). Contrary to what supporters of YRE claim, there are definitely extra costs to implementing and maintaining a year round education system. Supporters of YRE say that year round schools would promote continuous learning. The belief is that students forget a lot of what they learn while on long summer vacations. This is seen more in slower learning students and for those who know English as their second language. It is also thought that because students retain more when the learning process is interrupted for only short periods of time, teachers in year round schools need to spend less time reviewing pre-vacation material (Inger, Morton). Although this seems true, opponents believe that there is research that needs to be addressed. Mary Lee Smith and Gene V. Glass have done extensive research in year round schools since 1974. In a study conducted by Smith and Glass, in a school district in Colorado, the learning loss in the students was evaluated. They found that although teachers in year round schools spent less time reviewing pre-vacation material than teachers in traditional schools did, the actual achievement differences were insignificant on tests designed specifically

Leap of Faith essays

Leap of Faith essays In the movie, Leap of Faith, Jonas is a fake faith healer, who uses all the tricks in the book to con the people attending his shows. Jonas and his team of helpers, including Jane who is in need of some romance, travel the country stopping at big towns and cities to put on their show. When one of the trucks breaks down in a small town, Jonas is quick to accept the challenge of making money in this town. His other goal is to seduce Marva, a waitress in the town, but she's a hard nut to crack. In the beginning of the movie Jonas had more faith within himself than in religion. You can say that Jonas is one of those people who just feel unstoppable in what they want to do. In this case Jonas used his strong confidence to do bad deeds and steal peoples money. Jonas has his way with words, where he talks to people and persuades them. That was all true until he met someone who doesnt have faith and that is Marva. Jonas first meets Marva at the restaurant, at the little town where his bus broke down, and he falls for her. Jonas is trying his best to impress this woman but unfortunately she doesnt give in for some reason. Later on during the movie, Jonas starts his fraud preaching and everyone in the crowd believes in him. Around the second or third day a miracle was done over night. The statue of Jesus had its eyes open when it was originally closed. Jonas was confused and highly shocked to believe it was a real miracle, but he still played along with it. During that night Jo nas got a bigger crowd with high beliefs of healing. Towards the end of the night Jonas had people come up and he would do his healing thing, and out of the blue came Marvas crippled little bother. Jonas tried to avoid the kid at first by ending the show but everyone in the crowd was yelling for one more healing. Jonas couldnt ignore them so he came out talking to the coward, but by then the kid was walking toward the Jesus statue and he ...

Teamwork and Motivation Problem of Friendly Bank Coursework

Teamwork and Motivation Problem of Friendly Bank - Coursework Example Technology has changed the whole concept of traditional banking and the recession dragged most of the private banks on a verge of shut down (Robbins, Judge, Millett and Boyle, 2013). In this paper, the effect of such structural changes on Friendly Bank will be analyzed and the role of team leaders and supervisors will be evaluated to understand their level of efficiency to motivate the team members and drive them towards achieving newly formed organizational objectives, keeping at pace with changing organizational cultures (Tissington, Hasel and Matthiesen, 2009). Â  Friendly bank, online banking division of Parkers Plc, is one of the high street banks of Southampton, reputed for its excellence in customer services. The targeted customer segment of Parker Plc being white, middle class and wealthy, the bank enjoys a competitive advantage by ensuring security and stability for all its customers. According to the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the bank, Hector Brogan, Parker Plc is distinct from all other banks because, with Parker, the customers know where their money is. However, as a result of severe financial depression, especially in the European economy, in 2012 the bank was driven almost on a verge of bankruptcy. Though the bank had survived from a hostile takeover by a major competitor in 2013, more than 60% of the branch network of Parker Plc were closed and replaced by online banking operations to reduce operating cost. It restarted its operations under the head of Friendly Bank, established in the outskirts of Southampton, near the existing regional office of Parker Plc. Redundant employees of Parker Plc were shifted to the online and phone banking customer service operations of Friendly Bank at a less salary package. Emphasis was shifted from customer service to sale of wide range of financial products for generating additional income for the bank and accordingly Sales against Target (SAT) was introduced as a performance indicator.