The Dec. 2 article by reporter Valerie Bauerlein focused on efforts in Wake County in North Carolina to maintain year-round schools as the county's population swells.
A recent article in the Wall Street Journal about year-round schools included insights from Katy Rouse, associate professor of economics in the Martha and Spencer Love School of Business.
The article by reporter Valerie Bauerlein focused on the efforts in North Carolina’s Wake County to use year-round schools as a remedy for rapid population growth within the school district. As Bauerlein notes, the district has grown 60 percent to 160,000 students since the year 2000.
Rouse has conducted extensive research into year-round schools, and told Bauerlein that a past spike nationally in the number of year-round calendars deployed by school districts reflected an approach that was “a temporary fix for a problem” rather than a broader shift in policy. The year-round approach has prompted many parents to push for a return to a traditional nine-month calendar, Bauerlein reported.
“Some things like summer vacation are institutionalized,” Rouse explained. “When it’s the way it’s always been, it’s hard to change.”
Read the entire article here.
Along with her research into year-round schools and how it affects academic achievement, Rouse has also explored the impact of physical education breaks during the school day on academic productivity in research conducted with Elon colleague Associate Professor of Economics Steve Bednar.