Logical Reasoning

PT134 · S2 · Q9 Robert: The school board

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Robert: The school board is considering adopting a year-round academic schedule that eliminates the traditional three-month summer vacation.

Conclusion

Getting rid of summer break and teaching year round won’t lead to teachers covering more new material.

Evidence

Under this plan, the 3 month break is replaced by six 2-week breaks, which adds up to about 3 months. So the it’s basically the same number school days either way.

Evaluation

Frame it like a paradox – Given that it’s the same number of school days with either plan, ;How can Robert argue that teachers would get to cover more new material with the new plan?

Goal

Find an answer that explains how they can cover more new material if the 12 weeks are spread out into six fortnights than if the 12 weeks are a 3 month summer vacation.

Which one of the following, if true, is a response Robert could make that would counter Samantha's argument?

Teachers would be willing to
Out Of Scope
Out Of Scope: “teachers willing to except” This doesn’t do anything to explain how the new way of taking 12 weeks off helps students cover more new material.
1% picked this
Most parents who work outside
Unclear Impact
Would parents find it any easier to cobble together daycare and babysitting if we broke 12 weeks up into six 2-week installments? That sounds even harder. More importantly, this doesn’t explain how students would end up covering more new material.
1% picked this
In school districts that have
Out of Scope
Out of Scope: “increases number of days” / Unclear Impact This is about a different plan than the one being analyzed. In this plan, they actually have more school days / fewer vacation days. The fact that a plan with more school days is having positive effects on student comprehension isn’t relevant to the objection of “How could we get more done if it’s the same number of days missed?”
10% picked this
Correct
Teachers spend no more than
Why this is right
This identifies a salient difference between stacking those 12 weeks into three months of summer break vs. spreading the 12 weeks out in six 2-week sessions. Students don’t forget that much over two weeks, so teachers only spend one day of class for review. That means they use six days a year for post-break review. Meanwhile, with the summer break schedule, teachers spend close to a whole month on post-break review. The savings of 6 review days vs. 30 review days is how the new plan would allow teachers to cover more new material.
Skill tested: Weaken · how this choice captures the argument's function is the move to repeat next time.
88% picked this
Students prefer taking a long
Out Of Scope: “prefer” / Opposite
What students prefer is irrelevant. We are trying to explain to Samantha how the new plan would allow for covering more new material. (Additionally, if students prefer the summer break schedule, it would be a reason not to adopt the new plan. Robert is arguing for adopting the new plan, so this isn’t an appealing idea to his side anyway.)
0% picked this

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