Multi-Track Year-Round Schooling as Cost Saving Reform: Not Just a Matter of Time
Abstract
In the face of school crowding and fears about inequality-inducing summer learning loss, many schools have started to adopt multi-track year-round school calendars, which keep the same number of school days, but spread them more evenly across the calendar year. This change allows schools to support a larger student population by rotating which students are on break at any point in time. While year-round schooling can save money, the impact on academic achievement is uncertain and only recently have large-scale studies become available for policy makers. This brief examines research on the effects of multi-track year-round schooling, focusing on two rigorously executed case studies. This research gives little support for claims that year-round schooling will boost student achievement. Except as a remedy for highly over-crowded schools, year-round schooling seems to have little impact on achievement, and has even been shown to decrease achievement, especially among the most high-risk student populations.
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The effect of multi-track YRE may actually be negative.
“The effect of multi‐track YRE may actually be negative (Graves, 2010; Graves, McMullen, & Rouse, 2013).”
From PROTOCOL: Single-track year-round education for improving academic achievement in us k-12 schools: results of a meta-analysis (2018) · cites this paper as Graves, McMullen, & Rouse, 2013
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Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 2
- Johnson Shaun P., 2007, Education Policy Brief, 5, 1
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Cited by
Sorted by citations
Fitzpatrick, D., & Burns, J. (2018) · Campbell Systematic Reviews: Better Evidence for a Better World · doi:10.1002/cl2.194 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
- Authors
- Graves, J., McMullen, S., & Rouse, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Oklahoma (US)
- Calvin University (US)
- Elon University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Graves, Jennifer
- Venue
- Education Finance and Policy
- Publisher
- MIT Press - Journals
- Published
- 2013-07
- Volume
- 8
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 300-315
- ISSN
- 1557-3060 (ISSN-L)
- 1557-3079
- OpenAlex
- W2092536918
- Semantic Scholar
- 16131556889fce2fc41be93132d453a865ec1a4f
- Cited by
- 35
- References
- 19
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 1 · 2021: 15 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 3 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 1 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1
- FWCI
- 6.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Education Finance and Policy (publishedVersion)
- RePEc: Research Papers in Economics (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › School Choice and Performance
- Social Sciences › Education › Early Childhood Education and Development
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Educational Assessment and Improvement
- Keywords
- year-round schooling, summer learning loss, academic performance, cost reduction, at-risk students, education policy
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