School crowding, year-round schooling, and mobile classroom use: Evidence from North Carolina

This study exploits a unique policy environment and a large panel dataset to evaluate the impact of school crowding on student achievement in Wake County, NC. We also estimate the effects of two education policy initiatives that are often used to address crowding: multi-track year-round calendars and mobile classrooms. We estimate a multi-level fixed effects model to identify effects that are not confounded by other school, family, and individual characteristics. Results suggest that severely crowded schools have a negative impact on reading achievement but have no discernable impact on math achievement. Both mobile classrooms and year-round calendars are found to have a small negative impact on achievement in the absence of crowding, but a positive impact in crowded schools, though these policies are only able to partially offset the negative impact of crowding.

► Severely crowded schools have a negative impact on reading achievement. ► Severely crowded schools have no discernable impact on math achievement. ► Mobile classrooms moderately hurt achievement. ► Year-round calendars moderately hurt achievement. ► Mobile classrooms and year-round calendars partially offset the impact of crowding.