Effects of year-round schooling on disadvantaged students and the distribution of standardized test performance

Using detailed longitudinal data for the state of California, this paper estimates the effect of year-round school calendars on nationally standardized test performance of traditionally disadvantaged students. The student subgroups studied in this paper are: low socioeconomic status, limited English proficiency, Hispanic and Latino, and African American students. I find significant negative effects of multi-track year-round calendars on academic achievement for all subgroups examined, with only the limited English proficiency student subgroup producing unreliable estimates. Negative and significant results for another type of year-round calendar, single-track, are also found for the full sample of students and low socioeconomic status students.

► I estimate the academic impact of year-round schools for disadvantaged students. ► I also estimate the effect of such calendars on the distribution of test scores. ► I find negative effects of multi-track year-round calendars for all subgroups. ► Subgroups include: low SES, limited English proficiency, Hispanics and blacks. ► I find negative effects of single-track calendars for the full and low SES samples.