The Academic Impact of Year-Round School Calendars: A Response to School Overcrowding Jennifer Graves PhD Candidate, Department of Economics University of California, Irvine Prepared for Simposio de Análisis Económico December, 2008

Defining School Calendars A traditional calendar consists of short breaks throughout the year, typically during the winter and spring time, with a lengthy summer vacation. A single-track year-round calendar is one in which the entire student body takes vacations during the same intervals of time, yet these intervals are dispersed throughout the year more or less evenly. A multi-track year-round calendar is one in which the student body is divided into separate tracks, staggered by track throughout the year. The entire student body is never simultaneously all in attendance, since at least one track is on break at any given time.

Background Roughly 25% of US public schools are overcrowded (US DOE, 2000) Increasing enrollment levels have lead to increased demand for additional room to house students. School construction struggles to keep up. This is exacerbated by immigration and policies to reduce class size School construction and bussing are typically proposed remedies. Multi-track is considered as a potentially positive option. The incidence of year-round schools has increased in recent years and yet little is known on how this affects students

Advantages Alleviation of summer learning loss Frequent opportunities for student “catch up” and teacher planning Full use of facility Per pupil cost savings Opportunity for teachers to supplement income with additional teaching (multi- track) Disadvantages Other forms of summer learning Disruptive breaks Track assignment segregation Difficulties for families with children on different tracks Organizational burdens Peer effects Adopting a Year-Round School

Data California Department of Education: school-grade-year level variables (racial composition, teacher characteristics, technology, staff, urban/rural, school programs) Census 2000: One year local area characteristics (pct foreign, pct private school, per capita inc, etc.)

Estimation Caution in using cross-sectional comparison School fixed effects. Identification from within school variation over time. School specific time trends Findings: Multi-track year-round calendars have a negative effect on academic achievement of roughly a -1 percentile point drop in all three subjects for the samples of all students. For subset of critically overcrowded schools this is slightly larger (-1 to -2)

Data and Estimation Data : California Department of Education: school-grade-year level variables (racial composition, teacher characteristics, technology, staff, urban/rural, school programs, mean nat’l percentile rank broken into 3 subjects) Census 2000: One year local area characteristics (pct foreign, pct private school, per capita inc, etc.) Estimation: School fixed effects. Identification from within school variation over time (Caution in using cross-sectional comparison). School specific time trends

Subset of schools that are ever 5 yrs on current calendar

Subset of critically overcrowded schools after 2001

Concluding Remarks Being on a multi-track year-round calendar results in a drop of 1-2 percentile points in national percentile rank. This result is similar in magnitude to those found for charter schools and slightly larger than teacher incentives. Explanations:  non-linearities to in-school learning (evidenced by negative effects for single-track as well)  organizational issues affecting the way instructors teach  peer effects Further work necessary to evaluate long-term effects.

The Academic Impact of Year-Round School Calendars: A Response to School Overcrowding Jennifer Graves PhD Candidate, Department of Economics University of California, Irvine QUESTIONS?