Abstract:

Previous research indicated that summer learning loss exists disproportionately among minority and economically disadvantaged students (Alexander et al., 2007; Downey et al., 2004). Children from low income families tend to watch more television and converse less with parents, and benefit from less parental involvement during the summer break (Gershenson, 2013), while their wealthier counterparts were more likely to engage in stimulating activities such as taking lessons and visiting libraries (Alexander et al., 2007). However, research findings of the all-year-round schools impact on student academic performance has been mixed. The question of whether or not year-round schools are effective in boosting students’ achievement by eliminating summer learning loss remains, especially for low-income children who do not receive academic enrichment during the summer months. The purpose of this research was to study the impact of an all-year-round school in a large urban school district in the U.S.

Two research questions guided this research:
1. Do students in this all-year round school perform higher in reading and math achievement than comparable students in schools that operated by the traditional calendar?
2. Within this all-year-round school, is there a positive association between intersession participation (number of days attended) and reading and math achievement?

Applying propensity score matching techniques, 322 students in the all-year-round school and 322 students from non all-year-round school were included in the study. Both groups of students were from low income families. Student Measure of Academic Progress (MAP; NWEA, 2015) reading and math score at three assessment points were analyzed in the study. Repeated measure analysis results showed that students attending all-year-round school demonstrated a statistically significant growth in reading from Winter to Spring F (1, 318) =221.88, p < .001) and in math from Winter to Spring (F (1, 318) =293.51, p < .001). However, the results for the comparison group of students were similar. Grade level analysis indicated mixed results across different grade levels and subject areas.

There was statistically significant positive correlation between intersession attendance and reading growth r =.14, p = .02. The same relationship was observed for math growth, but the positive correlation was not statistically significant, r =.08, p >.05.

It is noticeable that students attending this all-year-round school did perform at or above the nationally established threshold for growth for the majority grade levels. At its first year implementation, the education benefit of all-year-round schools to eliminate summer loss may not be fully accumulated to be statistically significant yet, but there is positive trend to shrink the summer slide. Future research should examine the long term effect of this all-year-round school by analyzing longitudinal data on student academic achievements. As the intersession activities engage students in enrichment activities, student social emotional growth should also be taken into consideration to determine the impact. Implementation fidelity of this all-year-round school should also be evaluated to ensure the curriculum and instructional quality to determine the effectiveness of the all-year-round schooling as an educational intervention for economically disadvantaged students.

Keywords:

all year round school, reading growth, math growth, academic achievement