Co-Authored with Katy Rouse, Economics Department, Elon University
American Economic Journal: Economic Policy
Volume 4 Number 4
November 2012
Pages 230-252
DOI: 10.1257/pol.4.4.230
Journal Site with Supplementary Materials
Abstract:
In 2007, 22 Wake County, North Carolina traditional calendar schools were switched to year-round calendars, spreading the 180 instructional days evenly across the year. This paper presents a human capital model to illustrate the conditions under which these calendars might affect achievement. We then exploit the natural experiment to evaluate the impact of year-round schooling on student achievement using a multi-level fixed effects model. Results suggest that yearround schooling has essentially no impact on academic achievement of the average student. Moreover, when the data are broken out by race, we find no evidence that any racial subgroup benefits from year-round schooling.