The Effect of Year-Round School Calendars on Academic Performance

Using detailed longitudinal data for the state of California, this paper studies the effect that year-round school calendars have on academic performance. A particular type of year-round calendar, multi-track, allows for schools to house more students with the same facility and are often motivated for their potential to alleviate overcrowding as well as be cost saving relative to new school construction. This paper finds that these cost savings "come at a cost" in terms of the quality of education produced, as measured by a school's national percentile rank on standardized tests. I find that being on a year-round calendar results in a drop of 1-2 percentile points in national percentile rank on reading, math and language scores. The findings of this paper have strong policy implications that are especially relevant to the current condition of the US education system, where many states are facing overcrowding problems and have implemented or are seriously considering implementation of multi-track year-round calendars as a remedy.