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August 14, 2007Year-Round Schools Don't Boost Learning |
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From Ohio State University: Students in "year-round" schools don't learn more than their peers in traditional nine-month schools, new research has found. A sociologist at Ohio State University found that, over a full year, math and reading test scores improved about the same amount for children in year-round schools as they did for students whose schools followed a traditional nine-month calendar. "We found that students in year-round schools learn more during the summer, when others are on vacation, but they seem to learn less than other children during the rest of the year," said Paul von Hippel, author of the study and research statistician in sociology at Ohio State. The total number of school days and vacation days remains unchanged, but they are distributed more evenly over the calendar. Although school districts often adopt year-round schedules to help alleviate overcrowding, some educators have claimed that eliminating the long summer vacation will provide academic benefits for students. Von Hippel examined reading and math test scores of children in kindergarten and first grade in 748 public schools and 244 private schools from around the country. Scores from students in 27 public schools classified as year-round (none of the private schools had a year-round calendar) were compared to scores of students in schools with traditional calendars. Von Hippel said he was able to take into account issues such as poverty and overcrowding when comparing scores to ensure that comparisons between test scores in year-round and traditional schools were fair. If a school has a non-academic reason for adopting a year-round calendar -- such as coping with overcrowding -- it can do so without any major harm to academics.
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