After millions of American schoolchildren fell behind during the COVID-19 pandemic, some states and school districts are looking at year-round school calendars as a way to recoup lost learning. Typically, year-round calendars don't increase learning time but rather spread school days more equally across 12 months, with a shorter summer vacation…

Reading and literacy skills are essential to fostering a child's development and academic success. Research has consistently highlighted the importance of early literacy proficiency as a strong indicator of later academic achievement, cognitive ability, and social-emotional well-being (Espinosa, 2002; Gottlieb et al., 2022). Unfortunately, reading…

Year-round school is the organization of days within a school calendar year to provide students with regular breaks and instructional blocks. This study surveyed 502 parents to identify factors influencing parental support for, or opposition to, year-round school. Three themes were constructed based on parent responses: children need educational…

Background: Research shows that over summer break, students forget approximately 1 month of learning in math and reading; furthermore, low-income students lose ground relative to peers. Year-round education (YRE) redistributes schooldays to shorten summer. Prior analyses pooled single-track YRE (academic intervention in which all students attend…

Guided by prior research, this meta-analysis examines single-track year-round education (YRE) only. The main objective is to identify, across studies published in the post-No Child Left Behind (NCLB) era, how single-track YRE effects student learning. This meta-analysis is guided by the following research questions: (1) What is the estimated…

In this meta-analysis, I have reviewed published and unpublished research on single-track, year-round education's effect on science and social studies achievement, 2001-2016. Of 30 studies that met inclusion criteria and had data from which an effect size estimate could be calculated, 7 reported science outcomes (18 effect size estimates) or…

Background: Body mass index (BMI) increases when students are away on summer vacation. Evaluation of serial BMI measurements on year-round students allows new insight into the reasons children gain weight seasonally. Methods: The 206 first and second graders of 2-year-round elementary schools with obesity intervention programs were weighed and…