A CASE STUDY OF THE EFFECT OF YEAR ROUND EDUCATION ON

Given that standards are legislated through the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and the Standards of Learning have been implemented in the Commonwealth of Virginia, educational reforms call for extended learning opportunities and a requirement that leaders implement programs that are scientifically research-based which concentrate on the achievement of all students. Year round education is scientifically research based. The purpose of this study was to compare year round and traditional education at an urban middle school on attendance, academic performance, and behavior patterns. The school had both year round education and traditional education from 1998-2001. This is a unique factor to this study, as no one has compared year round education and traditional education on attendance, academic performance, and behavior patterns in an urban setting with both year round education and traditional education in the same building. The population in this quantitative quasi-experimental study was 113 grade 8 year round education (87) and traditional education (26) students from one urban middle school in southeastern Virginia, who had been in the programs for three years (grades 3-6). The over