Comparative Outcomes Of The Clark County School District Year-Round And Nine-Month Schools (Nevada)

This study compared achievement in reading, mathematics, and language of elementary students attending traditional-calendar nine-month schools with the achievement of elementary students on the 45-15 staggered plan in year-round schools. Also investigated were attendance and enrollment data for elementary students in both types of schools, and teacher evaluation of their respective schools for both types of schools; To investigate achievement effects, an ex post facto criterion-group design was used. The two criterion groups were the two school types--year-round and nine month; the dependent variables were mean school achievement test scores in reading and mathematics (on district-developed criterion-referenced tests at grades two through six and commercially produced norm-referenced tests at grades three and six), and language (on norm-referenced tests at grades three and six). For the analysis of attendance, the average annual percent attendance was calculated for both types of schools by dividing average daily attendance by average daily membership. Further analysis of year-round school attendance was conducted by adjusting this ratio to take into account reduced summer enrollment. Teacher attitudes about their school were compared via their respective mean rating of five Elements of Quality which described school environment or climate; The school sample consisted of seventy-five elementary schools, sixth-grade centers, and middle schools in the Clark County School District in Las Vegas, Nevada; An analysis of covariance using student socioeconomic status, percent minority students, and student school ability as the covariates, school structure as the independent variable, and mean school test scores in reading, mathematics, and language as the dependent variables was conducted. No consistent statistically significant differences were found in favor of either type of school, although a statistically significant difference in favor of the nine-month schools was found in six out of ten comparisons at grade three. Attendance at year-round schools was found to be only slightly lower than that at nine-month schools before adjustment was made for the effects of reduced summer enrollment. However, adjustment for this phenomenon showed substantially reduced summer attendance at year-round schools. Teacher opinionnaire data showed no difference in favor of either type of program. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)