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Do students benefit from longer school days? Regression discontinuity evidence from Florida's additional hour of literacy instruction

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  • Figlio, David
  • Holden, Kristian L.
  • Ozek, Umut

Abstract

Instructional time is a fundamental educational input, yet we have little causal evidence about the effect of longer school days on student achievement. This paper uses a sharp regression discontinuity design to estimate the effects of lengthening the school day for low-performing schools in Florida by exploiting an administrative cutoff for eligibility. Our results indicate significant positive effects of additional literacy instruction on student reading achievement. In particular, we find effects of 0.05 standard deviations of improvement in reading test scores for program assignment in the first year, though long-run effects are difficult to assess.

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  • Figlio, David & Holden, Kristian L. & Ozek, Umut, 2018. "Do students benefit from longer school days? Regression discontinuity evidence from Florida's additional hour of literacy instruction," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 171-183.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:ecoedu:v:67:y:2018:i:c:p:171-183
    DOI: 10.1016/j.econedurev.2018.06.003
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    Cited by:

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    2. BAI Yu & TANAKA Ryuichi, 2024. "A Long-run Consequence of Relaxation-Oriented Education on Labor Market Performance," Discussion papers 24003, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI).
    3. Kurtz, Michael D. & Conway, Karen Smith & Mohr, Robert D., 2020. "Weekend feeding (“BackPack”) programs and student outcomes," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    4. Wedel, Katharina, 2021. "Instruction time and student achievement: The moderating role of teacher qualifications," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    5. Niki, Minae, 2024. "Does the reduction in instruction time affect student achievement and motivation? Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).
    6. Andrés Barrios Fernández, 2023. "Instruction time and educational outcomes," IZA World of Labor, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), pages 509-509, July.
    7. Kozhaya, Mireille & Martínez Flores, Fernanda, 2022. "School attendance and child labor: Evidence from Mexico’s Full-Time School program," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C).
    8. Zhang, Yue & Zhao, Guochang & Zhou, Bo, 2021. "Does learning longer improve student achievement? Evidence from online education of graduating students in a high school during COVID-19 period," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C).

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