3..2..1.. summer the torturer of another school year is over and summer has begun but what do we forget during the break, students traditionally return to school to repeat the process of acclimating to new teachers, new classmates, and the new class. Students struggle to remember lessons and assignments they haven't received for months. Due to summer learning loss, many schools have implemented year-round in-school instruction. The Association for Year-Round Education reported that in 2007, 3,000 year-round schools enrolled more than 2 million students in the United States. But does research show that year-round schooling really pays off? Students in year-round schools do the same or slightly better in terms of achievement than students in traditional schools. Research is inconclusive as to whether year-round schooling is an effective solution to this problem. Two major surveys of annual schooling have shown that the results are mixed and that many studies do not take into account the socioeconomic level of the family or the education of the parents. However, both investigations – Worthen and Zsiray (1994) and Cooper, Valentine, Charlton and Melson (2003) – found evidence to support these conclusions. Students in year-round schools perform equally or slightly better in terms of achievement than students in traditional schools. Year-round schooling can be beneficial to students from poor or middle-class families. Students, parents and teachers involved in a year-round school program tend to have a positive outlook on the experience. Research also indicates that when year-round schooling has led to higher academic achievement, the schools in question are usually doing more than just rearranging the school calendar. These sc...... middle of paper......., Charlton, K., Lindsay, J., & Greathouse, S. (1996). The effects of summer vacation on achievement test scores: A narrative and meta-analytic review. Review of Educational Research, 66(3), 227–268. Cooper, H., Valentine, J. C., Charlton, K., & Melson, A. (2003). The effects of modified school calendars on student achievement and school and community attitudes. Review of Educational Research, 73(1), 1–52.McMillen, B. J. (2001). A statewide assessment of academic performance in schools year-round. The Journal of Educational Research, 95(2), 67–74.National Association for Yearlong Education. (2007). Statistical summaries of educational programs throughout the year, 2006-2007. San Diego, CA: Author Worthen, B. R., & Zsiray, S. W. (1994). What twenty years of education studies reveal about year-round education. Raleigh: North Carolina Education Policy Research Center.