Advantage full-day school? Relationships to competence development in the domains of reading and mathematics

Abstract

Politicians and scientists are pinning their hopes on the expansion of the provision of all-day school, assuming that these programs provide particularly favorable conditions for supporting students’ cognitive skills. Against this background, this paper examines whether and under what conditions participation in all-day schooling is connected with the development of competencies in the domains of reading and mathematics. Using data from Starting Cohort 3 of the German National Educational Panel Study (NEPS), our research considers different forms of all-day schools, the usage of extracurricular learning activities, as well as student ratings of the attractiveness of extracurricular activities. Furthermore, selective access to different school types and usage of extracurricular activities is carefully controlled for. The results show a positive association between student-rated attractiveness of extracurricular activities and competence development. Neither the organization of schooling nor participation in learning activities show significant independent main effects on competence development from grade five to seven.