TY - JOUR AB - Important educational policy decisions, like whether to shorten or extend the school year, often require accurate estimates of how much students learn during the year. Yet, related research relies on a mostly untested assumption: that growth in achievement is linear throughout the entire school year. We examine this assumption using a data set containing math and reading test scores for over seven million students in kindergarten through 8th grade across the fall, winter, and spring of the 2016-17 school year. Our results indicate that assuming linear within-year growth is often not justified, particularly in reading. Implications for investments in extending the school year, summer learning loss, and racial/ethnic achievement gaps are discussed. AU - Kuhfeld, Megan AU - Soland, James DA - April 2020 DO - 10.26300/bvg0-8g17 PY - 2020 ST - The learning curve: Revisiting the assumption of linear growth across the school year T2 - EdWorkingPapers.com TI - The learning curve: Revisiting the assumption of linear growth across the school year UR - https://www.edworkingpapers.com/ai20-214 ER -