Design characteristics and effects of all-day provision in primary schooling: A secondary analysis of data from the IGLU study

All-day schools are a major focus of recent debates on educational reforms in Germany. In this paper, expectations about the effects of all-day schooling on education and student achievement are theoretically discussed from the point of view of research on school effectiveness. Pedagogical measures and student achievement are empirically analyzed, comparing elementary schools with and without all-day schooling. The study is based on secondary analyses of representative German data from the PIRLS study combined with information provided additionally from the schools' principals. Schools which do offer all-day schooling provide a wide range of pedagogical measures, although all-day schools with systematic concepts tend to stress the promotion of cognitive skills. No evidence was found of effects on the level of reading comprehension nor on the correlation between comprehension and social background or migration status.