Why are Schools Moving to 4-Day Weeks?
Roughly 850 school districts across the United States have adopted a 4-day school week. This is up from 650 in 2020 and is not showing any signs of slowing down.
Looking over the Nation’s Report Card, which shows the results of state tests that are taken every year by American students in reading and math, we can see that in the United States fewer than 50% of students are able to score proficient on their state’s reading and math exams.
In every state.
In reading only 29% of eighth grade students were proficient in math in 2022.
In math only 26% of students were proficient.
If our students are doing so poorly on state tests, why then are some schools trying to shorten the school week?
You would think that if our students are failing then we will want to increase their time at school. We should want to provide more instruction. Not less.
However, this is exactly what is happening in districts across the nation, as more and more schools opt to transition from the standard 5-day school week to a shorter 4-day week.
Why is this?
How does a 4-day school week work?
Most of the time it’s simply done by cutting either Monday or Friday out of the typical school week. Some schools choose to make this a day of at-home learning, while others just have permanent 3-day weekends.
Every state has its own guidelines for how many days or hours of instruction students must have annually. In order for districts to have 4-day school weeks, time is added to the length of each school day. However, despite this, districts working on the shortened model averaged 58 fewer hours of school each year.
All states have guidelines that outline the minimum number of days or hours that students must be in school annually in order for them to get full funding.
It would obviously be more difficult for districts to meet the requirements for the number of days in attendance without may allow 4-day schools to count extra time added to the end of the school days as extra days — given that the district has met other requirements.
In order for districts to change their academic calendar to four school days per week they must first meet certain requirements, such as completing a waiver, submitting their plans to the state, or meeting academic benchmarks.
Why Would They Do This?
The primary reason that districts decide to implement 4-day school weeks is, of course, to save money. Tight school budgets mean that administrators are looking for new and creative ways to save money.
Currently the majority of four-day school districts are in rural areas.
Why rural areas?
Well, these districts tend to have some needs that their urban and suburban counterparts don’t have to deal with.
The biggest issue to contend with is transportation.
Some urban districts have been able to nearly eliminate bussing needs at the elementary level. They can do this by building multiple schools across the district, so that all students are within walking distance. The only students that will require transportation are the ones who have special transportation needs.
If rural schools wanted to have every school within walking distance of their students, then they would end up with some elementary schools that serve only three to four families.
People tend to be more spread out in the country.
An urban District near me even has a deal worked out with the Public Transportation Authority so that high school students can ride city buses to school. This means that the district does not have to put funds towards their own transportation for these students.
As it is, rural districts generally require bus drivers to spend an hour or more collecting students and transporting them down the long country roads to school.
This means that the schools need to put a greater portion of their budget towards transportation costs than those in more populated areas.
Current research shows that districts only save about 0.4 to 2.5% by trimming down the school week to four days. The maximum possible savings are estimated to be 5.43%.
Although the percentages may appear to be small, in the context of school operating costs they can amount to millions of dollars in extra funds that could be allocated to any other number of areas.
These cost savings are the primary reason given for why administrators shorten their school weeks.
It’s sad that school budgetary concerns, and not the wellbeing of our students, are at the center of this movement, and it definitely begs the question “How is this change impacting our young learners?”
Parents, teachers and school officials wouldn’t agree to a shorter school week if they thought their children would be would suffer, would they?
Well, that’s a question for a future article.
For now, let me know what your thoughts are on this change and what kind of impact you think it will have on the future of our nation at stateofeducationus@gmail.com.
Have a great day!
