Posted on 05/07/2023 9:32:19 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
MINERAL WELLS, Texas — Desperate to fill open positions amid a statewide teacher shortage, school officials in this rural North Texas city of about 15,000 chose to follow the lead of neighboring districts by converting to a four-day school week at the start of the current student year.
“We decided if we can’t beat them, join them,” Superintendent John Kuhn said.
As the school year nears a close next month, Kuhn proclaimed the four-day week “a really good success,” which, among other positives, produced a surge of qualified teacher applicants that helped the district fill its vacancies. The seven-member school board has unanimously authorized the four-day schedule for the new school year that starts in August.
Nationwide, the number of four-day schools has increased by 600% over the past two decades, now numbering more than 1,600 in 24 states, according to research published in 2021. The schedule is most popular in small, rural districts. In Colorado, which has the largest percentage, 124 of the state’s 178 districts (70%) follow a four-day schedule.
Many four-day schools report higher test scores, fewer discipline problems and strong support from parents, teachers and staff. But amid the success stories, the idea is facing headwinds as emerging research points to academic declines and other problems.
School districts that go from five days to four typically make up at least some of the missing hours by adding time to the other days or extending the school year. But four-day schedules average only 148 school days per year, resulting in less time in school than the national average of 180 days per year for five-day schools.
Several states have imposed restrictions or bans on four-day schools. In Oklahoma, for example, a 2019 law requires school districts to seek waivers for four-day schools. Lawmakers in Missouri and Texas are pushing legislation to block the practice.
In another part of North Texas, the suburban Mesquite Independent School District, just east of Dallas, three months ago pulled back from what had seemed to be almost certain implementation of a four-day school week, after a comprehensive study raised fears of academic setbacks among fragile student populations.
The six-state analysis, published last summer by the Annenberg Institute at Brown University, found lower student achievement in four-day schools, with larger negative effects among Hispanic students, as well as in those in towns and the suburbs, as compared to rural areas.
Reviewing the relatively new findings at a board meeting in February, Mesquite officials dropped the four-day concept out of fear it would result in harmful consequences for students, 61% of whom are Hispanic.
“I took it off the table as the administration recommendation,” Superintendent Angel Rivera told Stateline. “I’m not going to experiment on kids.” Lawmakers push back
Over the past several years, school districts in many states have rushed to embrace the four-day school week in hopes of easing a variety of problems, from staff vacancies to budget pressures, including those caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the analysis published by the Annenberg Institute.
In some states, lawmakers are pushing back.
In Missouri, where more than 160 school districts (out of 518) will follow four-day schedules next year, a Senate-passed education bill carries an amendment by Democratic state Sen. Doug Beck that would prohibit four-day school weeks in cities with more than 30,000 residents, unless approved by district voters.
Beck, whose district includes the St. Louis area, said he believes Missouri should mandate five-day school weeks, calling the reduced schedule “a bad idea” and “a push to the bottom.”
In Texas, state Sen. Donna Campbell, Republican vice chair of the Senate Education Committee, also is pushing a bill that would require five-day weeks.
Campbell said in a statement that her bill has “spurred a robust public discussion regarding the relationship between students’ instructional time and academic achievement. In the future, I would like to see Texas collect data on student achievement comparing the various school week models.”
At a committee hearing on her bill, Campbell said the four-day schedule “has unintentionally caused hardships on working families and does not seem to improve student outcomes.” Research also suggests “that it seems to have some negative effects on children,” she said.
But school district officials who testified during the hearing were unanimous in their opposition to the bill, saying it would override local decision-making.
“We know what works for us,” said Paula Patterson, superintendent of the Houston-area Crosby Independent School District, which serves more than 6,000 students. When Crosby switches to a four-day schedule next fall, it will be the largest Texas district to do so.
“Four days with an exceptional teacher is much more effective and productive than five days with a less effective teacher.” Recent research
Scholarly research on four-day school weeks has been slow to emerge, leaving school districts to rely heavily on anecdotal conclusions.
“All of the research we have today is almost exclusively from the last three to four years,” said Emily Morton of Portland, Oregon-based NWEA, a nonprofit educational research organization formerly known as the Northwest Evaluation Association. Morton was one of the authors of the study published by the Annenberg Institute.
In addition to that analysis, there have been at least seven other major studies, including a 2021 study by the RAND Corporation and an Oregon analysis led by Paul Thompson, another coauthor of the analysis published by the Annenberg Institute. Thompson’s Oregon study found that 11th graders on a four-day schedule performed worse on math tests than five-day students.
The findings, Morton said, are largely “a story of trade-offs,” showing an overall small to medium “negative effect” on achievement, though close to zero in rural districts, along with positives such as downturns in fighting and bullying.
Morton acknowledged, however, that the shortened week has been a morale booster in many districts, reducing time pressures, adding to family togetherness and softening academic stress. School district leaders say the reduced schedule has curtailed or eradicated vacancies and eased the workload on staff.
“The folks who do this schedule, they love it,” Morton said. “The communities are really positive about it.”
Though some schools have chosen Monday as the off-day, Friday is the new Saturday in most districts. However, many schools remain open on the expanded weekend for optional extra instruction or catch-up days for teachers.
Better yet, make it three days a week, like hybrid schools do.
Classes on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
Homework time with teachers on Tuesdays and Thursdays (or students can stay home those days and do their homework/homeschooling).
Or, it gives them more time to riot when the next George Floyd dies.
4 day school week is another gift to our over paid over benefitted school teachers....
but its 3 days off in a row...I'm sure there will many 4 day long weekends as well....
what have they said for eons?...that the long breaks disrupts the educational process....and it has and it will....
it can be argued that the greatest leap in academic growth happened when we had certified teachers without a bachelor or masters degree....
I predict that because so many kids will not be able to read an write and because it was a racial hate crime to make school only available 4 days a week, a new welfare benefit will be given so they can supplement their education with Friday cram school.....
Thank you!
but no matter what, the teachers will get more pay and more time off because you know, they're so essential, like they could do they're job at home in their pjs' and sipping coffee its so damn important.
working a hard physical job is NOT the same as desk work...physical jobs require more rest.....
What years were you at Gonzaga?
You’re probably correct!
72-76
“This may eventually break the back of the teachers unions.”
Wouldn’t that be nice? :)
“I personally believe that an Associate’s Degree or even a teacher’s credential certificate is good enough to be a teacher.”
There are also programs that speed along the credentials of ex-military types to become teachers.
Not sure how THAT goes over though. Order, Discipline, God, Family, Country? Yeah. The kids are all over THAT. Not. :(
Similar experience when my dean wanted me to earn 18 grad hours so I could teach nursing ethics. Also learned I could hold my own, with one exception, the week we were to read Heidegger. I wrote a two-page paper which basically said I hadn't the faintest idea what he was trying to say. My prof laughed, and said Heidegger didn't make any more sense in the original German. (Later figured it out on a basic level; never needed to teach the nurse wannabes about him, Deo gratias.)
I majored in accounting, had over 30 semester hours with the same professor. Never used numbers, and his tests were always essay. Learned a lot from that man.
“...what have they said for eons?...that the long breaks disrupts the educational process...and it has and it will...”
Not to mention denying kids education for nearly THREE YEARS do to CovidBS-19!
Kids were dumbed down before, but CovidBS-19 put the nail in many coffins, literally and figuratively, for kids!
So GLAD my child-rearing years are behind me! Ugh!
Earlier than me then. I only did one semester in 1981 before we were transferred across country. Beautiful school and I really enjoyed my time there.
I loved my time there. Great school, good times.
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