four day school week essay

4-Day School Weeks: New Research Examines the Benefits and Drawbacks

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The move from a five-day school week to a four-day week with extended days has been one of the fastest-increasing—and least-studied—phenomena shaping district operations.

It boomed after the Great Recession, especially in small, far-flung districts looking to try to save cash and attract teachers. Now, the widest-reaching analysis of the practice to date paints a nuanced picture of the effects of the switch.

The four-day week is enormously popular among parents and students, the new research finds. It typically saves districts a small—but not intangible—amount of cash. And on their day out of school, students are typically working, doing errands, or spending time with family, not running wild.

The tradeoff for those benefits, though, shows in learning. Several years after adopting a four-day schedule, the researchers found, those districts saw slower rates of student progress than similarly situated districts that retained a five-day schedule.

In a sense, the findings underscore the mix of factors beyond test scores that district leaders and communities weigh when making decisions and point towards some of the more-general tensions at the heart of K-12 schooling.

Is the point of schooling just to raise achievement? Are there other civic benefits that accrue from these arrangements, like helping to instill in students a sense of responsibility through jobs or other duties? Just how should these competing interests be weighed?

“When I think about ed[ucation] policy debates, I often assume that achievement will be the king of all the outcomes. And it was pretty clear that when we talked to people that they did have this ‘whole-child’ model guiding their thinking,” said Rebecca Kilburn, one of a half-dozen researchers who conducted the study for the RAND Corp., a research and analysis group. “And they really did talk about everything from sleep, to stress, to spending more time with their families.”

A broad picture from four-day districts

The study, released Oct. 7, was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. A team of researchers used three main methods to study the complex phenomenon.

More than 1,600 U.S. school districts have adopted the model as of 2019-20. In some states, it represents a significant, widespread restructuring of district operations, including 60 percent of Colorado’s districts and around 40 percent of New Mexico’s and Oregon’s.

The researchers interviewed more than 400 parents, teachers, administrators, and students in three states with large numbers of districts using the four-day model: Idaho, New Mexico, and Oklahoma. They also administered thousands of surveys to secondary students and to the parents of elementary students in 36 districts across those states and in three others—half of them using the four-day schedule and half using a traditional schedule—and collected data on their school schedules.

Finally, they analyzed nearly a decade’s worth of student test scores across four- and five-day districts in six different states, looking for patterns in how students performed.

Among some of the most important findings:

• When timing was added up, districts in the sample using the four-day schedule had longer days by about 50 minutes, but over the course of the year averaged 58 fewer hours of school.
• Students in the four-day weeks spent significantly more time on school sports and on chores than did those in five-day weeks. Four-day secondary students also spent more time on homework, at jobs, at school activities, and on hobbies than their counterparts.
• Most students in the four-day districts—80 percent of high school students and 90 percent of elementary students—spent their “off day” at home.
• The four-day week did not appear to affect student-absenteeism rates or result in more food insecurity for students.
• It did seem to change some sleep patterns, with four-day elementary students reporting that they got more sleep and four-day secondary students saying that they felt much less tired than their counterparts in five-day systems.
• Parents and students, given the choice, overwhelmingly said they favored the four-day model, with 69 percent of the former and 85 percent of the latter preferring it over five-day schedules.

That final finding came as a bit of a surprise, said Kilburn, who is now a research professor at the Centers for Disease Control Prevention Research Center at the University of New Mexico.

“In the policy debates, you often hear people saying, ‘We shouldn’t do it because parents won’t like it.’ Actually, in the district where people chose to switch, people really like it a lot, and it might be really tough to switch back once you do it,” she said.

The focus group interviews, in the meantime, fleshed out just why district leaders were willing to make the shift. They also provided context for other research showing that districts usually save below 3 percent of their costs , mainly in transportation, operations, and support-staff salaries, when moving to a shorter week.

Focus groups flesh out a complex picture

Some scholars have criticized the approach on the grounds that it saves such seemingly small amounts of money. But superintendents noted in interviews that even when the savings amounted to just a percentage or two, that was enough to hire an additional reading coach or fund some other program—no small feat in a time of fixed budgets and rising costs.

Similarly, in one district, the four-day week aligned well to work shifts in the town’s larger employer. In another district with a high proportion of Native American students, Kilburn recalled, the schedule allowed students and families to participate in tribal feasts or festivals that traditionally span several days.

“One of them said, ‘This is really great because we don’t have half our student body gone on feast days, and we don’t have students having to choose between coming to school and engaging in their traditional practices,’” she noted.

One eyebrow-raising finding could be the increased amount of chores four-day students appeared to engage in. But that category also included things like errands and medical appointments. In rural locations, where doctors’ offices, retail centers, orthodontists, and so forth can be several hours’ drive away, the four-day week gave them the opportunity to handle those duties without missing a day of school, the researchers found.

On the other hand, Kilburn noted, interviewees also said that while the four-day week was a good fit for their communities, they did not necessarily think it was workable in other locations with different circumstances.

What happens to student learning in four-day districts?

The study’s marquee finding will probably be what it says about student learning. To answer that tricky question, the researchers coupled student test-score growth data from a Stanford University project with federal data to adjust for district poverty and other factors. Then they compared similarly situated four- and five-day districts across those time periods.

The researchers found that there was no significant difference between four- and five-day districts when looking at absolute measures of student proficiency. But looking at growth over time shifted that picture.

Around three years after the switch, student growth in the four-day districts began to fall short compared to that in similarly situated five-day districts. The finding grew more pronounced with time and the slowdown in achievement was more dramatic in math than in reading. In all, the declines were on the order of between 0.05 to 0.15 of a standard deviation lower after three years, and around 0.2 of a standard deviation after eight years.

Effect sizes are hard to interpret in K-12 education but at least one research paper describes that as a medium to large effect —one that’s certainly larger than many other K-12 interventions. (The findings also echo those of a separate study on the effects of the policy in Oregon .)

In all, the study’s findings don’t align well with the rhetoric about the four-day week from either proponents or detractors.

The approach doesn’t appear to disadvantage working parents where it’s been tried or lead to worse social outcomes for students. On the other hand, it also doesn’t seem to yield huge cost savings, and with time seemed to slow student learning.

Even so, there are still unanswered questions about the the four-day week, the researchers concluded.

One thing that the study couldn’t pinpoint was just how the four-day week, sometimes characterized as a perk for educators, might affect teacher recruitment and retention. It can take years for such changes to alter the composition of the teacher workforce via who is attracted to teaching, who applies to open jobs, and how the change affects existing teachers’ retirement decisions.

Second, it remains unclear just why the four-day week affects learning.

The decrease in actual learning time could be the culprit, since time in school is connected to learning outcomes, but that hypothesis needs to be tested empirically.

A version of this article appeared in the October 27, 2021 edition of Education Week as 4-Day School Weeks: New Research Examines the Benefits and Drawbacks

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Expert Commentary

The four-day school week: Research shows benefits and consequences

To save money and help recruit teachers, many U.S. schools are taking Mondays or Fridays off. We look at research on how the four-day school week affects student test scores, attendance and behavior.

Republish this article

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License .

by Denise-Marie Ordway, The Journalist's Resource September 6, 2023

This <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org/education/four-day-school-week-research/">article</a> first appeared on <a target="_blank" href="https://journalistsresource.org">The Journalist's Resource</a> and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.<img src="https://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/cropped-jr-favicon-150x150.png" style="width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;">

We updated this piece on the four-day school week, originally published in June 2018, to include new figures, research and other information on Sept. 6, 2023.

Just over 2,100 schools in 26 states have switched to a four-day school week, often in hopes of recruiting teachers, saving money and boosting student attendance, according to the most recent estimate from the Four-Day School Week policy research team at Oregon State University.

Small, rural schools facing teacher shortages have led the trend, choosing to take Mondays or Fridays off and giving teachers and students a three-day weekend every week. To make up for the lost day of instruction, school officials tack time onto the remaining four days.

In places where schools have made the change, school district leaders have marveled at the resulting spikes in applications from teachers and other job seekers.

“The number of teacher applications that we’ve received have gone up more than 4-fold,” Dale Herl , superintendent of the Independence, Missouri school district, told CBS News last month .

Independence, which serves about 14,000 students outside Kansas City, introduced the new schedule when classes there resumed last month. In all, 30% of Missouri school districts now have a four-day school week, The Kansas City Star reported recently .

Schools nationwide faced teacher shortages long before the COVID-19 pandemic. But vacancies grew as the virus, which has killed 1.1 million Americans to date , spread.

In the spring before the pandemic, a total of 662 public school districts used the schedule – up more than 600% since 1999, Paul Thompson and Emily Morton , leading researchers in this field, write in a 2021 essay for the Brookings Institution. That number climbed to 876 during the 2022-23 academic year, Thompson and Morton told The Journalist’s Resource in email messages.

Brent Maddin , executive director of the Next Education Workforce project at Arizona State University, told The New York Times the pandemic has made many teachers feel more undervalued.

“If we’re serious about recruiting people into the profession, and retaining people in the profession, in addition to things like compensation we need to be focused on the working conditions,” he told the Times.

Scholars are still trying to understand the impact of cutting the school week by one day. Most studies focus on a single state or group of states, so their findings cannot be generalized to all schools on a four-day schedule. The research to date indicates:

• The amount of time students spend in class varies from state to state.
• Some schools offer less instructional time during a four-day school week than they did during a five-day week.
• There’s limited cost savings, considering employee salaries and benefits make up the bulk of school expenses. In a 2021 analysis , Thompson estimates schools save 1% to 2% by shortening the school week by a day.
• The impact of the condensed schedule differs depending on a range of factors, including the number of hours schools operate and how they structure their daily schedules. Recent research generally finds small drops in student achievement.
• Staff morale improved under a four-day school week.
• High school bullying and fighting declined.

“For journalists looking for a definitive answer to [the question] ‘Are four-day school weeks a good or bad thing?’, I would caution that it is still too early to tell,” Thompson, an associate professor of economics who is part of Oregon State’s Four-Day School Week policy research team, wrote to The Journalist’s Resource.

Both he and Morton urged journalists to explain that the amount of time schools dedicate to student learning makes a big difference.

“I think too often the importance of instructional time for the impacts of the policy is missed,” Morton, a researcher at the American Institutes of Research, wrote to JR. “It’s pretty critical to the story that districts with longer days (who are possibly delivering equal or more instructional time to their students than they were on a five-day week) are not seeing the same negative impacts that districts with shorter days are seeing.”

Keep reading to learn more about the research. We’ll update this collection periodically.

——————–

Impacts of the Four-Day School Week on Early Elementary Achievement Paul N. Thompson; et al. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 2nd Quarter 2023.

Summary: This study is the first to examine the four-day school week’s impact on elementary schools’ youngest students. Researchers looked at how children in Oregon who went to school four days a week in kindergarten later performed in math and English Language Arts when they reached the third grade. What they found: Overall, there were “minimal and non-significant differences” in the test scores of third-graders who attended kindergarten on a four-day schedule between 2014 and 2016 and third-graders who went to kindergarten on a five-day schedule during the same period.

When the researchers studied individual groups of students, though, they noticed small differences. For example, when they looked only at children who had scored highest on their pre-kindergarten assessments of letter sounds, letter names and early math skills, they learned that kids who went to kindergarten four days a week scored a little lower on third-grade tests than those who had gone to kindergarten five days a week.

The researchers write that they find no statistically significant evidence of detrimental four-day school week achievement impacts, and even some positive impacts” for minority students, lower-income students,  special education students, students enrolled in English as a Second Language programs and students who scored in the lower half on pre-kindergarten assessments.

There are multiple reasons why lower-achieving students might be less affected by school schedules than high achievers, the researchers point out. For example, higher-achieving students “may miss out on specialized instruction — such as gifted and enrichment activities — that they would have had time to receive under a five-day school schedule,” they write.

Effects of 4-Day School Weeks on Older Adolescents: Examining Impacts of the Schedule on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Behavior in High School Emily Morton. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, June 2022.

Summary: Oklahoma high schools saw less fighting and bullying among students after switching from a five-day-a-week schedule to a four-day schedule, this study finds. Fighting declined by 0.79 incidents per 100 students and bullying dropped by 0.65 incidents per 100 students.

The other types of student discipline problems examined, including weapons possession, vandalism and truancy, did not change, according to the analysis, based on a variety of student and school data collected through 2019 from the Oklahoma State Department of Education and National Center for Education Statistics.

“Results indicate that 4-day school weeks decrease per-pupil bullying incidents by approximately 39% and per-pupil fighting incidents by approximately 31%,” writes the author, Emily Morton , a research scientist at NWEA, a nonprofit research organization formerly known as the Northwest Evaluation Association.

Morton did not investigate what caused the reduction in bullying and fighting. She did find that moving to a four-day schedule had “no detectable effect” on high school attendance or student scores on the ACT college-entrance exam.

Only a Matter of Time? The Role of Time in School on Four-Day School Week Achievement Impacts Paul N. Thompson and Jason Ward. Economics of Education Review, February 2022.

Summary: Student test scores in math and language arts dipped at some schools that adopted a four-day schedule but did not change at others, according to this analysis of school schedule switches in 12 states.

Researchers discovered “small reductions” in test scores for students in grades 3 through 8 at schools offering what the researchers call “low time in school.” These schools operate an average of 29.95 hours during the four-day week. The decline in test scores is described in terms of standard deviation , not units of measurement such as points or percentages.

At schools offering “middle time in school” — an average of 31.03 hours over four days — test scores among kids in grades 3 through 8 did not change, write the researchers, Paul N. Thompson , an associate professor of economics at Oregon State University, and Jason Ward , an associate economist at the RAND Corp., a nonprofit research organization.

Scores also did not change at schools providing “high time in school,” or 32.14 hours over a four-day school week, on average.

When describing this paper’s findings, it’s inaccurate to say researchers found that test scores dropped as a result of schools adopting a four-day schedule. It is correct to say test scores dropped, on average, across the schools the researchers studied. But it’s worth noting the relationship between test scores and the four-day school week differs according to the average number of hours those schools operate each week.

For this analysis, researchers examined school districts in states that allowed four-day school weeks during the 2008-2009 academic year through the 2017-2018 academic years. They chose to focus on the 12 states where four-day school weeks were most common. The data they used came from the Stanford Educational Data Archive and “a proprietary, longitudinal, national database” that tracked the use of four-day school weeks from 2009 to 2018.

The researchers write that their findings “suggest that four-day school weeks that operate with adequate levels of time in school have no clear negative effect on achievement and, instead, that it is operating four-day school weeks in a low-time-in-school environment that should be cautioned against.”

Three Midwest Rural School Districts’ First Year Transition to the Four Day School Week Jon Turner, Kim Finch and Ximena Uribe-Zarain. The Rural Educator, 2019.

Abstract: “The four-day school week is a concept that has been utilized in rural schools for decades to respond to budgetary shortfalls. There has been little peer-reviewed research on the four-day school week that has focused on the perception of parents who live in school districts that have recently switched to the four-day model. This study collects data from 584 parents in three rural Missouri school districts that have transitioned to the four-day school week within the last year. Quantitative statistical analysis identifies significant differences in the perceptions of parents classified by the age of children, special education identification, and free and reduced lunch status. Strong parental support for the four-day school week was identified in all demographic areas investigated; however, families with only elementary aged children and families with students receiving special education services were less supportive than other groups.”

Juvenile Crime and the Four-Day School Week Stefanie Fischer and Daniel Argyle. Economics of Education Review, 2018.

Abstract: “We leverage the adoption of a four-day school week across schools within the jurisdiction of rural law enforcement agencies in Colorado to examine the causal link between school attendance and youth crime. Those affected by the policy attend school for the same number of hours each week as students on a typical five-day week; however, treated students do not attend school on Friday. This policy allows us to learn about two aspects of the school-crime relationship that have previously been unstudied: one, the effects of a frequent and permanent schedule change on short-term crime, and two, the impact that school attendance has on youth crime in rural areas. Our difference-in-difference estimates show that following policy adoption, agencies containing students on a four-day week experience about a 20 percent increase in juvenile criminal offenses, where the strongest effect is observed for property crime.”

Staff Perspectives of the Four-Day School Week: A New Analysis of Compressed School Schedules Jon Turner , Kim Finch and Ximena Uribe – Zarian . Journal of Education and Training Studies, 2018.

Abstract: “The four-day school week is a concept that has been utilized in rural schools for decades to respond to budgetary shortfalls. There has been little peer-reviewed research on the four-day school week that has focused on the perception of staff that work in school districts that have recently switched to the four-day model. This study collects data from 136 faculty and staff members in three rural Missouri school districts that have transitioned to the four-day school week within the last year. Quantitative statistical analysis identifies strong support of the four-day school week model from both certified educational staff and classified support staff perspectives. All staff responded that the calendar change had improved staff morale, and certified staff responded that the four-day week had a positive impact on what is taught in classrooms and had increased academic quality. Qualitative analysis identifies staff suggestions for schools implementing the four-day school week including the importance of community outreach prior to implementation. No significant differences were identified between certified and classified staff perspectives. Strong staff support for the four-day school week was identified in all demographic areas investigated. Findings support conclusions made in research in business and government sectors that identify strong employee support of a compressed workweek across all work categories.”

The Economics of a Four-Day School Week: Community and Business Leaders’ Perspectives Jon Turner , Kim Finch and Ximena Uribe – Zarian . Journal of Education and Training Studies, 2018.

Abstract: “The four-day school week is a concept that has been utilized in rural schools in the United States for decades and the number of schools moving to the four-day school week is growing. In many rural communities, the school district is the largest regional employer which provides a region with permanent, high paying jobs that support the local economy. This study collects data from 71 community and business leaders in three rural school districts that have transitioned to the four-day school week within the last year. Quantitative statistical analysis is used to investigate the perceptions of community and business leaders related to the economic impact upon their businesses and the community and the impact the four-day school week has had upon perception of quality of the school district. Significant differences were identified between community/business leaders that currently have no children in school as compared to community/business leaders with children currently enrolled in four-day school week schools. Overall, community/business leaders were evenly divided concerning the economic impact on their businesses and the community. Community/business leaders’ perceptions of the impact the four-day school week was also evenly divided concerning the impact on the quality of the school district. Slightly more negative opinions were identified related to the economic impact on the profitability of their personal businesses which may impact considerations by school leaders. Overall, community/business leaders were evenly divided when asked if they would prefer their school district return to the traditional five-day week school calendar.”

Impact of a 4-Day School Week on Student Academic Performance, Food Insecurity, and Youth Crime Report from the Oklahoma State Department of Health’s Office of Partner Engagement, 2017.

Summary: “A Health Impact Assessment (HIA) utilizes a variety of data sources and analytic methods to evaluate the consequences of proposed or implemented policy on health. A rapid (HIA) was chosen to research the impact of the four-day school week on youth. The shift to a four-day school week was a strategy employed by many school districts in Oklahoma to address an $878 million budget shortfall, subsequent budget cuts, and teacher shortages. The HIA aimed to assess the impact of the four-day school week on student academic performance, food insecurity, and juvenile crime … An extensive review of literature and stakeholder engagement on these topic areas was mostly inconclusive or did not reveal any clear-cut evidence to identify effects of the four-day school week on student outcomes — academic performance, food insecurity or juvenile crime. Moreover, there are many published articles about the pros and cons of the four-day school week, but a lack of comprehensive research is available on the practice.”

Does Shortening the School Week Impact Student Performance? Evidence from the Four-Day School Week D. Mark Anderson and Mary Beth Walker. Education Finance and Policy, 2015.

Abstract: “School districts use a variety of policies to close budget gaps and stave off teacher layoffs and furloughs. More schools are implementing four-day school weeks to reduce overhead and transportation costs. The four-day week requires substantial schedule changes as schools must increase the length of their school day to meet minimum instructional hour requirements. Although some schools have indicated this policy eases financial pressures, it is unknown whether there is an impact on student outcomes. We use school-level data from Colorado to investigate the relationship between the four-day week and academic performance among elementary school students. Our results generally indicate a positive relationship between the four-day week and performance in reading and mathematics. These findings suggest there is little evidence that moving to a four-day week compromises student academic achievement. This research has policy relevance to the current U.S. education system, where many school districts must cut costs.”

Other resources

• The Education Commission of the States offers a 50-state comparison of public school students’ instructional time requirements. For example, students in Colorado are required to be in school for a minimum of 160 days each academic year while in Vermont, the minimum is 175 days and in North Carolina, it’s 185.
• The State of the American Teacher project offers insights into how teachers feel about their jobs and the education field as a whole. In early 2022, RAND Corp. surveyed a nationally representative sample of teachers, asking questions on topics such as job-related stress, school safety, COVID-19 mitigation policies and career plans. Survey results show that 56% of teachers who answered a question about their attitude toward their job “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed with the statement, “The stress and disappointments involved in teaching aren’t really worth it.” Meanwhile, 78% “strongly” or “somewhat” agreed with the statement, “I don’t seem to have as much enthusiasm now as I did when I began teaching.”
• Opinions about the four-day school week vary among school board members, district-level administrators, school principals and teachers. These organizations can provide insights: the Schools Superintendents Association , National School Boards Association , National Association of Elementary School Principals and National Association of Secondary School Principals .

Looking for more research on public schools? Check out our other collections of research on student lunches , school uniforms,   teacher salaries and teacher misconduct .

About The Author

Denise-Marie Ordway

4-day school weeks: Educational innovation or detriment?

Subscribe to the brown center on education policy newsletter, evidence suggests instructional time makes the difference, paul thompson and paul thompson associate professor, school of public policy - oregon state university @paul_n_thompson emily morton emily morton research scientist - nwea @emily_r_morton.

July 12, 2021

Four-day school week schedules are becoming an increasingly common experience for America’s rural youth. These schedules typically involve increasing the length of the school day four days per week and “dropping” the fifth day. In the spring before the COVID-19 pandemic, 662 districts were using the schedule across 24 states, an increase of over 600% since 1999.

During the pandemic, many additional schools in both rural and non-rural areas adopted alternative school schedules, such as the four-day school week. These schedules generally altered the amounts and proportions of synchronous (in-seat) and asynchronous (at-home) learning students received. School administrators have described the pandemic as a “ catalyst ” for necessary innovations to school schedules and in-seat learning time.

Most of these changes were unprecedented, and their effects on students’ learning and well-being beyond the pandemic remain largely unknown. However, emergent research on the four-day school week may allow us to better assess its effectiveness as a school model in post-pandemic educational policy.

Recent survey findings show that four-day school weeks have been adopted as a way to alleviate budgetary issues, attract teachers, and reduce student absences—issues that the pandemic exacerbated for many districts. Although conditions may be ripe for more schools to turn to such a model in the wake of the pandemic, the research suggests that most of these aims fail to be realized.

Here, we describe the key takeaways from this emerging body of evidence.

Shorter weeks may attract teachers, but don’t expect major cost savings or attendance gains

National and state-specific research finds minimal impacts of the four-day school week on overall cost savings, but it suggests that four-day school weeks may allow school districts greater resource flexibility in the wake of budget shortfalls. The four-day school week may also be used as a form of non-monetary compensation to facilitate instructional cost reductions, as research finds that teachers generally prefer it .

In terms of student attendance, the research to date finds minimal impacts on measures of recorded daily attendance . However, some educators reason  that that the four-day week could improve attendance in more nuanced ways undetected by traditional measures of attendance. Most notably, the schedule could decrease the class time that rural students miss for lengthy travel to appointments or extracurricular activities by shifting many of these activities to the off-day.

Maintaining instructional time key for mitigating academic harm

A key concern surrounding the four-day school week is the impact on students’ academic progress. While the evidence regarding overall student achievement impacts is mixed, recent evidence has found primarily negative achievement impacts of four-day school weeks in Oklahoma and Oregon . This has led to a prevailing perception that four-day school weeks are bad for student achievement, a sentiment that was articulated in a recent Education Next piece on the Oregon study . However, the Oregon four-day school week experience is hardly the norm. A more nuanced take of the evidence would suggest that the effects on achievement may depend on whether instructional time stays mostly intact.

In the Oregon study , for example, the stark reductions in math and reading achievement were associated with reductions of three to four hours in weekly time in school. Recent national evidence also suggests that the schools where four-day weeks led to reductions in learning time see the most negative outcomes on student academic progress, with little to no impact on achievement among schools that maintain adequate learning time. Thus, structuring the four-day school week to maintain adequate learning time seems to be the key to avoiding student learning loss and presents a path forward for schools considering this schedule.

Across the country, students on four-day weeks spend about 85 fewer hours per year at school. Some of that time is likely to be lost instructional time, but a portion of it is also non-instructional time, like lunch, recess, and hallway passing time. It’s theoretically possible for a district to maintain its instructional time if it sufficiently extends its school days and reduces the proportion of time spent on non-instructional activities. But in practice, the schedule changes we observe show most schools are reducing instructional time to facilitate the switch.

Few schools with four-day weeks have historically provided any in-school or asynchronous learning opportunities on the off-day. Approximately 50% of schools report being completely closed and only 30% offered any sort of remedial or enrichment activities with any frequency (e.g., regularly or as-needed).

More to worry about than just achievement losses

Lost exposure to the school environment doesn’t only mean missing in-person academic instruction, but also reduced access to school-meal programs, physical activity opportunities, and structured social interactions with peers, teachers, and administrators. A recent study from Colorado finds mixed evidence on health outcomes in schools using a four-day week, but much more research is needed to understand various potential impacts of the schedule on student health.

Worries about child care and unsupervised children on the off-day also abound in discussions of four-day school week implementation. Evidence from Colorado suggests that adolescent students may engage in more criminal activity as a result of the off-day, while a multi-state study found that maternal employment and labor market earnings were reduced as a result of the four-day school week. Despite this evidence, much more research is needed to understand the impact of the four-day school week on family dynamics, relationships, and time use.

The future of four-day school weeks

In the wake of the forced educational innovation during the pandemic, many schools will reconsider their schedules, their policies on in-seat learning time, and synchronous versus asynchronous learning. These decisions could have long-term implications for students’ achievement and well-being.

For districts that have adopted or are interested in adopting four-day weeks, offering asynchronous learning on the off-day could be a creative way for districts to maintain instructional time. Asynchronous learning has been a staple of many pandemic-related educational provision options and, while likely inferior to in-person instruction (as the pandemic learning-loss research suggests), it could be seen as a beneficial supplement to regular in-person school instruction in a post-pandemic educational climate. Incorporating at-home, off-day learning could allow school districts to experience the potential benefits of the four-day school week model while helping to mitigate the achievement losses if in-person time in school is to be reduced.

Increased internet infrastructure, especially in rural and remote areas, has facilitated online synchronous and asynchronous instruction during the pandemic. And while there is worry that some of the new infrastructure investment may be temporary , continued long-term investments in connecting remote communities–as suggested in the recent Biden administration’s “ American Jobs Plan ”–may make at-home learning more feasible in the areas where four-day school weeks have generally been adopted.

If four-day school weeks continue to be implemented nationwide, issues related to shifting the burdens of food provision and child care on the off-day onto families are likely to remain substantial in many areas. However, continuing to expand “grab-and-go meal” programs that have been a staple of school-meal provision during the pandemic could be a promising strategy for providing school meals on the off-day for students on four-day weeks in the future. (The USDA recently extended these programs through the 2022 academic year .) The American Jobs Plan also outlines expansions to child-care infrastructure, potentially paving the way for more off-day child-care options for parents in these four-day school week communities.

For better or for worse, four-day school weeks–once dubbed a “ troubling contagion ”–appear to be a fixture of the post-pandemic educational landscape. The evidence to date suggests that how schools structure the four-day schedule is a key determinant in this model’s impact on learning outcomes. Minimizing the loss of instructional time appears to be the best chance at avoiding negative results, though more research is needed to understand the full scope of impacts on students, families, and communities. It also remains to be seen whether other educational innovations in the wake of the pandemic–including remote learning opportunities, greater access to meal programs, and off-day child care–will further the effectiveness of the four-day school week in a post-pandemic world.

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A Four-Day School Week?

• Posted June 28, 2018
• By Denise-Marie Ordway

To save money and help with teacher recruitment, numerous school districts in the United States have decided to give students and employees Fridays off. An estimated 560 districts in 25 states have allowed at least some of their schools to adopt a four-day week, with most moving to a Monday-to-Thursday schedule, according to the National Conference of State Legislators . Generally, schools make up for the lost day by adding extra time to the remaining four days.

Four states — Colorado, Montana, Oklahoma and Oregon — are leading the trend, which is especially popular in rural areas. More than 60 school systems in Montana alone were using a compressed schedule in 2016-17, state records show. Meanwhile, four-day scheduling has spread so quickly across New Mexico that lawmakers have placed a moratorium on the practice until state leaders can study its impact on student performance and working-class families.

"If local leaders are lucky, graduates of these schools won’t be any less well educated than their siblings who went to school all week. But, in an environment where young rural adults already suffer from isolation and low economic opportunity, the shorter school week could exacerbate their problems." – Paul T. Hill

Critics point out that the change can be tough on lower-income parents, who may have trouble paying for childcare on the day their kids no longer have class. Also, low-income students rely on public schools for almost half their meals — breakfasts and lunches during the week. Paul T. Hill , a research professor at the University of Washington Bothell who founded the Center on Reinventing Public Education, has argued that while some adults like the new schedule, it could end up hurting rural students.

“The idea has proved contagious because adults like it: Teachers have more free time, and stay-at-home parents like the convenience of taking kids to doctors and doing errands on Friday,” Hill co-wrote in a piece published on the Brown Center Chalkboard blog in 2017. “If local leaders are lucky, graduates of these schools won’t be any less well educated than their siblings who went to school all week. But, in an environment where young rural adults already suffer from isolation and low economic opportunity, the shorter school week could exacerbate their problems.”

It appears that while a truncated schedule does cut costs, the savings is small. A 2011 report from the Education Commission of the States examined six school districts and found that switching to a four-day schedule helped them shave their budgets by 0.4 percent to 2.5 percent. “In the Duval [County, Florida] school district, moving to a four-day week produced only a 0.7 percent savings, yet that resulted in a budget reduction of $7 million. That $7 million could be used to retain up to 70 teaching positions,” the report states.

See below for recent journal articles and government reports, as well as links to other resources, including a 50-state comparison of local laws outlining student instructional time requirements.

Excerpted from an article by  Journalist's Resource , a project at the  Harvard Kennedy School 's  Shorenstein Center  on Media, Politics and Public Policy . Read the  original piece .

Additional Resources

• Juvenile Crime and the Four-Day School Week
• Staff Perspectives of the Four-Day School Week: A New Analysis of Compressed School Schedules
• The Economics of a Four-Day School Week: Community and Business Leaders’ Perspectives
• Impact of a 4-Day School Week on Student Academic Performance, Food Insecurity, and Youth Crime
• Does Shortening the School Week Impact Student Performance? Evidence from the Four-Day School Week
• A 50-state comparison of students’ instructional time requirement, from the Education Commission of the States

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What a difference a day makes: the argument for a four-day school week

A study suggests giving students an extra day off improves learning. It could also be a step in the right direction for teacher workloads

The call for a four-day working week is not new. At a time when more and more people say they feel overworked, and increasing numbers are making the switch to part-time hours, the idea has been proposed as a means of tackling both stress and unemployment .

But schools have largely been left out of the debate so far. The idea of students only coming in four days a week rings alarm bells for many who fear a drop in academic performance.

As a former teacher, I was intrigued by a study published this summer, which suggests that pupils’ grades could actually improve with a shorter school week.

The research, conducted by D Mark Anderson of Montana State University and Mary Beth Walker of Georgia State University, looks at the reading and maths results of students in the fourth and fifth grade (years 5 and 6). The schools in question rearranged the week by cutting one day – typically a Monday or Friday – and adding the extra hours to the other four. Teachers’ total working time (and salaries) remained the same.

The four-day school week for students in Colorado was introduced as a cost-saving measure, and the improvements in academic results were the opposite of what had been anticipated, Walker explains.

“We thought that especially for the younger, elementary school kids, longer days on a shorter school week would hurt their academic performance because their attention spans are shorter,” she says.

“We also thought a longer weekend would give them more of an opportunity to forget what they had learned.”

But the results show that, even for these young students, a four-day school week had a statistically significant positive impact on maths scores (around 7% extra on average), and a possible positive impact on reading scores (although this was not deemed statistically significant by the study’s testing standards).

Walker offers a number of possible explanations, including the idea that longer days might give teachers an opportunity to explore different instructional processes. The study also speculates that a four-day week could lower absenteeism, so that students who have dental appointments, for example, might be able to put them off until Friday and not miss school.

The study’s results are yet to be replicated and critics have raised concerns – particularly about how much subject knowledge students will be able to retain and how well they will be able to concentrate over longer days.

But as someone who taught for 10 years, I can certainly see the potential benefits. It would give young people some much-needed breathing space and, in schools where the fifth day was used for extracurricular activities, students wouldn’t have to choose between academic study and other pursuits.

There is one clear drawback, however: the increased difficulty for parents dealing with the logistics and costs of childcare. This would need to be taken into consideration, but if working weeks were shortened for everyone, then families would actually get to spend more time together.

The benefits for teachers should not be overlooked either. Those who took part in the study reported greater efficiency and better collaboration when they used the fifth day to plan together, with some schools even finding that staff turnover was reduced.

As a teacher who worked part-time (three and four days a week) and full-time, I can see the advantages of having a day free from student contact. Having greater flexibility for personal appointments and meetings would certainly have made my life as a middle manager much easier.

Perhaps most exciting is the potential to use the fifth day to provide good-quality continued professional development and support for teachers where it is (sometimes desperately) needed. Of course, schools would need to be careful that the fifth day didn’t simply become filled with bureaucracy, but it should be possible to prevent that through open discussion with senior management.

The current education system is made up of long stretches of intense work, interspersed with periods of what is laughingly called holiday. A shortened week could improve teachers’ work-life balance by allowing more time for marking, planning and preparation, meaning that holidays and weekends could be times of real rest.

Although workload still needs to be given serious thought, a four-day week could be a step in the right direction for teachers and, the evidence suggests, for their students too.

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A Systematic Literature Review of the Four-day School Week

The four-day school week has become increasingly popular in Missouri in recent years. As of fall 2023, approximately 28 percent of all Missouri public school districts have adopted this schedule. But how much do we know about its impact on student achievement, district finances, teacher recruitment and retention, or parental satisfaction? The short answer is: not as much as you might expect.

This paper presents a systematic look at research on the four-day school week, focusing specifically on studies that met a clearly defined set of search criteria. Click here to read the full report.

Avery Frank

James V. Shuls

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• Teaching & Learning

Could a four-day week work in schools?

“Groundbreaking.”

This was the word used by more than one educator on social media in response to the announcement that one multi-academy trust (MAT) is planning to introduce a nine-day fortnight for teachers, as part of a new flexible working plan.

“We want people to go and do the things they need to do so if they want to take their dog to the vet or they need to go to the dentist or they want to go out to lunch with friends, then it’s all up to them,” says Neil Miley, deputy CEO of Dixons Academies Trust.

In many sectors, flexible working has taken off in a big way in recent years. As lockdown proved there was more than one way to get the job done, workers have increasingly demanded new arrangements, with employers becoming more open-minded to them.

But schools, on the whole, have lagged behind - as the reaction to Dixons’ new policy shows.

Despite this, it’s widely accepted that reducing working time could help with education’s recruitment and retention crisis.

One model being touted is the four-day week. A recent petition demanding a four-day week for pupils and staff - cramming five days’ lessons into four days - gathered more than 42,000 signatures.

The government believes this would have a “damaging” effect on pupil learning and wellbeing. Longer days would be “too tiring” for pupils, it claimed in its response. But what do we actually know about the effects of a four-day week model on schools, teachers, pupils and parents?

• How we’re giving teachers a nine-day fortnight
• Flexible working toolkit: what schools need to know
• How to arrange flexible working as a classroom teacher

Some of the best research into the topic has been done in the US, where the four-day school week for pupils has been operating in some districts as far back as the 1970s.

The trend has been growing in the states in recent years and it is thought that up to 900 school districts - 2,100 schools - are now operating a four-day model, around 7 per cent of total districts.

The model, initially pioneered by geographically large rural districts to reduce travel time and improve attendance, proved particularly popular in rural states such as Colorado, Oregon, Montana and Oklahoma. Following the 2008 global financial crisis, it was then seen as a way to save money.

But districts are now motivated by the four-day week’s potential to improve teacher recruitment and retention and it is growing more popular in some more suburban areas as a result.

So, has the model achieved its aims? Did districts save much cash by reducing the days that pupils needed to be bussed to school or classrooms heated and canteens manned?

Well, not much. Research by Paul Thompson, associate professor of economics at Oregon State University, who has been researching the impact of a four-day school week , suggests minimal gains.

“Only about 1 or 2 per cent of their expenditure was saved as a result of the four-day school week,” he says, highlighting the fact that while the schools are closed, teachers are still working flexibly and salaries are paid for the five-day week.

And what about improvements in teacher recruitment and retention?

A major 2021 study by the Rand organisation reveals that teachers in four-day week areas are overwhelmingly in favour of it.

“Over 85 per cent said they probably or definitely would have chosen the four-day school week and they feel like they are more productive as a result,” says Thompson. “Morale is a bit higher. That’s a pretty universal thing.”

Some teachers, he says, reported that the four-day school week was a big factor in them staying or going to their current position.

Could a four-day week help recruitment and retention?

But Thompson warns that although there are “anecdotes” that applications are up for vacant positions, there is not a lot of empirical evidence for an improvement in recruitment and retention.

Thompson and his colleagues are starting to look at this question now in a couple of states. “It’s becoming more critical to get more evidence around whether this is an effective strategy…In the next year or two we’ll know a bit more,” he explains.

There are also concerns that the effect of the “perk” on recruitment could fade if neighbouring schools and districts all adopted similar schedules.

Unsurprisingly, the Rand study found that the four-day week was extremely popular with pupils, too.

More surprisingly perhaps, it found that 84 per cent of parents would choose it, despite the childcare issues it might throw up.

“They felt that parental stress was reduced, maybe because they could attend appointments or go to a sporting event or go on a trip,” says Thompson.

However, he stresses concerns that researchers are not necessarily reaching the families for whom the four-day week might not work, such as single parents or those with children with significant special needs or English as an additional language.

‘It’s not the days, it’s the hours’

And while pupils may enjoy their day off, research has revealed some troubling impacts on attainment.

It turns out that if you cut pupils’ hours in class, they tend to fall behind.

“Our research and others’ on instructional time say it’s not the number of days, it’s the number of hours [that matter]…the composition of when those hours happen seems less important ,” says Thompson. “With 32 hours per week or above we really don’t see any difference in achievement under a four- or five-day model.”

However, he adds, most districts in the US operating a four-day model do not extend the hours enough to make up the shortfall from losing the fifth day.

“They’re increasing the other four school days by some length of time but by too little to sufficiently compensate,” he says.

There are also concerns as to what pupils get up to - and even what they eat - on their Fridays off.

There is “some evidence” of an increase in juvenile crime on Fridays in four-day week areas, says Thompson, plus “implications for nutrition and physical activity”, through “losing access to school meals and physical education and recess opportunities”.

“We found that students were drinking more sugary beverages, they’re more likely to be food insecure, more likely to use drugs like marijuana,” he adds. “[So] there could be potential unintended consequences of taking students out of their supportive school environment and putting them into a situation where parents aren’t home.”

While some states such as Oklahoma and New Mexico are legislating to limit four-day weeks, Thompson says he still expects them to increase overall.

“Every week it seems like there is another school adopting this so I don’t see it slowing down any time soon unless we get some big interventions at the state level,” he says.

Could a four-day week improve teaching?

So with this evidence in hand, could English schools move to such a system, or a version of it? With few funds for extra staff and a government insistent on “hours in the classroom” post-pandemic, it looks unlikely that pupils will be getting a day off every week.

But could staff? Campaigners at the think tank Autonomy say it is far from out of the question, with their own research showing that 61 per cent of teachers believe a four-day week would improve their teaching.

A total of 69 per cent of those surveyed by Autonomy said that they would be much more likely or somewhat more likely to stay in the profession if they had a four-day week.

A significant minority (45 per cent) of teachers also supported a shift to a four-day week for pupils as well as staff.

The report points to the example of Forest Gate Community School, Cumberland School and Waterside Academy in London - schools in the Community Schools Trust - which have successfully moved to a 4.5 working week for all since 2019.

“Results went up the year after a shorter working week was introduced. We surveyed staff a year on: nobody wanted to go back. It has been a resounding success,” Simon Elliott, CEO of Community Schools Trust, told the researchers.

Work-life balance

Jack Kellam, co-author of the report, says “the appetite is there” for a reduction in working hours, and that a number of schools and trusts have approached Autonomy’s four-day week consultancy service looking at the possibility.

“We’ve had growing interest from a number of schools in both the state and private sector,” he says. “If schools can’t do much on pay, they have to be able to offer something on work-life balance.”

And there are some other trailblazers out there, with St Philip Howard Catholic Primary School in Hertfordshire launching a scheme last year where staff have one day a week off timetable for planning, preparation and assessment and subject leader tasks.

Then there’s Dixons. At the 17-school trust based across Leeds, Bradford, Manchester and Liverpool, schools are pioneering a nine-day fortnight for teachers from September, in a bid to increase recruitment and retention.

Teachers will have one day off every two weeks to do whatever they like and they do not have to be in school.

Pupils will enjoy a normal timetable and will notice little change bar a few slightly larger class sizes, says deputy CEO Miley.

Addressing inflexible working in schools

“Our principals are really excited about this and trying different models,” he explains. “We haven’t been prescriptive…we thought we’d give schools the opportunity to try before we decide on the most optimal model [or models].”

Done with clever timetabling and the senior leadership team picking up some of the teaching slack, rather than extra costs, it’s hoped the scheme will make Dixons a particularly attractive place to work.

The scheme is just one part of a raft of measures the school is taking to increase flexible working and reduce workload, including remote working and the use of artificial intelligence.

“We recognise that teaching is a very difficult profession and one of the biggest issues we have is that younger generations coming through are put off by the inflexibility of working in schools…so we’re trying to address that,” says Miley.

Whether through US-style four-day weeks, or other arrangements, more UK schools may soon opt to follow suit.

Irena Barker is a freelance writer

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An Ohio school district is moving to a 4-day school week to curb burnout for teachers

Many full-time employees have dreamed about a four-day work week, but what about a four-day school week? One superintendent in Ohio is ready to see how it goes — but his concern is not primarily the kids' burnout.

Superintendent Eugene Blalock is concerned for teachers.

"You walk through the buildings and you can just see it in our eyes how tired they are," Blalock, who oversees North College Hill City School District, tells TODAY's Jenna Bush Hager.

Jenna, who was a teacher before joining TODAY, can empathize.

"I know from my time in the classroom that it is not a 9-to-5. Teachers are spending hours in the afternoon planning (and) collaborating," she says. "It is all-consuming."

Blalock agrees.

"If teachers don’t have ample time to do that, then they struggle, and it’s almost like being on a hamster wheel; you just keep going going going and you never get a chance to get off and take a breath," he says. "I think that it’s a dying profession."

But Blalock says the issue goes beyond teaching in the classroom.

"Teachers didn’t sign up to be police officers and security guards," he says. "Those are all things that play on the stress level."

For this reason, he has switched his entire district to a four-day school week. Students attend school Tuesday through Friday and Mondays are for self-guided work at home. Teachers spend Mondays student-free at school to catch up on lesson planning.

"If we really dig deep, this is about student achievement," Blalock says. "If our teachers aren’t 100%, our students won’t get what they truly need and deserve."

The new schedule will start in August, with provisions being made to help parents with childcare needs.

"I was so happy, I was like, 'Yes, this is what we need'," student Heaven Champion says of the new schedule. "It gives students more time to breathe, relax (and) kind of take a mental break."

North College Hill City Schools isn’t alone. More than 850 school districts nationwide now operate on a four-day school schedule. While some argue kids need more time in school to make up for educational time lost in the pandemic, others believe the new plan is the right equation for both teachers and students.

"I think we’ve reinvigorated the teachers, reenergize the teachers, they’re 100% on board," Blalock says. "It might change the game completely."

Kait Hanson is a lifestyle reporter for TODAY. A graduate of Penn State University, she began her career in collegiate sports communications.

The Swellesley Report

Since 2005: More than you really want to know about Wellesley, Mass.

Letter to the editor: teenagers need time—how about a four-day school week?

March 29, 2024 by Deborah Brown

Editor’s note: Wellesley Middle School Social Studies students as part of a Civics Action Projects has this week taken over The Swellesley Report ‘s letters-to-the-editor page. The students are well-versed in their topics, have carefully researched all angles, and are ready to present their opinions to the community. Thank you to the WMS Social Studies teachers for organizing this community-based project.

To the editor:

Teenagers need time. My 8th grade Wellesley Middle School Civics group thinks that we should have a four-day school week. Students can have a lot of stress and so they need a three-day weekend. We would have extra time to catch up on homework, sports and most importantly, to spend time with friends and family.

Evidence shows that students can complete 100% of work in 80% of time. A four-day school week can also help people with mental health issues, which is very needed because one in every five people in middle school and one in four people in high school have mental health issues. If kids learn this way, they will be less stressed, get better grades and have a higher morale. This would lead to better learning and better grades to set us up for success.

In order to make this happen, we also need parents to have a four-day work week. Studies show that four-day work weeks work for kids and adults. Therefore you should go support Bernie Sanders’ bill in the Senate for a four-day work week.

Currently the state law is to have 180 days of school a year in Massachusetts, but our goal is to change it to an amount of hours per school year, so we can have a four-day school week. This will work by having eight hours and ten mins per day instead of an average of six and a half hours or seven. We will have 144 days of school a year but still the same amount of hours of learning with this change.

Overall this would help everyone: it would reduce stress, increase time to catch up on sleep, spend time with friends and family and give everyone more time for hobbies outside of school.

Andrew Barbary Wellesley Middle School student

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