The study, published in the journal Education, Finance and Policy in July, analysed the impact of a four-day school week on student achievement by comparing fourth-grade reading and fifth-grade math test scores from the Colorado Student Assessment Programme (CSAP) for students who participated in a four-day school week, versus those who attended a traditional five-day school week.
Better math scores
The researchers found a four-day school week had a significant impact on math scores for fifth-grade students, while reading scores were not affected. The study suggests there is little evidence that moving to a four-day week compromises student academic achievement, an important finding for US school districts seeking ways to cut costs without hampering student achievement. “What interested me about our results is they were completely opposite to what we anticipated,” said Mary Beth Walker, dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State.
“We thought that for the younger kids, longer days on a shorter school week would hurt their academic performance because their attention spans are shorter. A longer weekend would give them the opportunity to forget what they had learned.”
Unexpected results
Although the shortened school week did not have a measurable impact on reading outcomes, “the idea that the change in the calendar did not have negative effects we thought was an important result,” Walker said.
A number of school districts in the United States have moved from the traditional Monday through Friday schedule to a four-day week schedule as a cost-saving measure to reduce overhead and transportation costs.
Four-day weeks have been in place for years in rural school districts in western states, like Colorado, New Mexico and Wyoming. Over one-third of the school districts in Colorado have adopted a four-day schedule. The alternative schedule has also been considered in school districts in Oregon, Missouri, Florida and Georgia. The four-day school week requires schools to lengthen the school day to meet minimum instructional hours. Earlier, there was a lack of information on whether the four-day school week affects student performance.
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