Eighty-one percent of teachers and 56 percent of parents want a four-day school week, according to a new survey by Prodigy Education, reports Cassandra Haines-Riiska. Advocates say it would reduce stress and provide more family time.
But reducing learning time leads to less learning, writes Vince Bielski of Real Clear Investigations. Districts lengthen the school day when they cut the week down to four days, but often students end up with less class time.
Paul Thompson, an Oregon State economist who studied the state's four-day schools blames lost learning time for “detrimental impacts” in reading and math. "Across the country, four-day students spend an average of about 1,150 hours a year in school, or 85 hours less than five-day students, according to another investigation by Thompson," Bielski writes. That averages to 25 fewer minutes a week in math and 49 fewer minutes in English.
A multi-state study also found that four-day students learned “significantly less.”
“It’s a huge mistake to move to a four-day school week,” said Brown's Matthew Kraft, who co-wrote a paper on the influence of class time on learning. “At this moment we need to maximize instructional time to support students’ academic recovery, not reduce it.”
In the Prodigy survey, teachers said they'd assign group projects for students to complete on the fifth day, or ask them to watch "pre-recorded lectures or interactive videos" to make up for lost instructional time. Does anybody think that will work?
Most districts that have switched to a four-day week hoped it would save money,
writes Bielski. However, savings were minimal. "That’s because salaries, the biggest expense in education, don’t change for teachers and administrators when shaving a day off the week. "
The shorter week also doesn't improve teacher retention, according to a new study of Oregon districts. Four-day districts offered less pay to teachers and saw higher turnover.
People in Hell want ice water.