Schools across the country are facing a teacher shortage, and some are turning to a four-day school week as a way to attract and retain qualified staff. However, research shows that it harms student achievement.
The four-day school week is not new, but it has become more popular in recent years. According to the Four-Day School Week Policy Group at Oregon State University, more than 850 school districts in the United States now use the four-day model.
“With issues of teacher shortages, teacher burnout, it seems that, you know, school districts are thinking that this might be an effective mechanism,” said Paul Thompson, associate professor of economics and researcher with the Four-Day Research Policy Group. “In terms of the research, we don’t really know whether that’s an effective strategy, we’re playing catch up.”
One concern about the shorter school week is that it leads to a loss of instructional time, which harms student achievement.
“Those drops in time in school kind of link almost directly to the achievement declines that we’ve seen,” Thompson said.
