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

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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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4 Studies to Know on 4-Day School Weeks

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In the last decade, shortened school weeks have been adopted in more than 1,600 schools in 650 school districts nationwide . Initially seen as a way to cut costs, rural districts in particular have lauded the model as a way to draw in teachers and students looking for more-flexible schedules.

However, implementation of the four-day schedules has varied significantly, and in recent years, the model has sparked heated debates over whether it is consistent with efforts to regain academic ground lost during the pandemic.

In Oklahoma, for example, districts can schedule fewer than 180 days in a school year, as long as they continue to provide 1,080 instructional hours, maintain student academic achievement, and show cost savings—criteria most districts have been unable to meet since the pandemic. That’s led to fights between state lawmakers who want to do away with the shortened weeks and rural education leaders who back them.

As educators and policymakers continue to debate the use of shortened school weeks, here are four studies to know about how they can affect students and schools.

1. Maintaining instructional time is critical

At first blush, a 2022 study of the effects of shortened school schedules in 12 states seems pretty bleak. Nationwide, researchers found significantly lower math and English/language arts achievement at schools using four-day weeks during the time period from 2009-2018 than in schools using a traditional schedule. However, when study author Paul Thompson, a public policy research professor at Oregon State University, and his colleagues dug deeper, they found instructional time made the difference for student achievement. They found no significant differences in academic achievement between districts that used five-day schedules and those that used four-day schedules, as long as the districts with shorter weeks maintained a high or medium amount of instructional time for students.

The significant drops in math and reading achievement were concentrated in districts that had the least instructional time after moving from a five-day to four-day weekly schedule.

“Low time in school in conjunction with the four-day school week appears to be extremely problematic for academic achievement and school districts and states should be cognizant of these negative consequences,” Thompson concluded.

He suggested that schools could experiment with carving out more teaching time through limiting recess, lunch, or study periods, but should be careful to also track how these types of schedule changes affect student engagement and achievement.

2. Cost savings may be in the details rather than the bottom line

While some rural districts have been using shortened schedules for decades, the biggest momentum for the model came following the 2008 recession, when cash-strapped rural districts were looking for ways to cut costs.

That’s still one of the main reasons districts cite for moving to a four-day week, but a nationwide study by the Education Commission of the States suggests education leaders should not hope for a budget miracle from schedule changes. The ECS found that districts using shortened weeks trimmed on average .4 percent to 2.5 percent off their budgets.

A more recent study of Oklahoma districts specifically found those that moved to four-day weeks saved about 2 percent of their budgets, driven by savings in noninstructional costs such as operations, transportation, and food services.

3. Shortened schedules may equal calmer schools

Shortened school weeks may have made Oklahoma middle and high schools calmer and safer, though the model has done nothing to improve students’ attendance or academic achievement.

A study , in the journal of Educational Research and Policy Analysis, tracked student performance over a dozen years and attendance and discipline over nine years, as 411 districts across the state adopted the four-day model for at least some of their schools.

After moving to shortened weeks, schools saw on average a 39 percent drop in bullying and a 31 percent decline in the number of fights and assaults on campus. To put that into perspective, that’s a nearly twice as large an effect as the average 20 percent drop in bullying behaviors seen for common school-based anti-bullying programs.

“You hear over and over again, from students, from teachers, that kids are happier, that there’s increased morale, there’s improved school climate, there’s positive effects on school discipline,” said Emily Morton, a research scientist at the Center for School and Student Progress at NWEA and the author of the study.

However, shortened schedules had no effect on discipline problems related to drugs or alcohol, vandalism, truancy, school bus misbehavior, or bringing weapons to school. Likewise, the study found no significant difference in SAT scores, attendance rates and truancy, or disciplinary infractions for vandalism for high school students who attended under shortened weeks.

4. Urban districts may take a hit

While many rural districts have favored shortened weeks, one of the first urban school districts to adopt the model—School District 27J outside Denver—saw academic and community downsides .

A study released in January found that two years after making the schedule change, the district’s implementation costs outweighed its cost savings, while student academic achievement fell significantly. Moreover, retention was 3 percentage points lower for teachers—and 5 percentage points lower for veteran teachers of 15 years or more—in schools with four-day weeks than in similar ones with traditional five-day weeks.

“This finding does not necessarily mean that teachers do not value a [four-day week]. Instead, it suggests that the teachers that [left the district] were unwilling to trade off the higher salaries offered by outside opportunities for the benefits offered by a [four-day week schedule],” researchers concluded.

The researchers found local home values dropped 4 percent in the communities with four-day school weeks compared to those just over the border in a different district with traditional schedules. As a result, homeowners paid $700 to $6,000 more than they would have in property taxes.

Takeaways for administrators

The emerging research suggests school and district leaders should think carefully if they choose to implement shortened school weeks, said Morton of NWEA. She recommended that leaders:

  • Get community buy-in for the four-day schedule and communicate regularly with both parent and business stakeholders to identify the supports needed. “If parents aren’t gonna be able to support their kids on that extra day, it’s going to be a huge financial hardship for families,” she said.
  • Audit instructional minutes for each subject and commit to maintaining or increasing instructional time even with fewer days. “Superintendents need to know that on average we do see negative effects of this schedule,” she said, “so make sure that you are not shortchanging your kids on the amount of time that they’re getting in those subjects.”
  • Closely monitor student achievement and engagement and compare the data both to prior district data and those of surrounding districts. “We’ve seen some evidence suggesting negative effects may compound over time, ... so district leaders need to be very attentive to their own students and, if there’s evidence that this is negatively impacting students, ... switch back,” she said.

A version of this article appeared in the March 08, 2023 edition of Education Week as Four Studies to Know About 4-Day School Schedules

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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.

Follow us on Twitter via @GuardianTeach . Join the Guardian Teacher Network for lesson resources, comment and job opportunities , direct to your inbox.

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The rise of the four-day school week

Sarah Gonzalez, photographed for NPR, 2 August 2022, in New York, NY. Photo by Mamadi Doumbouya for NPR.

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Right now, a lot of school districts across the country are making a pretty giant change to the way public education usually works. Facing teacher shortages and struggling to fill vacant spots, they are finding a new recruitment tool: the four-day school week.

Those districts are saying to teachers, "You can have three-day weekends all the time, and we won't cut your pay." As of this fall, around 900 school districts – that's about 7% of all districts in the U.S. – now have school weeks that are just four days long.

And this isn't the first time a bunch of schools have scaled back to four days, so there is a lot of data to lean on to figure out how well it works.

In this episode, teachers love the four-day school week, and it turns out even parents love it, too. But is it good for students?

This episode was produced by Sam Yellowhorse Kesler with help from Willa Rubin. It was edited by Molly Messick and engineered by Maggie Luthar. Fact-checking by Sierra Juarez. Alex Goldmark is our executive producer.

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Why more schools are considering a 4-day week despite some drawbacks

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Blue pins on four days in a week on a calendar. Friday, Saturday and Sunday crossed out. Four day work week

When Kirsten Bramstedt had to teach students online during the 2020 – 21 school year, her school made some changes to the schedule to accommodate distance learning. They reduced the number of classes on each day and made school start at a later time. They also adopted a four-day school week with no classes on Wednesdays.

“I thought, ‘This is great. We should do this all the time,’” said the Encinal High School Spanish language teacher. She liked having the extra time to prepare for classes and felt that her relationships with students were deeper.

But as soon as everyone returned to school in-person, they went back to the regular five-day weekly schedule. Bramstedt was disappointed. She felt that everyone could have benefitted from more time to ease into the transition back to school buildings.

“A lot of the students had a really hard time adjusting in the fall, especially the freshmen, because the last time freshmen were in school, they were seventh graders,” said Bramstedt. Students weren’t just figuring out how to be in high school, they were also getting used to being around their peers again.

In the transition back to school, Bramstedt had to abandon some of her personal wellness practices, which made it more stressful for her during the week as she managed student behavior issues . Recent surveys show that teachers are burned out and more than half of teachers want to leave the profession entirely.

For some schools, the pandemic created an opportunity to try new things and making four-day school weeks the norm is one of those considerations. One benefit administrators hope to achieve from a shortened school week is retaining and attracting experienced teachers.

Four-day school weeks are attractive to districts as a perk for teachers because salary increases are often met with resistance, according to Paul Thompson , a professor at Oregon State University who studies the four-day school week. “Now schools are saying, what can we do for teachers to make their jobs a little bit easier and give them more flexibility?” Administrators are hopeful that a shorter school week might alleviate some of the burden on teachers and improve mental health.

The four-week school day in practice

Prior to the pandemic, 24 states had at least one school with a four-day week. “Most of these are found in the western half of the U.S. so places like Oregon, Montana, Idaho, Colorado and Oklahoma,” according to Thompson.

Each state has a required number of days children need to be at school per year, so it’s easier for states with lower requirements to have four-day school weeks. Studies about students’ academic performance in four-day week schools show varied results. For example, students attending four-day week schools in Colorado had higher scores in math and English language arts , whereas students in Oregon experienced declines .

“Many school districts that switch to a four-day week have never switched back,” said Thompson.

The deciding factor for whether a four-day school week will negatively affect students’ academic performance is instructional hours, according to Thompson. Schools have to make up for the day students have off by increasing the amount of time during the days students are in school. On average, the four-day-week school days are about an hour longer than five-day week schools .

“In school districts that don’t increase time in school on those other four days, students are really suffering because they’re losing a lot of ‘time-in-seat’ as a result,” said Thompson. “We see a lot of negative achievement effects in places that didn’t decide to expand the school day much on those remaining four days.” On average, four-day week schools don’t have as many instructional hours as five-day week schools, even if they have longer school days. One study showed that a four-day week school had almost 60 fewer hours of instruction over the course of a year.

Elementary students also tend to fare worse in four-day week schools. Having a day off works out better for high schoolers because they are usually leaving class for sports or other extracurriculars anyway.

“Ninety-five percent of school districts that switched to a four-day school week do this district wide,” according to Thompson. So students can have games and extracurriculars on the off-day and actually end up being in class more than they would on a traditional school schedule. Families can also use the day students are not in school for doctor visits, which is common in rural districts where parents might need to travel a long distance for appointments.

Before the pandemic, schools shortened the week to cut costs. They save money because they don’t have to pay cafeteria workers, custodians, and other hourly workers. Schools also don’t have to pay for buses to run on the day that students are not in school. However, unless transportation is a big part of a school’s budget, they usually don’t save that much money when they transition to a four-day week.

“For most schools, instructional staff is the largest component of their budget. And these are all salaried workers,” said Thompson. “Teachers are not receiving pay cuts when schools switch to a four versus five-day model.” Savings are typically between zero and three percent of the school’s budget.

What schools do with the fifth day

Flexibility also attracts schools to the four-day week model. Schools can do different things with the day off. “It’s not like a one size fits all type of approach,” said Thompson. For example when high school teacher Kirsten Bramstedt had a four-day week during distance learning, there were no classes, but teachers still had internal meetings.

Other schools have more outside-the box-approaches, such as experiential learning opportunities, on-the-job training or an internship. “That’s something you wouldn’t get out of a traditional five-day week model,” said Thompson.

Other schools may use the off day for asynchronous learning. Thompson said that four-day week schools that offer learning opportunities on the day off are rare because they require funding and extra planning.

With the four-day school week, there are perks in store for teachers too. Having a day without instruction during the week means there is more time and bandwidth for teacher training and professional development, which can lead to stronger instruction. During a traditional five-day week model, many teachers who want to participate in professional development have to do it over the weekend or after school hours.

Family buy-in

Thompson cautions against switching to a 4-day model without checking in with families. When school schedules change, parents and caregivers have to take on more responsibilities, like childcare.

“There’s not a lot of good childcare options for school age children, especially during the school year. And finding it one day a week would be difficult,” said Thompson. Places that have four-day week schools usually have a high concentration of intergenerational families to take care of kids during their day off. “That’s not really the main case in other places like Colorado, Oklahoma or in Oregon, for example, where parents are working and kids are home alone.”

Families and students in districts with four-day school weeks—primarily in rural communities in America’s west—reported highly valuing the extra time that a four-day schedule allowed the family to spend together. pic.twitter.com/lfSdZbIaFj — RAND Corporation (@RANDCorporation) October 7, 2021

Additionally, school is where most kids get their physical activity whether it’s through recess or a PE class. Getting rid of a school day means kids are more likely to be less active throughout the day.

Some families rely on schools to provide at least one meal a day. Thompson urges schools to consider whether a four-day school week would make families more food insecure or affect students’ nutrition. Some schools may outsource to an outside organization to ensure that kids have food on the day they are not in school, though most do not.

Schools considering the four-day week are faced with choosing between less instructional time and shifting responsibilities to families with a four-day school week or losing teachers to burnout with the five-day week schedule.

“If we lose these high quality teachers, we’re going to replace them with probably much lower quality teachers, which [might surpass] the negative effects of lost instructional time,” said Thompson.

Research on the four-day school week during the pandemic is still emerging and with it are more innovative ways to think about how to do schooling so that it works for teachers, students and families.

“There’s this great resignation going on and if schools don’t do something quick, people like me – I’m a very good teacher with a lot of experience – are going to quit or retire early,” said Bramstedt.

MindShift is part of KQED, a non-profit NPR and PBS member station in San Francisco, CA. The text of this specific article is available to republish for noncommercial purposes under a Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license, thanks to support from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.

Brief Four-Day School Week Overview

Easily browse the critical components of this report…

Key Takeaways

Twenty-four states have at least one school district using a four-day school week schedule, a n increase of over 600% since 1999 .  

Approx i mately 8 50 of the nation ’ s school districts use a four-day schedule , up from 650 in 2020 .  

A four-day school week is an alternative to the traditional five-day weekly educational schedule. A four-day schedule involves reducing the number of school days to four, usually from Monday to Thursday, while increasing the length of each school day. The idea of a four-day school week has gained popularity over the last decade, especially in rural areas where schools face budgetary constraints and staff shortages. 

Reasons for implementing the shorter week vary, but most school districts choose a shorter week to cut costs due to budget constraints.  Research shows  that the maximum possible cost savings for districts on a four-day week is 5.43%, but average savings range from 0.4% to 2.5%. One factor affecting savings is whether the school remains open on the fifth day. Some school districts opt for four-day school weeks to attract and retain teachers. Most four-day-a-week schools are in small, rural districts; however, in recent years, some larger, more urban districts have begun to consider the option of a shorter week. 

Most four-day-a-week schools operate Monday through Thursday, with a few opting for Tuesday through Friday. School days are lengthened to deliver the same amount of instructional time over fewer days, as required by state law. Some schools may offer optional enrichment activities, tutoring or time for teacher development during the fifth day. 

How States Implement the Four-Day Week 

School calendars are dictated by states’ minimum instructional time requirements, which are in turn tied to funding formulas. Schools not meeting the minimum instructional time requirements will receive less funding from the state. Therefore, it is likely only schools operating in states where a four-day week does not violate these requirements would seek to do so. 

Most states allow districts to opt into a four-day week, either through flexible requirements, explicit administrative rules or a waiver approval process. The level of legislative involvement in this process varies. Statutory guidelines generally do not allow four-day school weeks but may allow calendar flexibility by expressing that the minimum instructional day requirement can also be counted in the hour or minute equivalent. 

Some states establish additional guidelines school districts must follow to transition to a four-day week, but do not monitor the process directly or track the number of districts opting into such a schedule. Other states require districts to submit their four-day plans to the state education commissioner or superintendent for approval.  

As noted above, most states use this schedule to benefit rural districts. As a strategy to attract teachers in rural districts, Missouri recently experienced a surge in the use of a four-day school week, with  approximately 25%  of schools adopting this schedule for the 2022-23 academic year. According to  the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education ,  144 school districts  in the state are currently operating on a four-day schedule.  

Pros and Cons of the Four-Day Week 

Proponents of a four-day school week argue that it offers several benefits, including cost savings, improved student attendance and increased teacher morale. By reducing the number of school days, schools can save money on transportation, food and energy costs. This can be especially important for rural districts where students may need to travel long distances to get to school. District administrators also claim that the appeal of a four-day work week helps recruit teachers in areas where it is consistently difficult to attract new staff. 

In addition, some studies have shown that student attendance improves under a four-day school week. With a longer weekend, students have more time to rest and engage in extracurricular activities, which can lead to better attendance during the week. This, in turn, can lead to improved academic performance. 

Furthermore, a four-day school week can help to boost teacher morale. With an extra day to plan lessons, grade assignments and attend professional development opportunities, teachers can feel more prepared and engaged in their work. This can lead to better job satisfaction, which can translate into better classroom performance. 

However, opponents argue that longer school days can be difficult for students, especially those in elementary grades. Four-day school weeks can also pose a challenge to families who are unable to find affordable, enriching care arrangements on the fifth weekday. Further, students who are food insecure may not have access to sufficient meals during the off day. If optional activities were offered by schools on the fifth day, lack of transportation could limit access. 

What the Research Says 

Education researchers  have pointed out  that little is known about the effects of a four-day week on student outcomes. While large-scale research has yet to be performed, some state-specific studies have been published. The results are mixed;  one study  of students in Colorado showed a statistically significant improvement in math scores among students on a four-day schedule, while  a similar study  found no significant differences in student performance. 

A  Rand Corp. study  used quantitative and qualitative methods and collected surveys and interviews on the four-day school week experience in Idaho, New Mexico and Oklahoma. The research team examined student achievement, student health outcomes (sleep and physical activity), cost savings and more. The report highlights positive qualitative findings, such as improvements in student attendance, behavioral and emotional well-being, and school climate. But it also indicates when there was no difference in quantitative data, including in the areas of sleep, fatigue and student achievement. 

A report from Oregon State University and NWEA  on the effects of four-day school weeks on student achievement and within-year growth found very little difference on rural district academic effects, but a more significant difference for four-day schools in suburban areas. The report also found that reading suffered more than math on four-day schedules.  

A study  in the journal of Educational Research and Policy Analysis showed that shortened schedules can lead to calmer and safer schools. Across Oklahoma, 411 districts adopted the four-day model for at least some of their schools. Researchers found that Oklahoma high schools saw less fighting and bullying among students after switching from a five-day-a-week schedule to a four-day schedule. However, the researchers also found that a four-day schedule had “no detectable effect” on student attendance or scores on the ACT college entrance exam.  

Future of the Four-Day Week 

The four-day school week has gained popularity in recent years, with many school districts adopting this schedule in an effort to improve student performance and reduce costs. While the impact of a four-day week on academic outcomes is still a matter of debate, it is clear that more districts are adopting the schedule each year. Most four-day-a-week districts are smaller and rural, but a few notable exceptions have raised questions about the possibility of more urban districts moving toward a four-day week.  Colorado School District 27J , located in the Denver metro area,  moved  to a four-day week in the 2018-19 school year. Today, the district serves more than 22,600 students and is the largest in the state to adopt the four-day schedule. The district provides full-day child care for a fee on Mondays, when schools are closed, for students ages 5 to 12, and it continues to evaluate needs and capacity for these programs. The local Boys & Girls Club also expanded its services on Mondays. Overall, it is likely that the four-day school week will continue to be a topic of discussion in education circles for years to come. 

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Education | Four-day school week supported by Broward…

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Education | four-day school week supported by broward parents and educators, survey finds.

Lisa H. Spencer, the principal at Pompano Beach High School, at the school on Dec. 22. (Mike Stocker/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

Many parents and educators in Broward high schools like the idea of eliminating the school day on Friday and extending it the other four days a week, according to results from a new district survey.

The most lukewarm group in the survey to a potential four days week was students. Some voiced concern that they may struggle academically and would miss out on extra-curricular activities and time with friends if there was no school on Friday.

However, a slim majority of those who responded still liked the idea, compared to about two-thirds for parents and principals and 80% for teachers.

Pompano Beach High, the district’s most successful high school, already has a four-day week, and the School Board is considering trying the idea out at one or more additional schools starting in the 2025-26 school year. The proposal is part of a larger effort called “Redefining our schools,” where the district is looking to close or overhaul schools that have suffered from declining enrollment.

Pompano Beach High requires all students to apply and meet academic criteria to be admitted and stay in the school, so board members say its success won’t necessarily be duplicated at other schools.

Principal Lisa Spencer told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in December a four-day week doesn’t work for every student. She has a few students each year who leave. “It takes a highly motivated student who chooses this model,” she said. “There has to be excellent time management and self initiative, because the days are long.”

The School Board asked district administrators in December to conduct a survey to those affected to see if there was interest in expanding the four-day model to other schools. Most high school principals and half of the district’s high school teachers responded. The district also got responses from about 21,700 students, or about a third of those in high school, as well as 22,000 parents.

School Board members say they were surprised that the results showed a large majority of parents and teachers like the idea and believe it can benefit students academically.

“Students can focus on other responsibilities like sports, work and most importantly their mental health as they prepare to transition,” one parent responded.

But student views were more mixed.

“I am really concerned about going home later than usual, being stressed out due to the longer hours and still having to go to school even with an optional fifth day,” one student responded.

Some also had bad memories about learning at home during the pandemic and would prefer to be in school for the full five days, said Deputy Superintendent Howard Hepburn said.

One student quoted in the survey voiced enthusiasm about the idea.

“I think it would be beneficial to all students/staff having one day off, while the prior days longer, making us have more time and an optional fifth day to learn and study for tests/exams,” the student wrote.

One advantage some board members saw is the potential for students have more time to perform more community service and job training. However, district data showed Pompano Beach High students had no more service hours than high schools with traditional schedules.

Still, several board members said the survey results were convincing enough to start out with a pilot project at another school.

“The community gave their input. We had a lot of parents and a lot of teachers who would like to explore this. So for me, I would love to see us pilot this,” Board member Jeff Holness said.

Holness said he’d like see it tried out at a school with low-income students to see if it’s as successful as Pompano Beach High, where students on average come from more affluent backgrounds.

“We can tell whether or not the result is greater enrollment, greater student learning outcome and all these things that we’re looking for,” Holness said “If we don’t do it, we’re just guessing.”

But Board member Daniel Foganholi said he wants to see more data that this could lead to academic success. Most of the national research has been inconclusive. He said he’s worried if it fails, students will get further behind.

“Our kids are not going to be guinea pigs to fail or pass,” Foganholi said. “I want to make sure that we’re setting them up for success. If I see data that shows they’re gonna be successful, I’m all about it.”

School Board member Allen Zeman added, “I don’t see any evidence that this is some silver bullet for improved educational outcomes.”

But Zeman said he’d be open to trying it if a particular school expresses interest, similar to how schools decide whether to require uniforms. District policy now allows schools to decide through surveys and their School Advisory Council whether to have a more stringent dress code than required by district policy.

Board members said they’d ensure they get more parent student and educator feedback before trying this at a specific school. The idea could come back up again as Superintendent Licata develops a plan this spring on which schools to possibly close or overhaul for 2024-25.

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Louisiana School Board to Vote on 4-Day Week for 2024-25 School Year

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Jennings , LA (KPEL News) - The Jeff Davis Parish School Board could vote Thursday, February 22, on whether to join at least 10 other Louisiana school districts in Louisiana in implementing a 4-day hybrid school week. That configuration would implement 8 five-day school weeks during the year, with the remainder being 4-day weeks, so the calendar includes the state-required mandate for instructional time.

The  Louisiana Revised Statute  regarding school requirements is lengthy and, essentially, mandates that the school year for students in grades one through 12 must include 63,720 minutes per year. It allows schools to modify the number of days and the number of instructional minutes per day as long as the total number doesn’t fall below that threshold.   

Schools across Louisiana and the country have moved to the 4-day a week schedule to both decrease costs to school systems and recruit teachers. North Caddo Magnet High School , the only school in Caddo Parish to operate on a shorter week, uses the modified schedule as a recruiting tool. Livingston Parish is considering it as a way to increase teacher morale.

Acadia Parish rolled out the 4-day schedule for all schools in the district in 2023-24. Schools in the parish's very rural 5th Ward have operated on the schedule for at least 20 years.

The following Louisiana school districts are currently operating on a 4-day hybrid schedule:

  • Acadia  Parish  
  • Cameron  Parish  
  • Evangeline  Parish  
  • Bogalusa  City Schools  
  • Grant  Parish  
  • LaSalle  Parish  
  • Avoyelles  Parish  
  • Caldwell  Parish  
  • Franklin  Parish  
  • Beauregard  Parish—will implement for 2024-25 school year  

The Jeff Davis Parish survey was sent out in October and presented to the board ahead of Thursday's meeting.

Question 1 : “I believe the Jefferson Davis Parish School System should consider a Hybrid 4-Day School Week for staff and students.”

  • 86.6% - Yes
  • 77.3% - Yes
  • 84.1% - Yes
  • 64.6% - Yes

Question 2 asked what preference each group had for start times. Six options were offered. You can see those results here .

Question 3 : “My preference for the weekly non-school day on any proposed 4-Day week is…”

  • 64.7% - Monday
  • 26.3% - Friday
  • 8.9% - Not in favor of 4-day school week
  • 51.1% - Monday
  • 31.1% - Friday
  • 17.8% - Not in favor of 4-day school week
  • 55.7% - Monday
  • 32.2% - Tuesday
  • 12.2% - Not in favor of 4-day school week
  • 28.6% - Monday
  • 37.8% - Friday
  • 33.6% - Not in favor of 4-day school week

Question 4 : “Describe your current position towards a Hybrid 4-Day School/Work week proposal.” (Note: This question was only posed to Staff and Stakeholders.)

  • 69% - In favor
  • 16.6% - Neutral/No preference
  • 14.4% - Opposed
  • 57.7% - In favor
  • 8.5% - Neutral/No preference
  • 34% - Opposed

REPORT CARDS: These Are the Best Public High Schools in Louisiana

Gallery Credit: Stacker

Caddo Schools Losing the Most Students

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4-day school week could become more common in Minnesota with proposed law

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A bill being discussed by the Minnesota Legislature would allow Minnesota school districts to implement a four-day school week without getting approval from the state’s Department of Education (MDE) Commissioner.

Authored by Dave Baker (R-Willmar) , H.F. 1242 would let school boards decide without approval from the Department of Education. Currently, six school districts around the state are already on four-day schedules — a decision that required previous approval from the MDE Commissioner.

Under the four-day structure, students would still have to spend the same minimum number of hours in class.

School administrators who previously adopted the structure say it’s saved them a lot of money, helped with teacher recruitment and retention, and hasn’t hurt test scores or graduation rates.

The bill was discussed in the Minnesota House Education Policy Committee on Wednesday and will need the approval of several committees before a House Floor vote.

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Should the Week Be Four Days Instead of Five?

Microsoft Japan recently tested a shortened workweek and found that productivity improved by about 40 percent. Do you think all schools and companies should try this?

essay on 4 day school week

By Natalie Proulx

Find all our Student Opinion questions here.

Microsoft Japan made headlines recently after it tested a shortened workweek — four days instead of five — and found that productivity at the company improved by about 40 percent.

What is your reaction to this news? Do you think all companies and schools should adopt a four-day week ? Why or why not?

In “ What if You Had a Four-Day Week? Why Don’t You? , Niraj Chokshi writes about the promises of and barriers to a shortened workweek:

Nixon predicted it. Workers have asked for it. And businesses and governments have experimented with it for decades. The world has been talking about the four-day workweek for half a century, so what’s taking so long? The idea pops up every so often in expectant headlines. Just last week, Microsoft Japan inspired a flood of stories after reporting that, in a trial, shortened weeks had boosted productivity by about 40 percent. Yet the four-day workweek is the flying car of labor: a profound advancement that has seemed just around the corner for decades. “In America? I’m not expecting it anytime soon,” said Adam Grant, an organizational psychologist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business, who made the case for a shorter workweek to business leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, earlier this year. The reasons that a four-day workweek hasn’t yet taken hold are varied, Mr. Grant and others argue. Some barriers are institutional and some are cultural. And then there’s the most human reason of all: inertia.

However, Mr. Chokshi writes, there may still be hope for the four-day workweek:

Historically, experiments with the idea have tended to focus on its effects on employee happiness and work-life balance. But the Perpetual Guardian trial last year and the test conducted by Microsoft Japan this year focused on a benefit that might motivate employers: productivity. “It is making it safer for chief executives, for boards, for companies around the world to say, ‘Well, actually, I’m not just doing this because it is a good thing for my employees, I can also do this because it is good for business,’” Mr. Barnes said. At the same time, there’s a widespread desire among employees to work shorter weeks. About two-thirds of workers favor a compressed workweek, according to recent surveys by the staffing firm Robert Half and the public radio program Marketplace. And a poll conducted last year by The Workforce Institute, a think tank at Kronos, a maker of work force management software, found that 34 percent of global workers wanted a four-day workweek compared to 28 percent who were happy with a five-day one. (Some unions have pushed for shorter weeks, too.) Millennials and the generation that follows, Generation Z, also seem to be driving a broad shift in priorities when it comes to work, focusing less on pay and more on balance, Mr. Hunnicutt argued. “My generation, the baby boomers, may be the last true believers in this really bizarre belief that work can really answer all of our questions as human beings,” he said.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

Do you think the school- and workweek should be four days instead of five? Why or why not?

What might be some of the advantages and disadvantages of a shortened week? In your opinion, do the pros outweigh the cons?

How do you think your life would change if you went to school for only four days a week? Would you be more or less productive at school? Would you spend more time doing things you enjoy outside of school or would you waste more time? What else?

In the article, professor Benjamin Kline Hunnicutt says: “We value work more than any other culture in the history of the world … We value work as an end in itself.” Do you personally see work as a means to an end — for example, working to get good grades so you can get into the college of your choice or having a high-paying job so you have money to spend on other things? Or do you see work as an end in itself — that is, simply working for the sake of working? Why?

Mr. Hunnicutt also argues that Millennials and Generation Z seem to be prioritizing work-life balance over pay. Does this ring true for you? In your future career, would you rather have a job that pays you a lot but requires more working hours? Or a job that pays you less but offers you more time off? Why?

Students 13 and older are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Natalie Proulx joined The Learning Network as a staff editor in 2017 after working as an English language arts teacher and curriculum writer. More about Natalie Proulx

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essay on 4 day school week

A Guide to Implementing the 4-Day Workweek

  • Ashley Whillans
  • Charlotte Lockhart

essay on 4 day school week

As organizations continue to explore a variety of flexible work options, one promising avenue is the four-day workweek: The standard 40 hours per week is reduced to 32 hours, with the same pay and the same productivity expectations. Research suggests reducing hours can benefit both employees and employers, but it can be difficult to go from the idea to a successful implementation. In this piece, the authors — a researcher who studies time, money, and happiness and the CEO of a global nonprofit focused on the future of work — outline a six-step guide to help leaders plan, pilot, and roll out a four-day workweek. While no change comes easily, the authors argue that companies willing to embrace models like the four-day workweek will find the experimentation well worth the effort.

Working less can reduce employees’ stress — without sacrificing productivity.

In June of this year, Kickstarter became the latest in a string of organizations to announce they are experimenting with a four-day workweek. Its employees will be working 32 rather than 40 hours per week, while being expected to achieve the same productivity levels and earning the same pay. Though some recent studies on the efficacy of the four-day week have been overblown in the media , research suggests that reducing work hours can decrease employee stress and improve well-being without impacting productivity — but only when implemented effectively.

Why high-salary jobs with long, inflexible hours exacerbate the gender pay gap — and what to do about it.

  • Ashley Whillans is an assistant professor in the negotiations, organizations, and markets unit at the Harvard Business School School and teaches the “Negotiations” and “Motivation and Incentives” courses to MBA students and executives. Her research focuses on the role of noncash rewards on engagement and the links between time, money, and happiness. She is the author of Time Smart: How to Reclaim Your Time & Live a Happier Life (Harvard Business Review, 2020).
  • CL Charlotte Lockhart is a business advocate, investor, and philanthropist with more than 25 years of experience in multiple industries both locally and overseas. As CEO for the 4 Day Week Global campaign, she promotes the benefits of a productivity-focused and reduced-hour workplace. She is on the board of the Wellbeing Research Centre at Oxford University and the advisory boards of the U.S. campaign and the Ireland campaign for the four-day week.

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Watch CBS News

Decatur ISD pondering move to 4-day instructional week

By Doug Myers

February 24, 2024 / 10:36 PM CST / CBS Texas

DECATUR – The possibility of going to a four-day instructional week will be discussed Monday by Decatur ISD's school board.

In correspondence to district families and community members, Decatur ISD Superintendent Chad Jones said the change – if approved – could be in place for the 2024-25 school year.

According to Jones, the district conducted a survey and received input from "various stakeholders."

Click here to see the district's presentation on its findings.

District leaders also took part in a Zoom meeting with Athens ISD, the initial district in Texas to move to a four-day school week, Jones said.

The school board meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Monday.

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Essay – Mr. Becker – Brooklyn

Essay summary:.

The essay argues in favor of implementing a four-day school week, highlighting benefits such as increased family time for teachers, improved student productivity, and better attendance due to flexibility for appointments. The author believes that this change would be beneficial for both educators and students.

Essay Grade:

Total Score: 13/24

Explanation: – The purpose of the essay is clear, with a strong opinion stated that schools should have a four-day week. Well done! (Score: 3) – The essay includes some relevant details to support the opinion, such as completing projects and assignments in a good amount of time and allowing teachers to spend time with their families. However, there is inconsistency in maintaining focus on the opinion throughout the essay. Try to consistently tie the details back to the main opinion. (Score: 2) – The essay attempts to organize ideas but lacks coherence and transitions. Consider using clear topic sentences and logical sequencing of ideas to improve organization. (Score: 2) – While the essay includes some relevant evidence to support the opinion, it lacks depth. Try to provide more specific examples or explanations to strengthen the evidence. (Score: 2) – There is little to no elaboration on ideas in the essay. Try to provide more explanation or reasoning to support your points. (Score: 1) – The essay demonstrates correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling throughout. Well done! (Score: 3)

Overall, the essay shows potential but could benefit from more focused and organized writing. To improve, try to consistently tie all details back to the main opinion and provide more specific examples or explanations to support your points. Additionally, work on elaborating on your ideas to provide more depth and insight. Keep up the good work!

Do you think our schools should have a four-day week? School leaders around the world are considering whether they should have a four-day school week. If school leaders were to ask me I Would say yes, because it helps teachers spend more time with family, it contributes to a students attendance,and it helps students be more productive and have more capability. To begin, I feel like a four day week helps students complete projects and assignments or just a simple reading project in a good amount of time. And helps them get tests done in a timely manner. On the other hand, a four-day week lets teachers spend time with their families. due to the four day week 20% of teachers quote “the four day week really helps with training as well as helps recharge me over the weekend’’ teachers also say that the weekend really helps them bond and get to know their families! Despite everything! The four day school week also contributes to students having better attendance. One important detail helps a student’s appointment timing. Parents state that they can now make appointments during the week and not have to worry about a child missing any education or bad attendance. Example in some parts of the US it takes about three hours for parents to take their child to the dentist. All things considered this is why I think our school leaders should consider having a four-day week.

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Four Day school week

Authors Avatar

                                                                       Four Day School Week     1

                                                                                        John Kok

             Persuasive Essay Final Draft

          Period 3

      November 1, 2008

Four Day School Week

        

For most students a typical school week is divided in to five days consisting of seven hours of school each day. This has been a normal schedule for most schools. But recently many schools have been considering converting to a four day school week. The main reason for the transition would be for schools to save money. Many schools have found that by eliminating Monday’s of Friday’s from a school week can save money on transportation, heating, food services, and substitute teachers. Converting to a four day school week is a simple and easy solution to many schools financial problems.

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        Converting to a four day school week is a beneficial and money saving change. Many schools have been affected by all of the radical price changes in gas, staff payment, and utilities. An excerpt from the principal’s page blog states, (2008) “school districts are going to have to begin looking at alternatives to keep their finances under control. It is getting harder and harder to stay ahead of the rising costs in gas, electricity, heat, and air conditioning” (¶, 8). Changing to a four day school week can dramatically reduce their expenses.

This is a preview of the whole essay

With a four day school week the prices of many expenses would be lowered but would the education for the students be affected. With only four days of school each week, students would be missing out on many school hours a week. To accommodate for these missing hours of education, the overall length of a normal c\school day would have to be increased by ninety minutes. But increasing the length of the school day poses its own problems to the education of the students. Being at school for a longer amount of time can affect hot the students pay attention. Students would be having to get to school earlier and would have to stay at school longer than before. These school hours can become overwhelming for some students. Having to stay up late to finish homework and then having to wake up earlier to get to school on time can cause some to get exhausted.

One of the most profitable financial savings a four day school week can present is savings in transportation costs. With rising gas prices, keeping buses full of gas five days a week can now cost more than ever before. Molly Chamberlin and Jonathan Plucker explain:

School districts in South Dakota, Colorado, and New Mexico, operating under the four day school week, have reported cuts in transportation cost of 13%-20%. However, in order to maximize transportation schools may have to reduce of eliminate transportation for extra-curricular activities on non-school days.

Schools can save large amounts of money by switching to a four day school week. Even by just reducing the bus schedule by one day can help schools in financial problems.

Four Day school week

Document Details

  • Word Count 492
  • Page Count 3
  • Subject Business Studies

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What Is a 4-Day Workweek?

The origins of working less.

  • The Hours We Are Really Working

Benefits of a 4-Day Workweek

A 4-day workweek myth.

  • A Success Story
  • Recent Developments
  • 4-Day Week FAQs

The Bottom Line

  • Business Essentials

The Impact of Working a 4-Day Week

If the same results can be achieved in fewer days, why keep a five-day workweek?

Amy Fontinelle has more than 15 years of experience covering personal finance, corporate finance and investing.

essay on 4 day school week

There’s been a lot of talk about the potential benefits of working a four-day week instead of a five-day week. Making 32 hours the norm instead of 40 can lead to improved well-being for workers without a loss of productivity for businesses.

A number of studies have shown that at some point, productivity decreases as the number of hours worked increases. Forty-hour workweeks may be wearing people out needlessly.

A number of companies worldwide have pulled off a four-day workweek for a year or more, and Japan’s government has recommended it as national policy. It’s not a new idea, but it seems to have come under greater consideration since the COVID-19 pandemic generated a broad reevaluation of how we work, including a great work-from-home migration and hybrid office implementation.

Key Takeaways

  • The idea behind a four-day workweek is to achieve the same results in fewer hours so people have more time to pursue other interests, spend time with loved ones, and manage their lives.
  • Companies could benefit through increased sales, decreased worker burnout, and lower turnover, among other positives.
  • Emphasizing results instead of hours logged means that there’s no need to cut pay or benefits.
  • A major shift in how we think about and approach work is a precursor to standardizing a four-day workweek.

A four-day workweek is, ideally, a 32-hour workweek with no loss in productivity, pay, or benefits. Depending on the company and the industry, everyone might work Monday through Thursday and have Fridays off. Other possibilities include allowing each employee to choose their extra day off or having a company-wide policy of a different third day off, such as Monday or Wednesday.

There are pros and cons to each choice. For example, keeping everyone on the same schedule increases opportunities for collaborative work but leaves a company unstaffed on days when most others are working. A flexible third day off may be better for individual employees but harder for teams.

Andrew Barnes, author of “The 4 Day Week”

“The five-day week is a nineteenth-century construct that is not fit for purpose in the twenty-first century.”

The idea of getting more work done in less time to increase time off is not new. We all have Ford Motor Co. (and the Industrial Revolution ) to thank for our current five-day workweek instead of six days. What began as an experiment at some plants in July 1926 became company policy by September that same year.

A federal law called the Fair Labor Standards Ac (FLSA), passed in 1938, mandated a minimum wage of 25 cents per hour, a 44-hour workweek, and overtime pay of 1.5 times a worker’s regular pay. The act provided for a 42-hour workweek in 1939 and a 40-hour workweek in 1940.

Henry Ford had been contemplating the idea of a five-day workweek since at least 1916 before implementing it in 1926.

Experiments with a four-day workweek in the United States have been taking place since at least the 1990s. Another experiment took place in 2004, when the government of Spanish Fork City, Utah, implemented a schedule of four 10-hour days for city employees. Utah’s state government experimented with a 4/10 schedule from 2008 through 2011. And the idea was picking up steam even before the pandemic, with more job openings offering it in 2018 and 2019 than in 2017.

How Many Hours Are We Really Working?

Data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) show that the average annual hours worked by employed people in 2020 were lowest in Germany at 1,332 (25.6 per week). Americans work an average of 1,767 hours (34 per week), while Canadians work 1,664 hours (32 per week). Among other places experimenting with four-day workweeks, those in the United Kingdom work 26 hours per week, Spaniards work 30 hours per week, and the Japanese work 31 hours per week.

When you look at these numbers, it would seem that the average American who is age 16 or older already has almost the equivalent of a four-day workweek, and workers in some other countries have even more free time.

But if you look at the U.S. data more carefully, you’ll find that high school- and college-age workers pull down the average. In 2021, 16- to 19-year-olds worked an average of 25 hours per week, and 20- to 24-year-olds worked 34.8 hours per week. Individuals ages 25 and older worked 39.6 hours per week on average.

The fundamental goal of a four-day workweek is to improve workers’ quality of life. By working fewer hours overall and having three full days off, people have more time for personal priorities like these:

  • Spending quality time with family, friends, and pets
  • Doctor appointments
  • Personal development
  • Home maintenance and improvements
  • Household management

But there has to be something in it for employers, too. Companies that truly put their people first are the exception, not the norm. (By one count, there are only 82 as of this writing—with criteria that include diversity/inclusivity, flexible schedules, remote work, and a 40-hour-or-less workweek.)

These are the benefits that employers might expect from giving employees more control over their time:

  • Increased sales
  • Reduced employee burnout and improved employee retention
  • Lower operating costs for an office (unless the company is already all-remote)
  • Larger applicant pool for open positions

A shorter workweek may have environmental benefits from reduced commuting and traffic congestion.

Challenges of a 4-Day Workweek

A four-day workweek doesn’t always mean that employees maintain their pay and benefits. Some organizations have reportedly used a four-day week as a cost-saving measure, like Stanley Black and Decker and the Los Angeles Times , which managed to trim 20% from payroll costs for three months. And short-term trials that demonstrate success with a four-day workweek can differ from long-term outcomes.

Treehouse, an online coding school, implemented a four-day workweek from the get-go in 2013. Its CEO, Ryan Carson, had used the strategy from 2006 at his previous company. As late as 2015, he was publicly praising the compressed week’s benefits, from improved productivity to a more balanced life.

But in 2016, Carson reinstated a 40-hour workweek at Treehouse and had to lay people off. He said the 32-hour week created a lack of work ethic in himself that was fundamentally detrimental to the business and its mission. In 2018, he said he was working 65 hours a week under a regimented schedule beginning at 4:30 a.m. and ending at 6 p.m. with early morning breaks for exercise, breakfast, and time with his wife, but no breaks from 8:30 a.m. on.

A four-day week that requires people to work 10-hour days can be incompatible with wage regulations or prove too grueling for employees, failing to either improve productivity or save the company money. In the 1990s, a number of organizations found this to be the case and went with a 9/80 schedule instead, where people work nine hours Monday through Thursday and eight hours every other Friday in exchange for getting alternate Fridays off.

Not all individuals like the idea of a four-day workweek, for a number of reasons. For example, they may enjoy the social aspects of their jobs or find their work so engaging that they don’t want to do less of it. And some workers might find that a compressed week gives them a constant pre-vacation-type pressure to get more work done in less time—a level of stress that’s unsustainable.

Indeed, based on the results of a poll conducted in March 2020, Gallup concluded that while individuals working four-day weeks reported lower levels of burnout and higher levels of well-being compared to people working five- or six-day weeks, the percentage of actively disengaged workers was lowest among those who worked five-day weeks.

Gallup found that for employee engagement, the quality of the work experience was more important than the number of days worked. Simply shortening the workweek is not enough to improve employee engagement in a poorly managed organization. Still, workers do place a high value on schedule flexibility, which can lower stress levels and help them manage other aspects of their lives more effectively, allowing them to be more engaged at work.

Then there’s the question of industry. It’s relatively easier for jobs that rely on knowledge work to move to a compressed schedule compared to jobs that rely on service work. We wouldn’t want to see customer service or tech support, let alone hospitals and fire departments, take three days off per week with zero coverage―though allowing individual workers to have four-day weeks could be possible.

In addition, it may not be possible to increase productivity enough in service or logistics jobs to achieve the same results in fewer hours just by working smarter. There’s a physical limit to how many items Amazon Warehouse employees can pick per hour or how many delivery locations a UPS driver can hit in a day. However, one study did find that call center agents became less productive as their hours increased—it took them longer to handle calls.

There are also practical and cultural barriers to working fewer days. If working five days a week (or seven in some industries) remains the norm, then the companies that have a shorter workweek may cause frustrating delays at the companies that work longer weeks. It takes a mindset shift to accept these delays, knowing that they are supporting workers’ well-being.

You may have read that Iceland has successfully adopted a four-day workweek. Anthony Zeal, an adjunct professor in the business school at the University of Technology Sydney, explains this myth in an article for The Conversation , an independent, nonprofit news organization whose articles are composed by university scholars and researchers with expertise in the subjects that they write about.

What has actually happened, Zeal writes, is that major media outlets have misreported the findings of a June 2021 study in which 2,500 government workers in 66 workplaces in Iceland tried moving from a 40-hour week to a 35- or 36-hour week. Most of the workplaces ended up cutting back by only one to three hours a week, though they were able to maintain their productivity and provide the same level of service. The experiment did result in a nationwide decrease in hours worked, but only by 35 minutes in the private sector and 65 minutes in the public sector.

A 4-Day Workweek Success Story

Wildbit, a small software company founded in Philadelphia in 2000, experimented with a four-day workweek in 2017 and made it permanent. The company’s emphasis on outcomes rather than volume, and on focused, deep work rather than hours logged, has allowed it to succeed with this policy.

Wildbit’s four-day workweek is part of its people-first philosophy, which holds that work enables life and that providing good benefits while prioritizing the well-being of the business over its workers is not the right approach. The company is also remote-first and provides location-agnostic pay.

Recent Developments to the 4-Day Week

The four-day workweek appears to be gaining traction across the globe, including in the U.S. California state Rep. Mark Takano, a Democrat introduced a bill that would implement a four-day workweek in Dec. 2021. Although unlikely to become law anytime soon, the bill (which would require companies to pay overtime for hours worked above 32 hours in a week) is still a key step toward getting businesses to reconsider the 40-hour workweek. The coronavirus pandemic has also helped push more employers to consider remote work and the four-hour workweek.

In mid-2021, Iceland published the results of its pilot four-day workweek program, running from 2015 to 2019. The results showed that workers were less stressed or burnt out while having more time for family activities.

Several trials are being conducted on the four-day workweek, including by Spain, where the government said it would pay companies to try it out. Unilever in New Zealand ran a year-long four-day workweek program that ended last year.

The U.K. is launching a four-day workweek trial from June to December 2022 (a six-month period where participating employees will see no loss of pay).

U.S.-based Kickstarter will also run a four-day workweek trial in 2022. The company will be part of a pilot program in the U.S., called the 4 Day Week U.S. Buffer, the social media software company, started implementing a four-day workweek in 2020.

The 4 Day Week Global is still looking for other potential target companies.

What Strategies Have Companies Used to Succeed With a 4-Day Workweek?

  • Prioritize and reevaluate tasks
  • Minimize interruptions and distractions
  • Increase automation
  • Emphasize human creativity
  • Limit work-based social events
  • Reduce and shorten meetings
  • Spend less time on email and messaging apps
  • Define clear goals
  • Set goals that are achievable within a shorter workweek
  • Measure outcomes, not hours
  • Implement asynchronous work
  • Maintain employee pay
  • Trust workers
  • Solicit regular employee feedback
  • Learn from trial and error

What Are Some Companies That Have Tried a 4-Day Workweek?

The list is extensive, but here are 13:

  • Bunny Studio
  • The Financial Diet
  • Galt Pharmaceuticals
  • Microsoft Japan
  • Perpetual Guardian
  • Wanderlust Group

Who Is Promoting Wider Adoption of a 4-Day Workweek?

  • 4 Day Week Global
  • The Japanese government
  • The Scottish government
  • The Spanish government

Where Can I Learn More About How to Succeed at a 4-Day Workweek?

Try these books:

  • The 4 Day Week: How the Flexible Work Revolution Can Increase Productivity, Profitability and Well-being and Help Create a Sustainable Future by Andrew Barnes
  • Shorter: Work Better, Smarter, and Less—Here’s How by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang
  • Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport

Also, try these online resources:

  • A Guide to Implementing the 4-Day Workweek by the Harvard Business Review
  • Wildbit’s blog post series on the 4-Day Workweek

Many companies and workers have succeeded with a condensed workweek and enjoyed benefits such as increased productivity and more time to pursue personal interests and goals. However, a four-day schedule does not work for all industries, businesses, or individuals. Furthermore, it won’t fix a toxic workplace or an unpleasant job.

The reevaluation of work forced upon the world by the COVID-19 pandemic has driven increased interest in the idea of a four-day workweek. But making it the new normal will require making a cultural and mindset shift that deemphasizes work; taking a hard look at work activities that can be automated, deprioritized, or dropped; and overcoming discomfort and inertia around change.

Cabinet Office, Government of Japan. " Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2021; June 18, 2021, Cabinet Decision ," Page 27.

4 Day Week Global. " Moving to a 4 Day Week ."

Wildbit. “ Four-Day Workweek: Which Day Should You Take Off? ”

Andrew Barnes. "The 4 Day Week, How the Flexible Work Revolution Can Increase Productivity, Profitability and Well-being, and Create a Sustainable Future," Introduction and Page 3. Brown Book Group, 2020.

The New York Times. “ Ford Establishes a 5-Day Week After Test; Expects Spur to Labor Will Bring 6-Day Pay .”

U.S. Code, Office of the Law Revision Counsel. “ Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 ,” Pages 1062–1063.

The Henry Ford. " Ford Motor Co. Chronology, 1903-2003 ."

The Henry Ford. " Ford Motor Company Publication: "Helpful Hints and Advice to Ford Employes," 1915 Pamphlet ."

Los Angeles Times. “ Finding the Week That Works: For Many Employers the Four-Day Schedule Hasn’t Panned Out, but Alternatives Are Succeeding .”

BYU News. “ BYU Study Reveals Results of City’s Four-Day Workweek .”

Deseret Times. “ Utah Ends 4-Day Workweek Experiment, but Provo Says It Still Works for Them .”

USA Today. “ Here’s Where You Can Have a 4-Day Work Week. Is This the Next Big Thing? ”

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “ Hours Worked: Map View .”

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. “ Labor Force Statistics from the Current Population Survey .”

People-First Jobs. " Criteria ."

People-First Jobs. “ 82 Great Places to Work .”

4 Day Week Global. " White Paper 2019, Flexible Working Arrangements ."

The Guardian. “ I Pioneered the Four-Day Week — Now It Must Be Used to Fight the Climate Crisis .”

Society for Human Resource Management. “ The Phenomenon of the Four-Day Workweek .”

The Atlantic. “ The Case for the 32-Hour Workweek .”

YouTube. “ GrowthLab Live: Ryan Carson on Work/Life Balance ,” Timestamp: 1:06, Aug. 16, 2018.

YouTube. “ GrowthLab Live: Ryan Carson on Work/Life Balance ,” Timestamp: 2:15, Aug. 16, 2018.

Gallup. “ Is the 4 Day Work Week a Good Idea? ”

ScienceDirect. “ Labour Economics: Working Hours and Productivity .”

The Conversation. “ The Success of Iceland’s ‘Four-Day Week’ Trial Has Been Greatly Overstated .”

Wildbit. “ Home Page .”

Wildbit. “ The 4-Day Workweek is the Future of Work .”

Wildbit. “ People-First Operations .”

Wildbit. “ Announcing Location-Agnostic Pay .”

Takano. “ Rep. Takano Statement on Congressional Progressive Caucus’ Endorsement of 32-Hour Workweek Act .”

Autonomy. " Going Public: Iceland's Journey to a Shorter Working Week, June 2021 ," Pages 10, 40-41, 44, 46.

Reasons to be Cheerful. " Spain’s Four-Day Work Week Is a Game Changer ."

Unilever Australia. " Unilever NZ to Trial Four-Day Work Week at Full Pay ."

4 Day Week Global. “ June 2022 Pilot Programme .”

4 Day Week Global. “ Kickstarter Is Moving to a 4-Day Workweek .”

Buffer. “ A Year And a Half Later, Here’s How The Four Day Workweek is Going at Buffer .”

Wildbit. “ 4-Day Workweeks: The Experiment That Never Stopped .”

Atlassian. “ The Data Doesn’t Lie: What We Learned When We Tried a 4-Day Workweek .”

Buffer. “ When Taking Fridays Off Can Help Our Team Get More Done: An AMA on the 4-Day Work Week .”

Bunny Studio. “ Bunny Studio Is Going to Experiment with a 4-Day Workweek .”

LinkedIn. “ Why We’re Trying Out a Four-Day Workweek at The Financial Diet .”

LinkedIn. “ Barry Patel .”

GooseChase. “ Flock Fridays—Our 4-Day Work Week Experiment at GooseChase .”

Microsoft. “ Results of the Work Life Choice Challenge 2019 Summer .”

Perpetual Guardian. “ The Four Day Week Is Here .”

TGW Studio. “ TGW Moved to a Permanent 4-Day Workweek .”

Treehouse, Team Treehouse Blog. “ Work Less .”

UpBuild. “ How We Make a 4-Day Work Week Work .”

Wanderlust Group. " We Dropped to a 4-Day Work Week, Here's What Happened ."

Wildbit. “ The 4-Day Workweek: Rethinking Knowledge Work .”

4 Day Week Global. " Pilot Program ."

Edinburgh Live. “ Scotland’s 4 Day Work Week: Everything You Need to Know and If You’re Eligible .”

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  17. Four Day School Week Analysis

    Persuasive Essay On Four Day School Week. The overall logistics run much smoother in schools that have four day weeks compared to the five day week. "Some districts had experienced a decline in dropout rates, decreased disciplinary referrals, improved attendance, fewer class interruptions, more positive attitudes about school, and better ...

  18. Four-day school week supported by parents, educators, survey finds

    Pompano Beach High, the district's most successful high school, already has a four-day week, and the School Board is considering trying the idea out at one or more additional schools starting in ...

  19. Louisiana School Board to Vote on 4-Day Week for 2024-25 Year

    Jennings, LA (KPEL News) - The Jeff Davis Parish School Board could vote Thursday, February 22, on whether to join at least 10 other Louisiana school districts in Louisiana in implementing a 4-day hybrid school week. That configuration would implement 8 five-day school weeks during the year, with the remainder being 4-day weeks, so the calendar includes the state-required mandate for ...

  20. Pros and Cons of Implementing a Four-Day School Week

    Persuasive Essay On Four Day School Week. The overall logistics run much smoother in schools that have four day weeks compared to the five day week. "Some districts had experienced a decline in dropout rates, decreased disciplinary referrals, improved attendance, fewer class interruptions, more positive attitudes about school, and better ...

  21. 4-day school week could become more common in Minnesota with proposed law

    ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - A bill being discussed by the Minnesota Legislature would allow Minnesota school districts to implement a four-day school week without getting approval from the state's Department of Education (MDE) Commissioner. Authored by Dave Baker (R-Willmar), H.F. 1242 would let school boards decide without approval from the Department of Education.

  22. Should the Week Be Four Days Instead of Five?

    By Natalie Proulx Nov. 13, 2019 Find all our Student Opinion questions here. Microsoft Japan made headlines recently after it tested a shortened workweek — four days instead of five — and found...

  23. A Guide to Implementing the 4-Day Workweek

    Ashley Whillans and Charlotte Lockhart September 28, 2021 The Big Idea Series / Rethinking "Back to Work" 01 The Future of Flexibility at Work 02 12 Questions About Hybrid Work, Answered 03 A Guide...

  24. Decatur ISD pondering move to 4-day instructional week

    The school board meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. Monday. In: Texas; Education; First published on February 24, 2024 / 10:36 PM CST

  25. Essay

    The essay argues in favor of implementing a four-day school week, highlighting benefits such as increased family time for teachers, improved student productivity, and better attendance due to flexibility for appointments. The author believes that this change would be beneficial for both educators and students.

  26. Four Day school week

    Persuasive Essay Final Draft. Period 3. November 1, 2008. Four Day School Week . For most students a typical school week is divided in to five days consisting of seven hours of school each day. This has been a normal schedule for most schools. But recently many schools have been considering converting to a four day school week.

  27. Four Day School Week: A Bad Idea

    Argumentative Essay: The Four-Day School Week 506 Words | 3 Pages This quote helps explain why we should have a four day week. This isn't the only reason though. In addition, not only are tests scores better, but also student attendance.

  28. The Impact of Working a 4-Day Week

    Benefits of a 4-Day Workweek. The fundamental goal of a four-day workweek is to improve workers' quality of life. By working fewer hours overall and having three full days off, people have more ...

  29. Mid-Missouri districts seek to attract, retain teachers with four-day

    As new statewide research emerges about the academic outcomes for students attending four-day school weeks, some Mid-Missouri districts are seeing firsthand how the short week works.

  30. Decatur ISD to discuss possibility of 4-day week for 2024-2025

    Decatur ISD surveyed parents and staff members about the possibility of implementing a four-day instructional week from December to February. On a scale of 0-10 (with zero being low support and 10 ...