Texas schools must consider the data before adopting a 4-day school week
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Loading... - Claire James
- 02 Mar 2023
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We need to be protecting every minute of instructional time.
When we put on our “teacher eyes,” we can understand why the idea of a four-day school week could be an attractive incentive for educators who have one of the toughest but most impactful jobs in the world. As parents to young adults who used to be school-aged children, we also empathize with families who would favor a three-day weekend.
This has been a response to a national teacher shortage. At least 40 Texas districts are on a four-day school week, and more than a dozen are planning to launch the schedule this next year according to estimates from the Texas Classroom Teachers Association.
And as former school district leaders, we in no way fault any of our former superintendent colleagues or the boards of trustees they report to for exploring options they think could best serve their staff, teachers and students.
But while we can see the appeal of a four-day school week, we ask our North Texas communities to think much more deeply about the potential negative short- and long-term effects, as well as what current research shows about a four-day school week.
Until very recently, there was little analysis around the learning effects of a four-day school week, and most of that research included only a single state or was limited by using district-level data. However, in August, the Annenberg Institute at Brown University conducted the first multistate, student-level analysis that estimated the effect of a four-day school week on student achievement and included a more proximal measure of within-year growth based on the nationwide standardized exam known as the NWEA MAP test. The analysis sought to answer our fundamental question: What is the effect of a four-day school week relative to a five-day school week?
The results were startling.
Annenberg researchers found significant negative effects on student learning in math and reading. The negative effects of the schedule were disproportionately larger in non-rural schools than rural schools and for female students, and they predicted that the negative effects may grow over time. Another 2021 study in Oregon calculated that the four-day week shaved off one-sixth of the usual gains that a fifth grader makes in math, equal to about five to six weeks of school. Over many years, those losses can add up for students. Read More…
