A recent study analyzing the impact of a shorter school week for high schools found that 11th-grade students participating in a four-day week performed worse on standardized math tests than students who remained on five-day schedules.

The effect was amplified among students in non-rural schools and was limited to math; no significant gap appeared in reading achievement across different school-week schedules.

K-12 schools nationwide are increasingly moving to a four-day week as a way to provide non-monetary incentives for teachers, adjust for students’ extracurricular schedules or to cut district costs. As of the 2018-19 school year, 1,607 schools nationwide — 1.2% of all K-12 schools — had shifted to a four-day week. The loss of instruction time due to COVID-related closures has prompted more to consider how the school week can best accommodate both students and teachers.

But the shift must be made thoughtfully to be effective, researchers say.

«These bigger cuts seem to be happening in non-rural areas that haven’t thought through all the details of implementation — they may be moving to four-day school for short-term reasons, like cost savings,» said Paul Thompson, lead author on the study and a professor in OSU’S College of Liberal Arts. «That’s different from what we’re seeing in rural areas, where it’s really a lifestyle choice for these schools, and they’ve thought a lot about how they should structure their schedule.»

Oregon has the fourth-highest number of schools on a four-day week in the country, with 137 schools across 80 districts opting for the shorter school week, or roughly 11% of the more than 1,200 K-12 schools in the state. The majority of these schools are in rural areas, particularly in Eastern Oregon.

Story Source:
Materials provided by Oregon State University. Original written by Molly Rosbach. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.