Everything you need to know about the 4-day school week some Texas districts are using

Small, rural school districts across Texas are losing teachers to larger districts because they’re often unable to offer competitive compensation. That’s why more are adopting four-day school weeks. They say the switch not only helps them hire more teachers, it helps retain the educators they currently have.

But what does the research say about the effectiveness of four-day school weeks? And can this be a long-term solution to statewide teacher shortages, positively impacting teachers, students and parents alike?

The Star-Telegram spoke with researchers who’ve studied the four-day week. Here’s what they said.

What do four-day school weeks look like?

Four-day school weeks are used in over 1,600 schools across 24 states, according to a 2021 study published in Education Finance and Policy. Co-author Paul Thompson, a researcher at Oregon State University, says the move is most common among small districts in rural areas. It’s often used to recruit teachers and cut costs in the face of teacher shortages and budget constraints, both exacerbated by the pandemic.

“Historically, pre-pandemic, the most common reason for adopting the schedule was cost savings,” said Emily Morton, a researcher at the Northwest Evaluation Association who has studied the impact of four-day school weeks. “In the last year, we are seeing more news that districts are adopting the schedule to improve teacher recruitment and retention.”

School districts take a day off once a week, most often Friday, with more time in school on the remaining four school days. On average, school days are nearly an hour longer. Four-day calendars average only 148 school days per year, compared to 180 days.

“We might see this kind of contagion-like effect happening in Texas as a result of some schools starting to make this switch,” Thompson said. “And it feels like every week, we see more and more schools in Texas making these decisions.”

What are the benefits of a four-day school week?

School districts switch to a shorter school week for three main reasons: to save money that they can invest in instructional support and staff retention, to improve student attendance, and to recruit and retain teachers by offering them an extra day out of the classroom. And they almost never switch back to a five-day schedule, Morton said.

Cost savings from implementing a four-day school week are minimal. In practice, a RAND Corporation study found, districts save less than 5% by switching to four-day weeks. By operating for fewer days per year, they save some money on operations, transportation, and food services, said Morton, who co-authored the study.

There wasn’t a meaningful difference in student attendance. The proportion of missed school days was similar between five-day and four-day districts, the RAND study found.

How does the switch affect student achievement?

While early studies on the four-day week had mixed results, recent evidence in Oklahoma and Oregon found that four-day weeks negatively impact how well students do academically.

To see what happens when schools switch to a four-day week, Thompson looked at student test scores in reading and math over 15 years. He found that test scores suffered because of the reduced instructional time, about three to four hours less a week. Math scores decreased by 6%, while reading scores decreased by 4%.

Another study Thompson conducted found that fewer four-day students graduated on-time compared to five-day students.

The RAND study found similarly negative results on student achievement. Test scores for four-day districts improved, but did so more slowly than they would have if they maintained a five-day schedule. Four-day students had lower English and math scores over time compared with their five-day peers.

“If the district is adopting the schedule because they feel they need to do so to recruit teachers or to improve school climate, they may be willing to make that choice even if it means test scores could decrease by a little,” Morton said.

Thompson said, however, that these negative impacts could be mitigated if overall learning time remains intact. Structuring the four-day school week to maintain adequate instructional time is key to combating learning loss, whether that means lengthening the four days or incorporating asynchronous or experiential learning on the fifth day.

“The overall level of time in school seems to be what’s driving a lot of these negative effects we’ve seen for four-day school weeks,” Thompson said. “Those that are kind of maintaining instructional time, maybe increasing instructional time as a consequence of the four-day school week switch, those ones aren’t really seeing these detrimental impacts.”

Dan Robinson, associate dean of research at the University of Texas at Arlington, says that research on cognitive psychology and learning has shown that cramming everything together is not as effective as distributing it out over time. To better space out learning, one model schools could consider is having one day off in the middle of the week, instead of Fridays or Mondays, he said.

How do four-day weeks affect teachers?

Four-day weeks allow teachers some flexibility, giving them an extra day to plan lessons and help students who need it. As a result, the model is effective in attracting and retaining teachers, the RAND study found.

“If teachers are happier on a four-day week schedule, they may be less likely to leave the profession,” Morton said. “Indeed, some districts cite that retired teachers have come back to teach only because they feel they can manage a four-day week.”

Educators working in four-day districts reported improved morale, as well as a positive impact on classroom instruction and academic quality.

Some teachers, on the other hand, saw drawbacks. In a Reddit thread, teachers said the school days felt long, they had to work harder to fit the curriculum into a shorter week and the gap between on- and off-days made it more difficult for students to retain information.

That’s why Texas teachers associations say that teachers should be consulted by a district before a four-day week is implemented.

“Maybe the four-day week is a good solution for some districts, maybe it will help retain employees. But the only way that you can really know for sure is for these districts to ask their employees first before they make these decisions, and check in regularly with educators,” said Nicole Hill, lead digital organizer at the Texas American Federation of Teachers. “The biggest thing that they have said consistently is what will keep them in the classroom is having a voice in the decision-making, having a voice in their profession.”

Holly Eaton, professional development and advocacy director at the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, says the two reasons teachers leave the profession are low pay and poor working conditions. Not having enough non-instructional time contributes to the latter, and it’s something the shorter week could help with.

“One of the things that this sort of four-day school week seems to be getting at is this concept of sort of building in more protected time for teachers,” Eaton says. “And if that’s the case, then it might really get at one of the core parts of working conditions for teachers. So it could be very promising in that respect.”

Whether a shorter schedule could be a long-term solution to teacher shortages remains to be seen, but it’s possible the lure will diminish over time. As more districts adopt the four-day week, Morton says, they’ll have less leverage to attract teachers.

However, if four-day schedules continue to be adopted primarily in rural areas, it may provide an incentive for teachers to work in a rural area who otherwise would have worked in a non-rural area, Morton said. And, in the long-run, if four-day weeks were to attract more people to join the profession, it could possibly increase the number of teachers.

There are other solutions to burnout and teacher shortages in the state, says Shannon Holmes, Association of Texas Professional Educators executive director.

“This may be one tool in the tool bag, but you’ve got to make sure that teachers are justly compensated. You’ve got to make sure that teachers aren’t being harassed and are being respected as professionals in their particular field. You’ve got to make sure that we’ve got enough teachers in the teacher pipeline to be able to fill in the hole that is left by teachers who are retiring or leaving the profession. We’ve got to find ways to retain teachers,” Holmes said.

How do four-day school weeks affect students’ well-being?

Families and students in four-day districts highly valued the extra time they were able to spend together, according to the RAND study. About 90% of K-6 parents said they were satisfied with the schedule and 95% of students in grades 7-12 said they would pick a four-day school week over a five-day school week.

Shorter school weeks have also been proven to improve student behavior, according to a study conducted by Morton this year. Districts that adopted four-day weeks experienced larger decreases in bullying and fighting rates over time, 39% and 31%, respectively.

Some worry that the schedule poses a challenge to working parents, who may be unable to find affordable childcare on the fifth day. In most districts Morton studied in Oklahoma and New Mexico, that was not a major concern parents had, she said.

“The major employers in these districts often included the school district itself and other industries that have shift-based schedules (e.g., dairies and oil), such that many of the adults in the community were not on a traditional 9-5 Monday-Friday schedule in the first place,” she said. “Many of the families also had multiple generations and/or relatives living in the same community or a nearby community and had at least one adult who could provide childcare on the day off.”

Students from low-income households may miss out on school meal programs, health services and social support they rely on, experts say.

“One thing that’s always on my mind is that, for some students, school is the best or safest place they get to be all week, with access to trusted adults and food,” Morton said. “We cannot forget all of the functions that schools play in many students’ lives and that taking away one day/week may impact students’ lives in myriad ways beyond test scores.”

What students do with the unsupervised time is another common concern, along with the risk of exposure to unsafe conditions at home or in their community. A 2018 study conducted in Colorado found that the implementation of the four-day school week in rural areas led to a 20% increase in juvenile crime.

“With this unsupervised, unrestricted time you’re not engaging in learning activities, it’s possible that you are engaging in things that aren’t productive, and maybe even detrimental to your own health and well-being,” Thompson said.

The consensus: whether a four-day week is right for an area depends on the priorities of the district, families, and students, and the reason they adopted the schedule.

“That will be something to kind of see with these new adoptions in Texas, whether or not this is just kind of a short-term thing to kind of help alleviate teacher burnout, similar to things that we saw during the Great Recession, with some schools making a very quick switch to the four-day school week just trying to save money, and then switching back to the five-day model over the long term,” Thompson said. “It’s possible that schools end up really liking this, and teachers really like it as well, and we might see this kind of more wholesale shift in terms of education and how it’s structured in Texas.”