So school is starting up again.
I know I can hear your groans from here.
Trust me I get it.
But did you know there are some schools where it’s always summer?
Well at least on friday.
Hey guys Julia here for DNews
As many schools across the country face major budget cuts, some turn to drastic measures.
A popular solution seems to be to simply cut a day off of the school week.
According to the Education Commission of the States, about 100 school districts across
the US use four-day weeks.
And it’s pretty big in Colorado.
Over a third of the school districts there have adopted a four-day schedule.
And it’s not a new idea by any means.
There are some countries that have traditionally had a four day week.
Like France, where Wednesday has been treated as the day for kids since 1972.
It’s a whole day where students participate in sports or other enrichment activities.
But recently, the government worried about how tired students might be with the longer
days.
So they’ve limited each school day and added Wednesday as a school day.
But back in the states it seems to be catching on.
The reasoning goes that schools will save money by cutting a day off on things like
busing, school meals and cutting energy usage.
But does it actually save money?
Well according to the same report by the ECS, actual savings range from 0.4 to 2.5 percent
per year.
So it seems the benefits aren’t exactly financial, so what, if any, are there?
Well one recent study published in the journal Education, Finance and Policy found something
surprising.
After switching to a four-day school week, many school districts in Colorado found that
math scores actually went up a bit for 5th graders!
And reading scores… really didn’t change.
This surprised the researchers, they thought that missing a day of school would lower scores.
They 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.
Also, a longer weekend would give them more opportunity to forget what they had learned."”
Which is called academic loss, a phenomenon most noted when students go on summer holiday.
When they come back many teachers have to spend weeks reteaching old material.
When switching to a four day week, schools still have to meet hourly government mandates.
So the other four days of school are actually longer.
While some might gasp at a longer school day, turns out it might be a good thing for learning.
Longer school days the rest of the week means more time learning, going in depth and less
time rehashing old topics from the day before.
And according to Jimmy Linderman, superintendent of the Chattooga County School District in
Georgia, shorter school week means kids are more rested and less rambunctious at school.
Since switching to a shorter week, they’ve seen a decrease of over 70% of discipline
referrals.
And as for the day off?
Whether ballet or soccer or tutoring, the extra day means more time to spend on extra
curriculars and other enrichment activities.
Unfortunately it might not be a boon to all kids.
Low income student might miss that extra day of enrichment and even could wind up missing
meals that the school normally provides.
And maybe it wasn’t so much a boost to student’s performance, but to the teacher’s.
Some schools like Sage International, a charter school in Boise use that day off, not to shut
down the school and save on energy costs, but rather to keep the school open for the
teachers.
They use that extra day as an in-service day for teacher training.
They can spend the day learning new tricks of the trade and swapping classroom success
stories.
But even for teachers who treat the Friday off as a long weekend, there’s still a boost
in morale.
Just like in many tech companies, like Treehouse who instituted a four-day work week, who’ve
claimed higher employee morale and greater focus.
And that’s what one of the authors of the that study think.
They believe that teachers “were so enthusiastic about the four-day week--they did a better
job.”
A shorter school week sure sounds like a dream!
But does the extra time off actually help to ease your stress?
Check out this DNews episode that suggests that it might do the opposite.
So what do you think?
Would you like a shorter school week?
Even if it means longer school days?
Debate down in the comments below