Only a Matter of Time
Op-Ed by Kenley Stevens
Four-day school weeks are being applied all over the country. First implemented in 1931, students would take their core classes during the first four days of the week, and the fifth would be dedicated to extracurricular activities. It was intended to separate academics from activities, whereas nowadays the shortened week is applied to save costs and to benefit students and teachers. Since 2003, support for the four-day week has more than doubled, going from around 25% to 53% in favor as of 2023. Despite its popularity, it has not accomplished any of these modern goals profitably. The four-day school week has numerous drawbacks that question whether the benefits are worth the switch.
There are frightening academic downsides due to the four-day school week. Scores on standardized tests were documented to drop in math; however, reading scores were found to be affected the most. The majority of students’ grades drop. The crammed schedule has substantial negative effects that translate to one-fourth of a year’s knowledge lost overall. If the students have a shortened schedule when they are young, it can ensure that they will be behind where they should be, which can hurt them throughout their entire career as students. It can hinder students’ success in college because they lack knowledge from being mentally overloaded, or they did not learn the material at all.
The teachers usually prefer the shortened schedule because of its benefits to the staff. There is increased time for lesson planning, professional development, and personal well-being. Two-thirds of teachers and school staff polled said that if they received a job offer from a school with this altered schedule, they would be more willing to take it. It can be a good incentive to draw teachers to your school if you have difficulty maintaining a full teaching staff, but at the price of compromising the quality of the students’ education.. There has been controversy with this schedule between the teachers and the district leaders. The district leaders, such as the superintendent, are less convinced than the teachers due to more analysis of the statistics, such as negative academic impact and public support, seeing the issues with the four-day school week. Is accommodating these problems worth lowering the value of education for the students? Questions like this are being asked throughout administrations.
The consolidated schedule may have a destructive effect on the mental health of students as well. There would have to be an additional 50-85 minutes annexed to the day. The longer days leave less time to rest, especially if the student participates in extracurricular activities. Sports and other activities are pushed to the weekend to accommodate the lengthened school days, which fills their free time and leaves less opportunity for rest from their week. Sports going late at night and taking up the long weekend can lead to burnout, causing students' academic performance to suffer. If extracurriculars occupy a school day, students have a hard time catching up because of the copious amounts of material covered. Consequently, the extra free day is spent catching up on assignments from the crammed week instead of recovering from the expanded days. Sports going late at night and taking up the long weekend can lead to burnout, and the students' academic performance may suffer. For the younger students, this long weekend can lead to forgetting what they learned during the short week. This can cause teachers to spend their valuable time reviewing what they taught just the week before, wasting what time they saved.
One of the main reasons for the four-day week changeover is its cost-saving benefits. The Great Recession sparked the idea of using four-day school weeks as a cost-saving maneuver. Many rural districts with a tight budget have switched, but the cost reduction is not worth it for the majority of schools. About .4- 2% is saved because of the four-day school weeks, which is next to nothing. The amenities not in use would be transportation, such as buses, and possibly electricity, depending on whether the school decides to keep the school open on the discarded day for teachers. The bulk of a school's budget goes to teachers' salaries, so there may have to be lay-offs before any real money is saved. This would defeat one of the greatest purposes of the four-day school week, which is to attract teachers.
Even though the school may be saving money, parents will not be if the four-day schedule is employed. Childcare is extremely expensive, and some parents are forced to find alternative childcare, which can be an extreme financial burden. Nearly one in five students in the US lives in households without adequate food. Some students rely on the in-school meals, so if the fifth day is discarded, that's a whole day of food the parents and students have to plan for and afford. Older students are likely left to their own devices if their parents have to continue to work on Fridays, and that can possibly lead to increased crime or poor behavior in the youth of the community.
Some people may contend that the four-day school weeks are positive because of student and teacher well-being, but the longer days and crammed schedule may lead to burnout. The alternative schedule is also used as an incentive to hire teachers, but even if there are teachers, it does not mean that the students' academics will continue to be stable. The switchover has led to negative academic impacts in many cases. It could be helpful for families who enjoy traveling on the weekends, but that is not common for all households. Students would also have more pressure to finish their extra work during the school week so that they would be able to enjoy traveling that weekend, and as a result, they would eventually experience burnout.
The four-day school week’s advantages do not outweigh the losses. Between the negative academic impacts, destruction of mental health, or lack of cost savings, especially for parents, there is no plausible reason to switch to the four-day week. This alternative schedule is not useful and should not be implemented.