Four-day school weeks bring benefits for students and unexpected hurdles for some parents

Imagine a world where the weekend starts as quickly as the last one school bell rings on Thursday, and children use Friday to expand their horizons beyond the classroom.

That concept is already a reality for students in some school districts as they dip their toes into the experimental shift. As workplaces continue to flirt with the idea of ​​shaving off a day every week, some may be wondering if the five-day school week is also becoming obsolete.

But what is the real reason behind the change?

Fox News Digital spoke with Melissa Loble, Chief Academic Officer at education technology company Instructure, to get insight into what she’s heard firsthand from districts.

“The four-day school week, as I talk to districts and to teachers out there, where we see some benefits is the opportunity to have other types of life experiences on that fifth day, so it can be a deeper experience.” focus on sports. It could be internships, it could be work and study opportunities. You can use that day to delve deeper into certain areas of interest. Maybe as a high school student you’re entrepreneurial and you want to do these kinds of activities that help you become a more well-rounded kid as you think about where you want to go,” she said.

MORE AND MORE SCHOOLS IN THE US ARE ADOPTING 4-DAY LEARNING WEEKS

As workplaces continue to flirt with the idea of ​​shaving off a day every week, some may be wondering if the five-day school week is also becoming obsolete. (iStock)

That could be college or work, depending on the path each student decides to take.

Loble, who has years of experience in education, says the confines of a classroom may not provide students with the most appropriate environment to explore their passions and figure out what role they want to pursue in life. For example, imagine how different the learning outcomes could be for students learning about government in a social studies class, as opposed to gaining hands-on experience through an internship at a local congressional office or shadowing someone in the field.

Writing for a newspaper – whether the school’s own publication or a community-wide newspaper – can give a student a better understanding of the ways in which the writing skills learned in English classes can be used in the real world are applied.

“It gives students time to do more group or independent work as well,” Loble added.

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“So you might notice whatever day that is (when students are not in school), it gives you an opportunity to say, ‘We’re going to collaborate more and join these projects, spend more time’ on the practical things, instead of taking 30- to 40-minute classes and then doing homework every night.”

Normally, schools eliminate Fridays from their schedules, but some have chosen to eliminate Mondays, she noted.

While Loble says districts haven’t released much data to provide a snapshot of the outcome, some may have turned to the shortened school week to help limit high costs — think diesel for buses, air conditioning and heating or perhaps even extra water and electricity costs.

However, the advantages also come with a number of disadvantages.

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On August 21, 2023, a school bus arrives at George Mason Elementary School in Alexandria, Virginia. Some school districts may have chosen to take a day out of the learning week to save on costs such as bus fuel or utilities. (Craig Hudson for The Washington Post via Getty Images)

While some districts have asked children to attend class only four days a week, most parents are still returning to work from home on their child’s day. This has created a problem for some families, Loble said, especially those who lean on their child’s school for more than just a space to learn.

“As I have heard, there are challenges in certain areas where there is not as much flexibility for parents, and so it is difficult to find care or activities and schools need to have places on that fifth day (to allow children in). Let’s say the parents can’t be home or structure a safe environment, (and) there needs to be ways for districts to support that so you can come to school on those days. You could go to the library and there could be study opportunities where they rotate volunteers or certain faculty or certain teachers.”

Rural and lower-income areas may be hit harder, especially if many children rely on school breakfasts or lunches provided at those meal times every day.

“There are families of parents who depend on their children being fed five days a week from just their own resources or income, and they can’t do that, so districts are finding that they still need to think about supplemental nutrition for those families that can’t really leverage that,” Loble continued.

“I would say that’s in some of the cases or rural districts where there is more emphasis on five-day blue-collar work, or in areas where there is a larger population of students where both parents work and there is not much income in the family and the school really offers them more than just school. It will vary by district, but that’s one of the things I don’t think they (the districts) have planned for, at least not the few I’ve talked to.”

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Some students rely on school meals for nutrition. (Ben Birchall/PA Images via Getty Images)

Some school districts have chosen to implement a four-day school week to attract teachers. say some reportsespecially as an ongoing teacher shortage creates challenges for public schools across the country, especially smaller, rural schools.

However, many worry that cutting instructional time could hinder students’ progress.

The results are mixed, according to The Journalist’s Resource, a journal that focuses on academic studies.

“However, the impact on students has not been so positive. Although peer-reviewed research on this topic is limited and focuses only on a single state or small group of states, there is evidence that some groups of students learn less at four levels. a five-day schedule than on a five-day schedule,” the outlet said in a report published in 2018 and updated last year.

An analysis in the piece suggested that reading progress dropped among the students who attended the class four days a week instead of five, at least in six states.

At the same time, however, the data seemed to suggest that the outcome depended largely on the group studied, as rural students saw little to no changes compared to others.

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