FYI Four Day School Week

Last week’s adoption of a four day school week has caused a wave of emotion to flow through many Chattooga County citizens. Many citizens are excited to try an "out of the box" method of solving some economic woes threatening jobs and programs while many are skeptical about the four day week feeling that it could be the catalyst for more problems to come for the school system. Below is a compilation of articles regarding the benefits of a four day school week. If you are seeking information about the four day week you can use these tools as insight to how the four day schedule has worked in other parts of the country. The first article is from a school in Georgia and cites Peach County which is the system that spurred the Chattooga County School Board’s initial investigation into making the move to the four day week.

FORT VALLEY, Ga. (AP) — During the school year, Mondays in this rural Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma’s house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center.

Don’t bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off.

Peach County is one of more than 120 school districts across the country where students attend school just four days a week, a cost-saving tactic gaining popularity among cash-strapped districts struggling to make ends meet. The 4,000-student district started shaving a day off its weekly school calendar last year to help fill a $1 million budget shortfall.

It was that or lay off 39 teachers the week before school started, said Superintendent Susan Clark.

"We’re treading water," Clark said as she stood outside the headquarters of her seven-school district. "There was nothing else for us to do."

The results? Test scores went up.

So did attendance — for both students and teachers. The district is spending one-third of what it once did on substitute teachers, Clark said.

And the graduation rate likely will be more than 80 percent for the first time in years, Clark said.

The four days that students are in school are slightly longer and more crowded with classes and activities. After school, students can get tutoring in subjects where they’re struggling.

On their off day, students who don’t have other options attend "Monday care" at area churches and the local Boys & Girls Club, where tutors are also available to help with homework. The programs generally cost a few dollars a day per student.

Experts say research is scant on the effect of a four-day school week on student performance. In fact, there is mostly just anecdotal evidence in reports on the trend with little scientific data to back up what many districts say, said University of Southern Maine researcher Christine Donis-Keller.

"The broadest conclusion you can draw is that it doesn’t hurt academics," said Donis-Keller, who is with the university’s Center for Education Policy, Applied Research and Evaluation.

Many districts that have the shortened schedule say they’ve seen students who are less tired and more focused, which has helped raise test scores and attendance. But others say that not only did they not save a substantial amount of money by being off an extra day, they also saw students struggle because they weren’t in class enough and didn’t have enough contact with teachers.

The school district in Marlow, Okla., is switching back to a five-day week after administrators decided students were not being served well by attending school only four days. The 440-student district tried the shorter week the spring semester this year to save $25,000 in operation costs.

"It was harder on the teachers. We were asking the kids to move at a quicker pace," said district Superintendent Bennie Newton. "We’re hoping the four-day week won’t come into play next year."

The move by Peach County in Georgia gets mixed reviews.

Parents like Heather Bradshaw worry that their children are getting shortchanged on time with teachers.

"I don’t feel like they’re having the necessary time in the classroom," said Bradshaw, a single mother with a fourth-grade son at one of the county’s three elementary schools. "The schedule has slowed him down."

Other parents prefer the shorter schedule and don’t mind the hassle of finding a babysitter one day a week.

"It makes the children’s weekend a little better, so they get more rest," said LaKeisha Johnson, who sends her fourth-grade daughter to the Boys & Girls Club on Mondays.

The trend of four-day school weeks started in New Mexico during the oil crisis of the 1970s and has been popular in rural states where students have to commute a long way. Other districts have used it as a way to try to fix schools with a long history of poor student performance by shaking up the schedule and giving children more time to study outside of school.

Georgia, Oklahoma and Maine have changed their laws in the last couple of years to allow districts to count their school year by hours rather than days, allowing for a four-day week if needed. Hawaii schools were off every other Friday this year for schools to save money, giving them the state with the shortest school year in the country.

From California to Minnesota to New York, districts — mostly small, rural ones with less than 5,000 students — are following the trend, hoping to rescue their bleeding budgets.

For Peach County, the four-day week was enough of a success that the school district is trying it again next year, Clark said. The move saves $400,000 annually and is popular among teachers and students because they get extra rest, she said

"Teachers tell me they are much more focused because they’ve had time to prepare. They don’t have kids sleeping in class on Tuesday," she said. "Everything has taken on a laser-light focus."

The Principals’ Partnership

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A Program of Union Pacific Foundation

Research Brief

Four-day Week Schedule

Question: What does research say about the four-day week as an alternative school schedule?

Summary of Findings:

More than 100 districts in at least 12 states currently use a four-day week alternative schedule. Most are located in rural areas, serve less than 1000 students, and made the move to a shorter school week with longer instructional days for financial reasons.

Although four-day week schedules have been in place since the early 1980s, research about the effects of this non-traditional approach is very limited.

The studies that have been conducted confirm that a four-day week schedule saves money, primarily in the areas of transportation, energy, food service and substitute teacher expenses. Student and teacher attendance tend to increase when a four-day week is implemented. A number of districts cited fewer disruptions of instructional time and increased on-task behavior by students as benefits. Despite these benefits, the literature indicates that the change to a four-day schedule rarely increased student

achievement. On the plus side, the shortened week had no adverse affect on achievement over time.

For the most part, parents, teachers and students expressed positive feelings about the four-day week schedule, but some negative perceptions related to local implementation issues or circumstances were also cited. Other concerns included increased childcare demand on parents, primary-aged students’ ability to handle significantly longer school days, and a concern that shortening the school week appears inconsistent with school reform approaches that emphasize more time in school.

As economic and demographic conditions change across the country, more districts are considering the four-day week as an alternative school schedule. The following is a summary of implementation ideas and recommendations from the literature.

? Check your state’s law. Some states allow greater flexibility than others in establishing school calendars and schedules. Existing legislation may require a set number of days as well as hours of instruction during the school year.

? Confirm that the proposed changes meet accreditation requirements and contract obligations.

? Examine what has been done in other districts and spend time discussing the implications of changing to a four-day week schedule in your setting. Districts that successfully made the change involved teachers, support staff, students and the

community in the decision-making process. Widespread participation will help identify and resolve potential problems.

? Identify the curriculum and instructional modifications that will be required to take advantage of longer school days. Involve teachers in this process to help them prepare for the changes.

? Develop a plan for monitoring the effects of the change once the new schedule is in place. Frequent measures that provide feedback to principals, teachers, and parents are more effective than year-end evaluations.

? Keep lines of communication open between administrators, teachers, students, parents and members of the community.

Online Resources:

Four Day School Week

The Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory summarized the research on four-day week school schedules conducted through the early 1990’s. This Web page is part of a larger report on alternative schedules. Examples of districts that have adopted the four day week schedule can be accessed by navigating through the report.

http://www.nwrel.org/request/feb97/article4.html

The Principals’ Partnership

http://www.principalspartnership.com/

A Program of Union Pacific Foundation

Research Brief

The Four-Day School Week

This article provides an excellent overview of the issues involved in implementing a four-day schedule and includes details about

the experience in rural New Mexico and other states.

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0JSD/is_3_56/ai_77204690

4 Days a Week

An article published in the American School Board Journal described how the four-day schedule was implemented in Webster

County School District in Kentucky. The article includes a list of recommendations for others considering this approach.

http://www.asbj.com/2006/03/0306asbjyarbrough.pdf

The 4 Day School Week

This short but informative current status report published by the Colorado Department of Education contains contact information for all of the districts in the state using the four-day week schedule.

http://www.cde.state.co.us/cdeedserv/download/pdf/4dayweek04.pdf

Some Specific Examples

Webster County School District, Kentucky

The link to the 4 day week rationale provides summary information about the planning process and results obtained to date. The

Web site was undergoing changes so the video link was inactive at the time this research brief was written.

http://www.webster.k12.ky.us/About/4DaySchoolWeek/tabid/58/Default.aspx

Custer School District, South Dakota

Background information, rationale, examples of school schedules, and other information prepared for the educational community

when the four-day week was implemented in 2003-04 are available at this site.

http://www.hssd.k12.sd.us/4day.htm

School District 64, British Colombia, Canada

In addition to a description of the current schedule, this site contains very specific information about the planning process and

includes access to the minutes of the implementation committee. The archive for 2004-05 shows how the district identified and

dealt with concerns about the pending change.

http://www.sd64.bc.ca/4day.html

Submitted Date: 5/25/2007 By: Gary E. Marx, Eastern Michigan University

http://www.principalspartnership.com/

This is provided as a service to educators by The Principals Partnership and Union Pacific Foundation, neither of which assumes any responsibility for the content

of the brief or the positions taken by the authors or the Web sites or other authors whose works are included. This research brief reflects information currently

available and is not the official position of The Principals Partnership or Union Pacific Foundation.

Disclaimer: All URLs listed in this site have been tested for accuracy, and contents of Web sites examined for quality, at the time of addition. Content accuracy and appropriateness, however, cannot be guaranteed over time as Web sites and their contents change constantly. The author takes no responsibility for difficulties which may result from the use of any Web site listed herein. Please notify the Webmaster if you find any dead links or inappropriate material.

Permission: You may use or download content for research or educational purposes, or for your personal, noncommercial purposes, provided you keep unchanged all copyright and other notices with them. No other use of any content is permitted. You agree that you will make only lawful use of this research brief, and will only use these briefs in compliance with all federal, state and local laws and regulations. You agree that you will make no use of the research that violates anyone else’s rights, including copyright, trademark, trade secret, right of privacy, right of publicity or othe

By Rebekah Kebede

NEW YORK | Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:31pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Facing a crippling increase in fuel costs, some rural U.S. schools are mulling a solution born of the ’70s oil crisis: a four-day week.

Cutting out one day of school has been the key to preserving educational programs and staff in parts of Kentucky, New Mexico and Minnesota, outweighing some parents’ concerns about finding day-care for the day off.

"For rural school districts where buses may travel 100 miles round-trip each day, there certainly are transportation savings worth considering," said Marc Egan, the director of federal affairs at the National School Boards Association. Egan said about 100 schools in as many as 16 states have already moved to a four-day school week, many to save money on transportation, heating and cooling.

Nevada’s White Pine School District switched just one of its schools to a four-day week three years ago. Now, with energy costs soaring, four other schools in the district are following suit. "We’re looking at it district-wide with energy costs being at the forefront of the conversation," said Bob Dolezal, superintendent of Nevada’s White Pine County School District, which is facing a 14 percent budget cut due to a shortfall in state funding.

MACCRAY Public Schools in Minnesota, which voted to switch to a four-day week in May, expects to shave 10 percent off transportation costs, which have risen unexpectedly in recent years as fuel costs have shot up.

"The savings for a four-day week just on the transportation alone were $65,000," said MACCRAY superintendent Greg Schmidt.

The plan initially did cause alarm among some parents, who were concerned about finding child-care, but most have managed to find place their kids in day care or with relatives, Schmidt said. In addition, MACCRAY plans to institute a child-care certification program for older students to offer day care for younger kids on the day off.

One of the pioneers of the four-day week, the Cimarron, New Mexico school district, is looking to cut energy costs by getting back to its roots.

Cimarron Public Schools moved a four-day week when energy prices shot up in the early 1970s, but has become more "complacent," letting the heating and cooling systems run even during the day off since the end of the OPEC oil embargo, Cimarron’s superintendent James Gallegos said.

With soaring energy costs, that will no longer be the case: "As we start the next school year, it’s going to be very minimal on the Fridays that we are off," Gallegos said.

Webster County School District in Kentucky switched to a four-day week four years ago under economic duress — a state budget crisis left the school in limbo, leaving the district with the option of dropping school days or cutting staff and programs.

The district ended up saving tens of thousands of dollars in fuel and energy costs, helping to cut total costs by 3.5 to 4 percent, said James Kemp, the superintendent of the Webster County School District.

The shortened week at Webster also brought unexpected benefits such as improved attendance and a boost in student performance.

"If we were to go back to a five-day week, the school board and I would be run out of town," Kemp said.

By Rebekah Kebede

NEW YORK | Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:31pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Facing a crippling increase in fuel costs, some rural U.S. schools are mulling a solution born of the ’70s oil crisis: a four-day week.

"The savings for a four-day week just on the transportation alone were $65,000," said MACCRAY superintendent Greg Schmidt.

One of the pioneers of the four-day week, the Cimarron, New Mexico school district, is looking to cut energy costs by getting back to its roots.

With soaring energy costs, that will no longer be the case: "As we start the next school year, it’s going to be very minimal on the Fridays that we are off," Gallegos said.

By Rebekah Kebede

NEW YORK | Thu Jul 24, 2008 2:31pm EDT

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Facing a crippling increase in fuel costs, some rural U.S. schools are mulling a solution born of the ’70s oil crisis: a four-day week.

"The savings for a four-day week just on the transportation alone were $65,000," said MACCRAY superintendent Greg Schmidt.

One of the pioneers of the four-day week, the Cimarron, New Mexico school district, is looking to cut energy costs by getting back to its roots.

With soaring energy costs, that will no longer be the case: "As we start the next school year, it’s going to be very minimal on the Fridays that we are off," Gallegos said.

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