Study finds lower math scores in high schools that switched to 4-day
school week

Date:
January 27, 2022
Source:
Oregon State University
Summary:
A recent study analyzing the impact of a shorter school week for
high schools found that 11th-grade students participating in a
four-day week performed worse on standardized math tests than
students who remained on five-day schedules.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A recent Oregon State University study analyzing the impact of a shorter
school week for high schools found that 11th-grade students participating
in a four- day week performed worse on standardized math tests than
students who remained on five-day schedules.


==========================================================================
The effect was amplified among students in non-rural schools and was
limited to math; no significant gap appeared in reading achievement
across different school-week schedules.

K-12 schools nationwide are increasingly moving to a four-day week as a
way to provide non-monetary incentives for teachers, adjust for students' extracurricular schedules or to cut district costs. As of the 2018-19
school year, 1,607 schools nationwide -- 1.2% of all K-12 schools --
had shifted to a four-day week. The loss of instruction time due to COVID-related closures has prompted more to consider how the school week
can best accommodate both students and teachers.

But the shift must be made thoughtfully to be effective, researchers say.

"These bigger cuts seem to be happening in non-rural areas that haven't
thought through all the details of implementation -- they may be
moving to four-day school for short-term reasons, like cost savings,"
said Paul Thompson, lead author on the study and a professor in OSU'S
College of Liberal Arts. "That's different from what we're seeing in
rural areas, where it's really a lifestyle choice for these schools, and they've thought a lot about how they should structure their schedule."
Oregon has the fourth-highest number of schools on a four-day week in
the country, with 137 schools across 80 districts opting for the shorter
school week, or roughly 11% of the more than 1,200 K-12 schools in the
state. The majority of these schools are in rural areas, particularly
in Eastern Oregon.



========================================================================== Thompson's previous research has looked at the effects of the four-day
week on elementary and middle school students as well as districts as a
whole, but this is the first time he has focused solely on high school students.

Using data on 341,390 high schoolers from 2005-2019, the current study
found 11th grade math achievement scores among four-day school week
students to be slightly lower than the overall average. Furthermore,
among only four-day students, those in non-rural areas performed slightly
worse than those in rural areas. The study controlled for non-schedule
factors that influence school achievement scores to more closely gauge
the impact of the four-day week.

In high school, especially high school math, Thompson theorized that
the more rigorous material means it's harder for parents to make up for
lost classroom instruction time at home than it was in elementary or
middle school.

"It's much easier to help with addition and subtraction than to help
with algebra and calculus," he said.

In rural school districts that have moved to the four-day week, Thompson's research has found that schools are more likely to make the schedule
switch to minimize absenteeism caused by students traveling for sports
or other activities, rather than as a cost-saving measure. School days
run a bit longer, from 7:45 or 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., and on the non-school
weekday, schools are more likely to offer enrichment activities that
help supplement lost instruction time.



========================================================================== Conversely, schools switching to a four-day week to save money don't
typically extend the school day or offer enrichment on the non-school day because that does not result in cost savings or reduce teacher stress,
so there is no mechanism to make up for lost instructional time.

"The school districts driving these achievement differences are the ones
that have really low levels of instructional time," Thompson said. "That's something schools have to reckon with in the pandemic, as well: How can
we maintain instructional time in the absence of in-person learning?"
He hopes that some of the technology-driven flexibility that has come
from the pandemic may be employed to boost instruction time in schools
that move to four-day weeks without any enhanced enrichment opportunities.

"With technological advancements, asynchronous teaching could be a
substitute for in-seat time. It may be an imperfect substitute, but it
would be better than nothing else," he said.

The study also looked at absenteeism, often cited by schools as a
reason to move to a four-day week. But the results show that chronic absenteeism rates actually increased in many four-day week schools,
especially in non-rural districts. This is partly because the shortened
school year means it takes fewer absences to meet the "chronic" baseline
of 10% absenteeism, but also may be due to students using the non-school weekday for jobs or college courses that end up taking them away from
regular school days, as well, the authors hypothesized.

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always get wrong about diet and exercise. Claim_yours_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Oregon_State_University. Original
written by Molly Rosbach. Note: Content may be edited for style and
length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Paul N. Thompson, Emily J. Tomayko, Katherine B. Gunter, John
Schuna.

Impacts of the four-day school week on high school achievement
and educational engagement. Education Economics, 2021; 1 DOI:
10.1080/ 09645292.2021.2006610 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/01/220127172629.htm

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