Once largely confined to remote rural schools with limited resources, more than 2,100 public schools in more than 850 school districts in 26 states are now following a truncated school week, according to a June 2024 analysis by Economics of Education Review.
Better work-life balance
Nampa School District Superintendent Gregg Russell says the Idaho school system has reduced costs, improved hiring, and reduced teacher absences since adopting a four-day schedule.
Facing roughly $5 million in lost revenue stemming from a legislative change in government funding, coupled with the loss of more than 2,000 students over the past decade, NSD closed some schools, redrew boundaries and considered adopting a four-day schedule to both reduce costs and help with teacher recruitment.
A year after implementing it, NSD Superintendent Gregg Russell says the four-day schedule has helped the district compete with other school systems offering higher salaries, going from more than a dozen staff vacancies before the schedule change to just one job opening by the start of the current school year.
“Every single school district I talked to said the four-day schedule was a positive change, and I was expecting at least one to say it wasn’t a good idea,” Russell says.
More flexibility
Of 178 school districts in Colorado, 140 are considered rural and 120 have fewer than 1,000 students. More than 100 of the state’s school systems follow the FDSW schedule.
Mancos School District Superintendent Todd Cordrey says adopting a shorter week has helped with teacher recruitment and retention, despite the Colorado district's small size and lower salaries than neighboring school systems.
The Carlton School District (CSD) in Minnesota switched to a FDSW calendar for students for the current school year, requiring that teachers use the fifth day for lesson planning, meetings, professional learning and other activities.
Donita Stepan of the Carlton School District in Minnesota says a four-day schedule has been "transformational" for her teachers.
Being a small school system with just 300 students, CSD has regularly lost teachers to bigger school districts, but Stepan says the new schedule has been a talent-retention tool. While teachers can earn $15,000 more a year at a much larger school district only four miles away, one staffer told her recently that no one wants to leave their job because of the flexibility.
“Teacher recruitment and retention have always been an issue for us and something that we cared about when we did this,” Stepan says. “I feel very proud of the fact that I can be part of something that is so transformational for our teachers.”
The four-day schedule has also been a game changer for many CSD students. “That extra day allows our students to do other important things like medical appointments or sports, and for our high school students, to gain career certifications from the local community college in programs such as welding, nursing, law enforcement,” Stepan says. “It has been very beneficial for staff and students.”
Making the most of each minute
While the four school days are two hours longer, Superintendent Russell says Nampa teachers enjoy the new arrangement and have learned to make each minute count. They’re also more motivated to show up: 500 fewer substitutes were needed in the first semester than the previous school year. In addition, Russell says elementary school reading levels are a bit higher already.
About 100,000 Idaho students in 76 of the state’s 115 school districts began a four-day schedule this past fall, with NSD being the largest district to adopt the schedule. About 12,500 students attend 21 NSD schools.
Research still emerging
Research is still being conducted on the impacts of a four-day schedule, and the results found thus far have been mixed, particularly for non-rural school systems.
An analysis of student performance in Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Montana, North Dakota and Wyoming noted that FDSW students generally made less progress in reading than students who attended school five days a week. However, it also found little to no effect on rural students on average.
A 2021 research paper published in the journal Education Economics studying the impact of four-day weeks in Oregon cautioned, “School district officials considering these policies should be cognizant of other potential consequences,” including impacts on juvenile crime, health and risk behaviors, while acknowledging that “this is an area ripe for future research.”
In an effort to keep district leaders, policymakers and others informed as new research on the topic is conducted, the University of Oregon’s HEDCO Institute for Evidence-Based Educational Practice has established a Four-Day School Week Research Database that is regularly updated.
Bruce Shutan is a contributor to DATIA K12 and a freelance writer based in Portland, Oregon.