Four Day School Week Gains Nationwide Momentum
Amidst slumping test scores and a shrinking budget school officials are doing whatever it takes to create a better educational environment for our children, even if it means shortening their school week.
About 120 schools across the U.S have begun a Tuesday through Friday schedule that is not only meant to save money, but also bring up test scores. However, a shorter school week does not make for a shorter year.
The four days that students are in school are slightly longer and more packed with classes and activities. Superintendent Susan Clark of Peach County Georgia states since they began the four-week schedule attendance has gone up “for both students and teachers and the district is spending one-third of what it once did on substitute teachers”.
Experts say research is minimal on the effect a four day school week may have 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.
Although many districts who have switched to the new plan say their students are less tired and more focused some would have to disagree.
Marlow, Oklahoma’s school district is switching back to a five day a week schedule because administrators feel they did not save a substantial amount of money and it did not benefit their students enough to keep the plan. “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.”
From California to Minnesota to New York, districts — of mostly small, rural towns with less than 5,000 students — they’re all following the trend, hoping to rescue their bleeding budgets
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1 Comment for “Four Day School Week Gains Nationwide Momentum”
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Interesting. Does no one think to question the salaries of the legislators of these states, their exorbitant benefits and lifestyles – not to mention that of their staffs? Does no one in journalism have the guts to sit down with an appropriations bill and actually READ it to find out the truth of our states’ bloated budgets? Does anyone stop to question that it just might benefit the powers that be to continue to dumb down our populace with the rapidly declining public school system (heck it leads to a more easily controlled population … “tea party” anyone?)?
In the words of President John F. Kennedy “A child miseducated is a child lost.” Too many of our nation’s children are lost. The US as a nation is looking increasingly buffoonish to the rest of the world.