The Four Day School Week: Scheduling Effects

Abstract

Using a time-series design, the effects of variations in the scheduling of enrichment and skill learning activities were examined. A performance measure in reading indicated that children completed work under a schedule of clearly demarcated enrichment and skill learning activities. MASTERY OF essential skills, in reading and in arithmetic, is an appropriate goal for the early grades. Failure to develop proficiency in those basic skills invariably handicaps the individual in subsequent educational endeavors, in occupa tional procurement, and generally, in coping with his world. Educational critics (1, 2, 4), however, find sufficient cause to charge that the school's product is unacceptably substandard. Various solutions have been proposed to im prove the school's ouput. A good number of these have involved increasing the time students spend in educational activities, such as : beginning school at an earlier age ; educational television program ming, such as Sesame Street; after-school and summer school tutoring programs; and length ening the school day or the school year. While there may be merit in such proposals, the more of the same philosophy may not be the best answer. In fact, the current length and static nature of the school's schedule, both in terms of the school day and the school year, may interfere with the school's effectiveness. The no tion of filler activities which usually consist of educationally non-critical games and exercises de signed to help pass the student's time is a direct by-product of a fixed school day/week. The exist ence of necessary frequent filler activities may explain the phenomenon that Leonard (3) wrote of, that is, the difficulty that classroom visitors commonly find in determining the learning value or goals of the children's activities. When class room events that are essential to skill learning are not distinct from events directed toward en richment, both the teachers and students may not recognize the relative merits and importance of each. Another solution, quite in contrast to solutions that lengthen the school period, and in some ways similar to the auto industry's recent experimenta tion with an abbreviated work week, is the 4-day week. Industry has learned that re-scheduling work periods has significant effects on both ab senteeism and production. However, given the present conditions where the school serves not only as a place of learning but also as a day care center, an abbreviated school day, week, or year is clearly out of the question. To tamper with the school's second role would produce unwanted outrage. Yet, within the school's authority there exists the possibility of readjusting the use of time in the school day/week. Perhaps a good beginning would be to demarcate carefully the skill learning events and the luxurious enrichment events. Either strong concentrations of learning or strong concentrations of enrichment may produce a solu tion of a higher grade than produced when any one of these is diluted with the other. The result is a school whose philosophy is work hard?play hard. This study was performed to investigate the effects of such scheduling on school performance.