Abstract
Although the four-day school week originated in 1936, it was not widely implemented until 1973 when there was a need to conserve energy and reduce operating costs. This study investigated how achievement tests scores of schools with a four-day school week compared with schools with a traditional five-day school week. The study focused on student performance in Colorado where 62 school districts operated a four-day school week. The results of the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) were utilized to examine student performance in reading, writing, and mathematics in grades 3 through 10. While the mean test scores for five-day week schools exceeded those of four-day week schools in 11 of the 12 test comparisons, the differences were slight, with only one area revealing a statistically significant difference. This study concludes that decisions to change to the four-day week should be for reasons other than student academic performance.
Highlights
Johnson and Strange (2009) reported that 10,572,790 US public school students (19%) attend school in a rural school district. Howley, Theobald, and Howley (2005) claimed that the mainstream of society often believes that rural schools are, by their very nature, ineffective
In an era marked by a drive to increase the number of days and the lengthen the school year, there is a group of primarily rural school districts in several states that are operating contrary to the trend by decreasing the number of days that students attend school, from the traditional five days per week model to a four-day school week (Yarbrough & Gilman, 2006)
This study focused on student academic performance in reading, writing, and mathematics at the elementary, middle and high school levels to investigate if a four-day school week affected student performance
Summary
Johnson and Strange (2009) reported that 10,572,790 US public school students (19%) attend school in a rural school district. Howley, Theobald, and Howley (2005) claimed that the mainstream of society often believes that rural schools are, by their very nature, ineffective. Many times the innovations implemented in rural schools do not get a great deal of publicity One such innovation embraced primarily by rural schools is the four-day school week. The highly popular and widely touted Knowledge is Power Program (KIPP) (http://www.kipp.org) charter schools have implemented a school day that runs from 7:30 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. each day (Henig, 2008). This longer day is combined with a school year that requires students to attend every other Saturday and for three weeks during the summer. The focus of this study is on the educational impacts of the four-day school week to explore its impact on student achievement in rural schools
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