JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. – The state’s education department found four-day school weeks have little to no effect on academic achievement, according to a new report released Tuesday.
Roughly 30% of all Missouri school districts are only in session four days a week this year. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) said the shortened schedule is being used as a perk to hire and retain teachers but according to the new study, there’s no indication if it’s actually helping.
“If all schools go to four-day school weeks, is it still a recruitment and retention strategy for us and does it provide us great teachers for our kids,” DESE Commissioner Margie Vandeven said.
In a state that is suffering from a large shortage of educators, 168 districts have implemented a shortened week. That’s 25 more schools than last year and an increase of more than 100 schools in the last five years.
“When I’m in a community and they talk about four-day weeks, I rarely ever hear them start with this is better for students,” State Board of Education member Don Claycomb said. “I think this is one where we have barely scratched the surface.”
He’s referring to a new study released by the SAS Institute, which was hired by the department to study the effect four-day school weeks have on students. Amanda Weissman with the SAS Institute told the board on Tuesday that the study found the shortened week neither helpful nor harmful.
“We found that there is no effect of switching to a four-day school week on student achievement or building level growth,” Weissman said. “I would like to emphasize that these results tell us what is happening; they do not tell us why it is happening.”
She said more than a dozen states have researched the impacts of a shortened week and Missouri falls in line with the findings. The SAS Institute used data to measure student achievement and building growth from 2011 through the 2021–2022 school year. The data included standardized test results for third through eighth grades and end-of-course tests for high school students.
Last year, the Independence School District, just outside of Kansas City, voted to implement a four-day week. With nearly 14,000 students, it’s the largest district so far to make the switch.
“The districts who adopted a four-day school week after the pandemic began were less likely to be rural,” Weissman said. “That was by far the largest meaningful difference that we found in the data.”
Four-day school weeks were approved by the General Assembly more than a decade ago to help schools save money after the recession. While the study did not look specifically at the financial impact four-day weeks have on schools, studies from other states haven’t found a shortened week to be a cost savings.
With Missouri being a local control state, districts can make this decision on their own without approval from DESE. A concern from stakeholders is that districts are getting feedback from their communities before making the switch and instructional time for students.
“It seems like where we’re at now, it would just appear that based on this research, it doesn’t do any harm but doesn’t do anything to advance student achievement,” State Board of Education president Charlie Shields said. “The theory is that if you go to a four-day school week, you’ll potentially have a higher percentage of certified teachers in the classroom and be able to recruit and retain.”
Districts that have implemented shortened weeks are still required to meet the same number of instructional hours as schools that hold five-day weeks. Currently, state law requires 1,044 hours in school.
Legislation has been filed this session that would require school districts to get approval from local voters to authorize a four-day school week.
Since lawmakers were the ones to put the shortened week option in state statute, Shields said it will be up to them to change the law.
“It’s the policymakers that will have to review it, which they are, but I think the question at the end of the day is they need to understand it doesn’t move us forward; it just keeps us level set,” Shields said.
According to the department, within the last two years, nearly a dozen schools have gone back to five-day weeks. One school in particular in southern Missouri now offers free daycare for staff members to support teachers instead of the four-day week.
