Four-day school weeks bring benefits to students and unanticipated hurdles to some parents

Imagine a world where the weekend starts as soon as the last school bell rings on Thursday, and children use Fridays to broaden their horizons outside the classroom. 

That concept is already a reality for students in some school districts, as they dip their toes into the experimental shift. As workplaces continue to flirt with the idea of shaving off a day each week, some might wonder if the five-day school week is outdated as well.

But what's the actual rationale behind the change? 

Fox News Digital spoke to Melissa Loble, chief academic officer at the educational technology company Instructure, to gain insight on what she has heard from districts firsthand.

"The four-day school week, as I talk to districts, and I talk to teachers out there, where we're seeing some benefits is the ability to do other kinds of life experiences on that fifth day, so it could be a deeper focus on sports. It could be internships, it could be work study opportunities. It could be using that as a day to lean in on particular interest areas. Maybe you're entrepreneurial as a high school student, and you want to do these kinds of activities that create you as a more well-rounded a kid as you're thinking about where you want to go off to next," she said.

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That could be college or work, depending on the path each student decides to take. 

Loble, who has years of experience in education, says the confines of a classroom might not give students the most opportune setting to discover their passions and find out which role they want to pursue in life. Imagine, for instance, how different learning outcomes might be for students learning about government inside a civics classroom as opposed to getting real-world, hands-on experience while interning with a local congressional office or job shadowing someone in the field.

Writing for a newspaper – whether the school's own publication or one for the entire community – could give a student better insight into the ways writing skills learned in English classes can be applied in the real world. 

"It gives students time to do more group or independent work as well," Loble added.

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"So, you might notice whatever day that might be [when students are out of school], it gives you the chance to say, 'We're going to go do more collaborative work together and lean in on these projects, spend more time on the hands-on stuff as opposed to going from 30 to 40 minute classes and then doing homework every night."

Typically, schools shave Fridays off their schedules, but some have opted to cut Mondays instead, she noted.

Though Loble says districts haven't disclosed much data to offer a snapshot of the outcome, some may have shifted to the truncated school week to help mitigate extensive costs – think diesel for buses, air conditioning and heating or perhaps even additional water and electricity costs. 

The benefits come with their share of drawbacks, however.

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While some districts have asked kids to come to class for just four days per week, most parents still head to work on their child's day at home. This has created a hiccup for some families, Loble said, particularly those who lean on their child's school for more than just a space for learning.

"As I heard, there are challenges around certain areas where there's not as much flexibility for parents, and so it's struggling to find care or find activities and that schools need to have places on that fifth day [to let kids come in]. Let's say the parents can't be home or be structuring a safe environment, [and] there needs to be ways of districts to support that, so you can come to school on those days. You could go to the library and there could be study opportunities where they rotate volunteers or certain faculty or certain teachers."

Rural and lower-income areas may be more heavily impacted, especially if many children depend on school breakfasts or lunches to be fed at those mealtimes each day.

"There are families of parents that rely on kids being fed five days of the week from just their own resources or income, and they can't, so districts are finding that they need to still think about supplementing for those families that can not really leverage," Loble continued.

"I would say that's in some of the either rural districts where there's more emphasis on five-day blue-collar type work or it's in areas where there are larger populations of students that both parents work and there's not a lot of income in the family and school is really providing more than just school for them. It'll vary between the districts, but that's been one of the things that I don't think they [districts] planned, at least the few that I chatted with."

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Some school districts have opted to implement a four-day school week to attract educators, some reports say, particularly as an ongoing teacher shortage creates challenges for public schools across the nation, especially for smaller, rural schools.

However, many fear cutting back on instructional time may hinder student progress.

The outcomes are mixed, according to The Journalist's Resource, an outlet focused on covering academic studies.

"The impact on students, however, has not been as positive. Although peer-reviewed research on the topic is limited, focusing only on a single state or small group of states, there is evidence that some groups of students learn less on a four-day schedule than on a five-day schedule," the outlet said in a report published in 2018 and updated last year.

An analysis included in the piece suggested that reading progress fell for students attending class four days per week instead of five, at least across six states.

At the same time, however, data appeared to suggest the outcome largely depended on the group studied, as rural students saw little to no changes compared to others.

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