by Stuart Singer, The Teacher Leader
On August 31 “NBC Nightly News” Brian Williams moved into a commercial break with a tease of his next segment. “As more and more school districts are moving to a four-day week, parents are asking, ‘What are we supposed to do with our kids on that extra day?’.” While enduring two minutes of upbeat advertising for medications to lessen the impact of a variety of hideous diseases, I was extremely upset. “Good grief, the school week is being cut to four days and the number one parental concern is daycare,” I thought to myself.
When the actual story unfolded it quickly became apparent that it would exceed my worst fears. The actual focus of the piece was a series of comments by educators praising the benefits of the abbreviated school week. A principal at an Oregon high school explained that due to budget problems the district had moved to four longer days of school in lieu of the traditional five-day week. He was quick to point out that the students would be in school the same number of hours and not to fear that any taxpayer money was being wasted teachers were required to come to work on Fridays to do planning. He then began to explain how student performance was improving under the new plan. “It’s a paradox, less is more, less is more for these kids’ learning.” The piece continued with several more references to how this seemingly contradictory set of circumstances was a positive for the students in the system. In another school system preparing to move to the shortened week, an educational leader explained that this change was not about saving money but rather improving education.
A defiance of logic and reason
Perhaps these folks have never heard of the “Hawthorne Effect” where individuals tend to improve their immediate performances as the result of increased attention or change whether it is positive or negative. Arguing that the addition of another day away from school will result in improved academic performance is ignoring the fundamentals. Assuming that these high schools are on block scheduling (if not imagine an adolescent taking seven classes every day over a ten-hour period) the four-day week would have the typical student taking a math course on Monday and Wednesday and then setting that curriculum aside until five days later on the next Monday. Throw in a holiday and there will be nearly a week between classes. The same problems would exist for any discipline requiring retention of skills such as foreign language or music.
There would be equal problems for after school activities. Picture trying to whip a marching band into shape after a school day that has lasted from 7:30 in the morning until 5:30 that evening? Would dinner be served before or after rehearsal?
Research shows that human beings have limited attention spans. For teenagers those numbers can usually be cut in half. Going back to that class schedule, how academically effective would an extra 25 minutes be in those 115-minute blocks? And who would want to be teaching osmosis or how a bill becomes a law in hours nine and ten of that elongated school day?
Finally, the principal in the story announced that attendance at his school had also improved. That can happen when you reduce the number of days by 20%.
The much bigger question
There is absolutely no reason to believe that the financial circumstances facing states and communities are going to improve in the near future. More and more difficult budget decisions are going to be required. If the past is any indication, much of that burden will be placed on education. Such a course of action is wrong; making arguments that it will make learning better is worse. The current unemployment numbers reveal the folly of this approach. The correlation between employment and education is clear. Individuals without a high school diploma are three times as likely to be jobless than someone with a degree. The core problem in this country is not a lack of work; it is a lack of appropriately trained workers.
Taking the wrong path
To perfect one’s serve in tennis which approach would be better—practicing one hour a day, seven days a week or just hit the ball for seven hours on Monday and take the next six days off? The better path is obvious. Those folks in Oregon and the more than 100 other communities that have moved to a four-day week seem to believe that the truncated school week is a model for improving their schools. It is not.