New 4-day School Week Research Suggests Significant Negative Effects in Student Achievement

As Platte Canyon School District (PCSD) moves the 4-day school week discussion forward, current studies are providing quantitative data on student achievement and growth. There is a new scientific study available from Brown University published August 2022 providing stunning information see here. The introduction reports this: "We estimate significant negative effects of the schedule on spring reading achievement (-0.07 SD) and fall-to-spring achievement gains in math and reading (-0.06 SD in both). The negative effects of the schedule are disproportionately larger in non-rural schools than rural schools and for female students, and they may grow over time." The study also provides this information "The results show that the magnitudes of the negative effects of the four-day school week generally increase (or at least hold steady) over time, with larger negative effects of the schedule observed in each of the years following implementation than the first year for all specifications."

PCSD provided parents several dated studies through their Husky Update September 19, 2022 v.1,2 and 3. The first of these resources is a recent article on employees desiring a 4 day work week . Two others are student dissertations from 2018 and 2019 involving the perception of teacher retention. Many of the cited works in the dissertations are dated or no longer available. The last study provided (other than studies PACE has already provided) was this study dated 2017 , concerning academic performance, food insecurity and juvenile crime. Their impact analysis states this: "An extensive review of literature on student academic performance, food insecurity and juvenile crime was mostly inconclusive or did not reveal any clear-cut evidence to identify effects of the four-day school week on student outcomes."

The Board of Education (BOE) has stated their main reason to consider a 4-day school week is to recruit and retain teachers. PCSD's turnover rate has been on a general decline since FY18. The two other districts that share our BOCES services have been in 4 -day weeks since 2001 have seen a reduction in their turnover rate. YET the average of turnovers by school over the last 20 years is about the same with Park County RE-2 (4day) at 20.13%, Platte Canyon at 19.98% and Gilpin County (4day) at 18.83%.

Current districts* have not been as successful in their turnovers and have achieved greater turnovers than before they started the 4-day week. Highlighted years are 4-day school week implementation years.

They say perception is everything. PCSD has 190 students open enroll to the adjacent Jefferson County School District on a perception of a more relevant, better education. Which perception should PCSD consider the perception of retaining teachers, or on the reality that almost 25% of our student population is leaving for a better education.

*These districts were chosen based on proximity, likeness in enrollment, the Board used the district as an example, it was cited in a dissertation.

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