Is the four-day school week good for education?

Здесь благотворительность для храма

I think haveing no school for one day would be good for me. my dad lives at home. I like to go to school, but alot of the time its soooo boring. I heard some schools already have started a 4-day school week. pretty cool

lets get a few things down first.
1) if it goes to four day weeks, you'd have longer days, you wouldn't go into july
2) you wouldn't have to pay for all your equipment, though you might if you didn't witch and the district kept paying for five days
3) with a four day a week schedule, you mostly really only go about an hour and a half more than you did before, which is around 10-20 minutes more per period, you wouldn't notice it, and one more hour will not kill you. and there are way more benefits.

You get one more day of relaxation, another day to study, another day to do homework, or work on a project. I'm doing a paper on this and seeing some of these comments, its obvious who knows what they're talking about and who has only heard very little and is making it into extremes in their mind, or are just being... for lack of a better term, idiots. It saves the district money, it saves on valuable non-renewable resources, bringing the prices down hence saving everyone money. It helps the economy, for if people really DO need daycare, which, i find, most likely would not be the case. then they can pay high school students or daycare services who then spend the money and get it flowing through the economy. Less is MORE. Four-day school weeks are far more superior than five day school weeks. Less Stress, more money saved, better attitudes of students AND teachers, when i'm done writing this paper, I plan on sending it to the school board to try and get my district switched to a four day schedule.

Hello all,

Often times the rhetoric around the four-day school week is overwhelming. The common complaints are that parents will have to find child care or watch their children on the fifth day (usually Fridays), cooks and custodians will lose wages and that students will be in school less.

Although students attend school less days they can actually attend more hours. More and more districts across the United States are looking at the four-day week as a cost savings measure and finding out that the four-day week is actually better for students, staff and families.

There are multiple negative attributes that need to be addressed, and there are proven strategies to alleviate some of the negative effects of the four-day school week (i.e., fatigue for younger children; lack of child care on the fifth day; decrease in wages for classified support staff).

What is more important is that the four-day week has shown:

1. Academic achievement by students improved, or at worse, stayed the same.
2. Teacher attendance rates increase, decreasing the need for subsitutes, and increasing student achievement. Our district decrease teacher absenteeism rates by 21.8% of work hours available (not days)
3. Student discipline incidents decrease
4. Student absenteeism decreases
5. Student seat hours are increased
6. Staff morale improves, and teacher vitality is invigorated
7. Long weekends allow for additional time to complete major projects.

As a closure to this post, I would like to point out the most important change that improves education for students on a four-day week over a five-day week: Consistency.

On a five day week students are sent home constantly for teachers to do non-instructional tasks. These tasks include conferences, curriculum days, work days, grading days, inservice days and the like. Most often, districts result to the tactic of keeping teachers while students are sent home on half-days. This strategy decrease student attendance and engagement.

On a four-day week you have four days of school every week. If a holiday is on a Monday you go to school Tuesday through Friday. Instead of sending students home so teachers can do non-instructional tasks YOU BRING TEACHERS IN ON FRIDAYS!! :)

There is a tremendous amount of rhetoric involved with the evolution to a four-day week. Try to get the facts. You can go to either of the following websites for factual information:

www.kor-education.com

www.fourdayschoolweek.net

Review the facts and become knowledgeable - the four-day school week may be an option for your district (but it may not be). If you are looking at the four-day only to save money your are missing the boat.

Dr. K

dosky99@hotmail.com

I am surprised few people mentioned the impact the 4-day would have on working families...that would mean an extra day of families having to pay for some kind of child care or staying home from work.

Look, as a kid I probably would have loved having an extra day off from school, but that doesn't mean necessarily that it would be the best thing educationally.

If we tap into today's learners who have been called digital learners and have stated that they learn any where, any place, any pace, with the use of their technology, then who needs to limit it to 4 days? Results recently shared with the US Congress in the Speak Up (2010)research indicated that today's students are learning more OUTSIDE the classroom. The researchers called them "free agent learners" because they go and educate themselves using the internet, web 2.0 tools, cell phones etc.

In addition, the research done on online schools, have pointed to the fact that "seat time" isn't an accurate measure of how students learn. So why do we have to limit their "learning time" to days or hours at all? Why not measure it by how much they learn, and let them decide when they would like to learn? If we set standards that measure their learning, does it matter if they learn it in 12 years of school...or if they need to take 16 years, or can be done in 10 and can move to higher level education?

If we can combine what face to face schools do with how virtual schools measure learning, we could be moving our kids further and faster through the basics, and letting them focus on fields that interest them. And if we adapt the tools that students use as if attached to them, we'd have easy ways to measure what they are learning both inside and outside of school..

If there was any pedagogical idea behind cutting the fifth day of school - maybe it would be worth thinking about. But as I understood, the basic intention for this is just saving money!
So I ask: What's the worth of children and children's education in your country?
And: Did anyone look for alternatives as new, fuel saving schoolbusses? Modified architecture to save costs for airconditioning and/or lightning?
In Germany the first schools start to return to 6-day-school-week - but for pedagogical reasons!

at my school we are doing project cizten and our subject is a four day school week. it is the best idea and it can realy help with our money,we are realy going over our time that we have too go to school and we are still makeing up for our snow days still and we can also help our education go uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuupppppppppppppppppp.

I have relatives that teach in four day schools and they love it. The kids are better behaved and do better in their school work because they are getting more rest in the three days off and having more time to do their homework. The teachers are also less stressed and able to do their jobs well because they have time to grade papers, go to appointments, and rest! Being a teacher in today's society is VERY stressful! Having an extra day helps sooo much. We are NOT the babysitting facility like many parents think. Parents shouldn't rely on the school systems for somewhere for their kids to go. We educate not babysit!!

But if you have homework every day, then maybe the teachers could just have everything due in the following Monday. Then you have a little time in the evenings and a three-day weekend to do you homework!