The Hot Springs School District is the latest to approve a plan to adopt a four-day school week starting next year, according to the Thermopolis Independent Record. It follows a trend that’s now worked its way into over half of Wyoming’s school districts. Of the state’s 48 school districts, 26 now have alternative schedules. But the model has pros and cons.
Wyoming Public Radio’s Melodie Edwards discussed those with the chair of the Wyoming State Board of Education Mark Mathern.
Editor’s Note: This conversation has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Mark Mathern: The Legislature said that the board should come up with some rules and regulations regarding alternative schedules, and we've seen schedules, everything from a four-day week to maybe partial days or something like that. But in the end, it's crucial – it's required – that the minimum number of hours are kept by the level of the school. So elementary, there has [to] be 900 hours of student contact time. Middle school, 950. And high school, 1,000.
Many of our students are involved in activities. We can have school on Friday, but if the basketball team and the wrestling team are gone, that's most of our boys or girls. That's just one example. I recently had a conversation with a retired school principal from a small school in Wyoming and her comment was that the parents were all for the idea, because many of them had children that were at the younger age and at the older age. They would often have to take their youngers out of school to go watch their olders play in the sport. Not only did you have the one who was in the activity gone, but you had the younger gone because the family needed to travel. When they went to a four-day week, for example, the whole family could attend.
Another concept that has come up is teachers and administrators are asking for time to spend with teachers around staff development.
The other one I've heard is a specific time to focus on any kind of deficits that a student might have. Maybe they're working Monday through Thursday in just regular class. On Friday then, students that are struggling or behind or need some additional support would come in in the morning on Friday, and there would be one-on-one time. Some people call it WIN time: “what I need” time.
Those are a few examples of things I've heard of why a district or a school might go to a four-day week.
Melodie Edwards: I know that one of the questions about it is, ‘Well, what do those folks who have small children, how do they go to work?’ Is that an additional cost for them to have to get childcare, especially when we're having such a shortage of childcare across Wyoming. Have you heard from any school districts where parents are worried about that?
MM: In my experience in education, I have heard of some districts that will actually offer some sort of daycare activity or make an arrangement. I know in a smaller town, it might be a little more difficult. But [they might] make an arrangement with, like, a Boys and Girls Club-type program or something like that, where there are special partnerships created for those days off where local agencies can assist.
ME: Another benefit is that this [four-day school week] is helping with teacher retention. I wonder if you can talk a little bit about how school districts might be choosing this option as a way to make sure that teachers stay around and why teachers might prefer a four-day week.
MM: I have not seen any data come back to the state board that says, because we've done this, we think our teachers are staying longer. As a matter of fact, from a research perspective, in terms of student achievement, the results are mixed. A four-day week or a five-day week, we're not necessarily seeing the type of expectations that the teachers in the schools are setting. As well as the parents, of course.
ME: I did come across one analysis – and it did include Wyoming – that looked at whether this affected student performance. It looked like, as you said, that it was kind of a mix, because it said that there was some effect on reading [and math] skills, but that that was mostly in larger towns. It didn't really affect achievement in rural communities.
MM: I don't know about that particular one, and quite frankly, my next question to you is going be: Did it improve them or did it make them worse? Because I don't know the difference. We know, for example, the lack of focused education in the summer has an impact on reading and math. We know that it's a negative impact. So we know that length of time is a detriment.
The other thing I would say is when a school or a school district moves to a four-day week, there are some staff development components that really need to be in place when one shifts from, let's say, a 60-minute block or a focus on reading. Let's say from, at the elementary, 90 minutes a day to 120 minutes a day. Because you don't have reading on Friday, there has to be, I think, a study or a conversation about how does learning look when one has an additional 30 minutes of time.
I'm a retired high school teacher. You can't just say, ‘Well, now instead of 20 minutes to do your homework for tomorrow, you now have 35 minutes or 40 minutes.’ That doesn't cut it. That doesn't take advantage of the fact that five lessons need to now be done in four days instead of five. It means there has to be variability. There has to be a change-up of what students are engaged in.
ME: I wonder if you can go into a little more detail about just what the state's guidance, maybe even rules, are around the school districts choosing an alternative schedule. What help is the state offering?
MM: They have to have a proposal. It has to have some educational goals and purposes in it. There has to be some sort of method to evaluate whether it's achieved its goals, and there has to be two publicly-advertised meetings. Part of it, from our perspective, is we want local districts to have the flexibility to educate the kids as they see beneficial to their community.
ME: It sounds like the way that you're interpreting the fact that this is becoming something that a lot of districts are adopting – that, to you, is looking like school districts are trying to reimagine school and being creative about what that's going to look like and trying things. So to you, it seems like, it's a good sign.
MM: I do think it's a good sign, in that they're looking for ways to engage students, and those ways require a rethinking of the traditional classroom. If the state board can help with that by providing ways to remove barriers around certain kinds of rules, we want to be helpful with that.
