Alice Lin, Lina Hsu

As the name suggests, a 4-day school week is when there are four days of school instead of having five per week.

Even as most schools continue to follow the traditional 5-day school week, every day more schools are transitioning to a new 4-day school week, especially in rural and western parts of the United States. The main reason why schools are transitioning to a 4-day school week is to save money, increase teacher recruitment, and decrease the chances of teachers quitting their jobs. Also, schools have created schedules with classes for students struggling in certain areas. 

Superintendent Will Pierce from the 27J district north of Denver statesd that, “the district’s own surveys now show nearly 80% of parents and 85% of teachers support the schedule.” He also exclaimed, “Quality of life is what they’re reporting.”

You might be wondering—why we believe our school should transition into a 4-day school week. Wouldn’t it lower students’ grades? To avoid this problem, some schools have implemented longer hours. However, overall, schools with a 4-day school week averaged 58 fewer hours compared to a regular 5-day school week.

Moreover, according to a study funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that interviewed over 400 parents, teachers, administrators, and students in Idaho, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, and collected surveys from thousands of secondary schools and parents of elementary students in 36 districts, they surprisingly found out that there was no change in students attendance rates within a 4-day school week. Elementary students that have a 4-day school week also get more sleep and secondary students stated that they feel less tired compared to a 5-day school week and spend more time on homework, jobs, and hobbies. 

A 4-day school week may not be crucially needed for our school, but we think that it’s a new strategy that we could try to implement.