Do 4-day school weeks hurt Missouri students academically? Here's what report found

The number of Missouri districts adopting a four-day school week climbed steadily for a decade and spiked during the pandemic.

Nearly 170 districts — more than 30% in the state — now operate on the shorter week.

Until last year, the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education had not commissioned a large-scale study about what impact the alternative calendar had on student learning.

That inaugural report, made public Feb. 6 during a meeting of the state Board of Education, showed that operating on a four-day week in Missouri was neither helpful nor harmful academically.

As part of the presentation, researcher Amanda Weissman of the SAS Institute — which produced the report — noted the findings in Missouri were generally consistent with years of research conducted about four-day school weeks in 16 other states.

"Of all those studies, half of them have found no effect and half have found a very small negative effects," she said.

Board president Charlie Shields asked if the four-day school week "expanded the gap or narrowed the gap" for student subgroups who might, on average, lag behind peers academically.

"As a board, we are intensely interested in the equity issue," he said.

Shields was told the research did not drill down far enough to see if certain groups of students performed better or worse in the shorter week.

He said there was nothing in the report to suggest students, as a whole, were better off academically.

"The policymakers put this option in place. It will be the policymakers who have to review it and they are but I think the question, at the end of the day, that we can say and they need to understand is, it doesn't move us forward," he said. "It just keeps us level set and our goal should not be just level set."

The study looked at the types of districts making the switch through the 2021-22 year and noted many had demographic similarities. A look at students enrolled in four-day school weeks showed they were:

• More likely to be rural, white and eligible for free or reduced-price school meals, a national measure of poverty;

• Less likely to be in programs for gifted education or English language learners;

• Enrolled in districts with lower achievement and growth scores prior to adopting a four-day week.

"The students in the districts that adopt a four-day school week are not representative of all the students in Missouri, as a whole," Weissman said.

According to the study, schools that switched after the start of the pandemic were more likely to be located in towns rather than rural areas.

They were also more likely to include Hispanic, multiracial or foster students, or those eligible for special education and English language learner programs.

More: What sets Springfield schools apart? All 7 school board candidates give same answer

Early on, districts making the switch cited cost savings as a factor but the overwhelming majority said the impetus is to recruit and retain staff and to compete with neighboring districts that either pay better or already operate on the four-day week.

However, the study did not examine if districts on the truncated schedule were more effective at recruiting qualified teachers and staff or keeping experienced teachers in the classroom.

Questions about the popularity of the option have swirled in recent years, especially as the number and the size of districts making the switch started to grow.

Lisa Sireno, assistant commissioner for the Office of Quality Schools in DESE, said the four-day school week has been permitted since 2011.

"For most of the time since then, there have been some small increases in the number of schools from year to year until the pandemic years and then we started to see an increase," she said.

In early 2023, Missouri Commissioner of Education Margie Vandeven, who is stepping down this summer, said it gave her "great pause" to see so many districts switching to four-day weeks.

In announcing plans for the study, she said there were inherent challenges because districts have implemented the model in different ways. Some districts simply elongate the school day or length of the school year to satisfy the minimum classroom hours required annually.

There is also wide variation in how districts handle the fifth day, when class is not in session. Some are closed or offer child care to families while others provide tutoring or extra instruction to help students catch up or get ahead academically.

Jon Turner, an associate professor at Missouri State University who studies the four-day school week, said numerous studies in other states showed that districts that "protect instructional time" had no significant impact on their academic performance, as measured by standardized tests.

More: Annual report cards for Missouri schools released — here's how Ozarks districts scored

Turner said it was great to hear Vandeven acknowledge the same in Missouri.

"A lot of four-day school week districts have felt that they were under attack for making the decision or at least it was implied that it was not what was best for students' academic performance," said Turner, in an interview with the News-Leader after the board meeting. "This latest research from DESE reaffirmed other research."

The data used for the SAS Institute report was data that districts must report annually to DESE.

Turner questioned why it has taken so long for DESE to study this issue and noted the decision by larger districts, including Independence, to move to the four-day week has shined the spotlight on the issue.

"There were questions that were raised about how does this drive teacher retention and how does this drive other issues in education," he said.

"The state department of education holds all the date necessary to investigate these issues. I hope that they'll continue to take those next steps to dive even deeper into how this has impacted schools in Missouri."

Following the report Feb. 6, Vandeven said the decision to move to a four-day week is made at the local level. She said districts survey the communities they serve to see if the option is wanted and working.

She acknowledged there were a number of questions the report did not address.

"We all have questions but the question I would have for this board is to figure out what is the department of education's responsibility to explore various aspects," she said.

Southwest Missouri districts with four-day school weeks

A look at districts in the Springfield area, by county, that have adopted a four-day school week:

• Greene − Fair Grove, Walnut Grove;

• Christian − Chadwick, Billings, Clever, Spokane;

• Taney −Bradleyville, Taneyville, Forsyth, Kirbyville;

• Dade − Everton, Greenville;

• Lawrence − Aurora, Miller, Pierce City, Verona;

• Polk − Fair Play, Halfway, Marion C. Early, Pleasant Hope.

This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Report: Four-day school weeks don't 'harm' Missouri students' learning