Four Day School Week Analysis

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In contrast, some may argue that four-day school weeks would harm urban students’ grades and behavior. Not all studies that have been done over four-day school weeks have shown the same results. In the article, “Impacts of the Four-Day School Week on High School Achievement,” Paul N. Thompson and a few others share how four-day weeks affect students’ performance, attention, and on-time graduation. Studies show that “...high school math achievement is 0.09 standard deviations lower among four-day school week students compared to five-day students [...] we find non-rural four-day school week students have math test scores that are 0.125 standard deviations below that of non-rural five-day students” (Thompson et al. 528). The. While this study’s …show more content…
Furthermore, not many urban schools have implemented the four-day weeks, so there is not enough data to apply the results to all urban institutions. If more schools give the students more time to get acclimated to the shorter weeks, which is different from how they have operated their whole lives, then they may perform better. On the subject of behavior in students, some people believe that the extra day off will give children more time to make bad decisions unsupervised. In the article, “Four-Day School Weeks Lead to Jump in Student Crime,” Alison DeNisco reveals that crime rates increased upon changing to shorter weeks. The article reveals that “Areas where at least one high school adopted a four-day week experienced a 20 percent increase in juvenile crime offenses. Property crime rates rose by nearly 27 percent, and drug violations increased as well” (DeNisco 26). It is understood that the children may just use the extra day to procrastinate further and possibly misbehave. However, students will need time to adjust and learn how to use their time appropriately, as mentioned previously, but some schools have already taken the extra step for