Four-day school week ideal for kids?

Shortening the school week to four days has a positive impact on elementary school students’ academic performance in mathematics

The study, published in the journal Education, Finance and Policy in July, analysed the impact of a four-day school week on student achievement by comparing fourth-grade reading and fifth-grade math test scores from the Colorado Student Assessment Program (CSAP) for students who participated in a four-day school week, versus those who attended a traditional five-day school week.

Better math scores

The researchers found a four-day school week had a significant impact on math scores for fifth-grade students, while reading scores were not affected.

The study suggests there is little evidence that moving to a four-day week compromises student academic achievement, an important finding for US school districts seeking ways to cut costs without hampering student achievement. “What interested me about our results is they were completely opposite to what we anticipated,” said Mary Beth Walker, dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State.

“We thought that for the younger kids, longer days on a shorter school week would hurt their academic performance because their attention spans are shorter. A longer weekend would give them the opportunity to forget what they had learned.”

Source | Asian Age | 1 September 2015