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** Weekly Update
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A newsletter from The Hechinger Report


Sponsored by:
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In this week's edition: Many rural districts consider four-day school weeks, but they might not work for student learning ([link removed]) . The College Board eliminates racial categories for its National Recognition Program awards ([link removed]) . New research on reading comprehension yields mixed results ([link removed]) .
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[Parent Jason Breckenridge, pictured here with his wife Megan, sued Montana’s Florence-Carlton school district over its plans to shift to a four-day school week. Credit: Sarah Mosquera for The Hechinger Report]


** More schools are adopting a 4-day school week. One Montana town tried to fight it

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Montana first allowed the four-day school week in 2005, replacing a requirement for a 180-day school year with a 1,080-hour minimum to allow for “greater flexibility in the school calendar.” A three-part study from the University of Montana painted a grim picture of the four-day school week’s outcomes for both students and their schools.

Based on student testing data from 2008 to 2023, the study found that student learning suffered in the four-day school week. At the elementary level, reading proficiency was lower in the four-day districts by as much as 7 percentage points. For math proficiency, it was a difference of up to 14 percentage points. Including one-room schoolhouses, only 11 of the 141 four-day districts examined performed above the state averages or were improving academically.

The Montana Office of Public Instruction commissioned the study after the state saw a surge in four-day school weeks post-Covid and gave researchers access to data going back to when Montana schools first started making the switch. It’s not just Montana: Four-day school weeks are growing across the nation, as is other research that also shows negatives in academic outcomes.

“When I look at the news reporting and schools [that] are considering the four-day, there’s all these reasons, pros and cons,” said Bill McCaw, one of the authors of the study. “Student achievement is never part of the conversation. Day care, convenience, longer vacation — all that’s being discussed. But not student achievement.”

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This week's newsletter is supported by:
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Stay informed on the conversations driving school board politics and education policy around the country with Hall Pass, Ballotpedia's free, nonpartisan weekly newsletter ([link removed]) . Get exclusive research and election insights from Ballotpedia's school board experts—plus curated commentary from across the political spectrum.

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** College Board cancels award program for high-performing Black and Latino students

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The move could divert thousands of scholarship dollars to white students.
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“It’s a move towards race-blind categories when we know that education and access to education isn’t race-blind." ([link removed])
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** What happens to reading comprehension when students focus on the main idea

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Large-scale replication in high-poverty schools yields mixed results.
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“Skeptics argue students aren’t going to magically understand what they are reading just from knowing more about the world, and they need to be explicitly taught how to identify the main idea and how to summarize.” ([link removed])
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** 📣 Listen up
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Episode 7 of season 4 of College Uncovered, a podcast from The Hechinger Report and GBH News, is out now.

College Uncovered: The Old College Try ([link removed])

It’s projected that this year, for the first time, more college students will take all of their courses online than will take all of their courses in person.

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** Reading list
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15 years of The Hechinger Report ([link removed])

We launched in 2010, and our site has become a deep repository of some of the best education journalism in the nation

They crossed the border for better schools. Now, some families are leaving the US ([link removed])

Departures in significant numbers could spell trouble for schools, which receive funding based on how many students they enroll

Tracking Trump: His actions to dismantle the Education Department, and more ([link removed])

The president is working to eliminate the Education Department and fighting ‘woke’ ideology in schools. A week-by-week look at what he’s done

Clean energy workforce training hub a ‘gamechanger’ in this struggling factory town ([link removed])

Decatur, Illinois, has been losing factory jobs for years. A training program at a local community college promises renewal and provides training for students from disenfranchised communities

In South Dakota, colleges partner with clean energy industry to meet growing demand for workers ([link removed])

Strong partnerships among technical colleges, employers and a state scholarship program have built pathways to clean energy jobs in the state, where roughly 77 percent of power comes from non-fossil fuel sources

Cruzaron la frontera en busca de mejores escuelas. Ahora, algunas familias dejan EEUU ([link removed])

Que una cantidad importante de alumnos se vaya podría ocasionar problemas a las escuelas, las cuales reciben financiación según el número de estudiantes que matriculan

OPINION: Preparing students for a climate-changed future ([link removed])

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, students are restoring wetlands, growing their own food and traveling to school on electric buses

OPINION: A big reason why students who are anxious about math underperform — they just don’t do enough of it ([link removed])

Math anxiety prevents far too many students from mastering a subject they’ll need for years to come
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** Talk to us about Tuition Tracker
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Our Tuition Tracker website helps students, parents and educators research the true cost of a college degree. This interactive tool is used in thousands of classrooms nationwide.

We know this website has value — and we are committed to keeping this tool free for all to use. Help us make TuitionTracker.org ([link removed]) even better by filling out this short survey ([link removed]) . A few minutes of your time will make a difference in the lives of young people. (Extra credit: Share the website and survey link with a friend!)
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