Weekly Update

_{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

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.”

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

The move could divert thousands of scholarship dollars to white students.

What happens to reading comprehension when students focus on the main idea

Large-scale replication in high-poverty schools yields mixed results.

📣 Listen up

Episode 7 of season 4 of College Uncovered, a podcast from The Hechinger Report and GBH News, is out now. 

Reading list

Talk to us about Tuition Tracker

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 even better by filling out this short survey. 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!)