Could three - twenty-four hours weekends help schooltime district reduce cost without sabotage student learning ? A new subject field suggests it ’s possible .
Researchers from Georgia State University and Montana State University found that uncomplicated school students who pass an superfluous solar day out of the classroom had higher trial run scotch in math than those with received academic schedules .
Published in the journalEducation , Finance , and Policy , the studycompared the donnish performanceof child who attended traditional , five - day school with kids who had four - day school day calendar week . Using 4th - grade reading and fifth - grade maths test scores from the Colorado Student Assessment Program ( CSAP ) , researchers rule that the four - 24-hour interval week did not affect interpret outcomes — but that it did have a “ statistically significant impact ” on mathematics .
This discover contradicted expectations , remark Mary Beth Walker , dean of the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies at Georgia State , in a statement . Like other educators , she call into question whether students would forget schoolroom material during a retentive weekend , or if the farseeing shoal days require from a shorter school week would overwhelm kids ’ brusk tending dyad .
Four - sidereal day weeks help school districts low overhead and expatriation expenses , and are common in rural component of New Mexico and Wyoming . In Colorado , over one - third of the schooling districtsrun on a four - day schedule ; other states across the body politic , including Oregon , Missouri , and Florida have considered following suit . However , until this sketch there were only anecdotal report on how this system impact educatee ' learning , researchers say .
Further studies are needed to empathize the essence of a four - day school calendar week on enceinte urban school districts , as well as to draw extra conclusions about why a shorter hebdomad seems to bolster educatee performance . Walker thinks the superfluous sidereal day off might have enhanced teacher ' felicity , increased productivity , and lowered absentee rate . But at the last of the twenty-four hour period , there ’s “ slight grounds that switching to a four - sidereal day week harm student performance , " researcher write . " Policy - makers and schooling administrators will need to take these finding into considerateness when weighing the costs and benefit associate with the four - day school week . ”
[ h / tScienceDaily ]
