The Four Day School Week

Hey friends!

So you’re either here because you’re like, “WHAT?! There’s such thing as a four-day school week?” or “I’ve heard of it but I want to know more!” Or maybe neither haha. Either way, I’ve been wanting to blog about this pretty much all year, but I’ve been waiting for a couple of reasons.

First. I’ve actually blogged about this before in this blog post (disclaimer: I was a blogging and teaching rookie so read it with a totally different lens).

Second. My current school is a charter school in a pretty large district. Our large district we’re a part of is on a 4-day week. I actually applied for this job thinking this school was four-day (surprise! it wasn’t haha). But I also really wanted to work at this school, and when I applied I was already working at a school that was  five days.

Third. My current school had been working on going to a 4-day week for the upcoming school year. Our school had a calendar committee that researched, surveyed, discussed, and then researched some more on the benefits of four-day school weeks. They pushed for it all year (I was on it for a brief stint, but went on maternity leave so I really can’t take too much credit). Anyway, I was waiting to see if it would pass before I blogged about it.

IT PASSED a few weeks ago and I am pumped! But I am always shocked at the questions, concerns, and all around shock that comes with four-day school weeks and wanted to answer as many of those questions here.

So, a little background on four-day school weeks.

Four-day school weeks are actually pretty common in rural communities because of their ties to farming and families needing their children to help work on the farms an extra day. Some of those are old traditions that just never changed.

Rural communities also often have families that need to travel farther for school and the four-day week was implemented to help take a day of travel off for families, busses, and even teachers who traveled long-distances.

More recently, four-day school weeks have been becoming more and more common as schools need to cut costs and one day less at school can save hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

And even more recently, rural (but not as rural as the past) have been going to four-day weeks to retain teachers. Smaller districts compete with city districts or small rural towns struggle to get teachers to remain in their districts because they can’t compete with raises, benefits, etc. One way to try and retain those teachers is implementing a four-day week.

A little background on me with four-day school weeks


My first charter school that I taught at was a four-day school week, while the rest of the district was a five-day school week (with the exception of one other school in the district that was a public school that focused on math/science on Fridays. They were a four-day school week, while Fridays their school had a math and science center that all schools could visit and utilize).

Some things that might surprise you:

1. We consistently had the second highest test scores in the district, and second only to (you guessed it) the other four-day school in the district.
2. I worked at that four-day school for three years and never took a day off. Not because I was crazy, but because I could schedule anything I needed for Friday afternoons. Fridays are also the day most staff members tend to take their days in five day schools, because it’s just easiest. I never had to do that. 
3. Teachers still had to go to school on Fridays for 1/2 days. We worked 8:30 -12:30 on Fridays. I actually LOVED it. I got SO MUCH done. As a first year teacher, it was life-changing. Most 4-day schools don’t do this, but ours did. 
4. Now that I have taught in two different five day schools, I can tell you, without a doubt, that I had WAY more instructional time when I taught in a four-day school. 

1. We had all PLC meetings, RtI meetings, staff meetings, and SpEd student annuals and staffings on Fridays. I NEVER had to get pulled out of my classroom for a meeting. I didn’t even know that was a thing until I went to a five-day school. My first year in a five day school, I had almost 13 kids with IEPs, so that meant 13 hours that I was pulled out of my class just for those meetings. Don’t even get me started on all the other stuff I got pulled out for. 

1. Teachers never felt like they were trying to squeeze a bunch of curriculum into a shorter time. We often heard from other district teachers how they felt like they never had enough time, but we pretty much never felt that way. We obviously felt the crunch during testing, but nothing like I felt when I taught in a five-day school. 
2. We actually were in school a normal length of time. We started in mid August and got out in mid May. The five days schools I’ve been at actually have longer school year calendars. My first four-day school went 8:00am-3:40pm. The school I teach at now will be 7:30-3:05 in elementary and 7:30-3:25 in the middle and high schools. 

1. Increased attendance (for students and teachers). 
2. Better teacher morale.
3. Better student morale. 
4. Well rested students. 
5. More time to work on homework. 
6. More plan and prep time. 
7. Less interrupted instructional time. 
8. More consistent schedule every week (all our professional development days, teacher work days, meetings, etc. are all done on Fridays). We don’t get many other holidays off, so you almost always have four-days of instructional teaching every single week. 
9. Better teacher retention. 
10. More money savings. This is often the biggest reason schools go to this four day week. It can be hundreds of thousand of dollars for larger schools districts with one less days of buses and utilities.