Ahead of the 2023-2024 school year, more school districts throughout the country have decided to shift to a four-day week while the nation suffers teacher shortages and learning loss.
Several school districts within Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas will be operating on a four-day class schedule in an effort to retain and address a shortage of teachers within the education system and state. As of May 8, 850 school districts had moved to a four-day week or a later start time since 2019, a move intended to improve student’s mental health, cut spending and combat teacher shortages. (RELATED: Teachers Union Exec Defends Remote Schooling By Saying Learning Loss Made Everyone ‘Equal’)
“It’s weird because for the simple fact it’s cutting down kids’ learning not only that it’s costing more out of parents’ pockets for daycare after activities are gone, it will be hard to get to,” Lisa Wilridge, a Louisiana parent, told Fox 15 News about the schedule switch.
The Acadia Parish School District in Louisiana is transitioning to a four-day week model in September in an effort to address a teacher shortage, according to The Messenger. The district said the move was due to teachers feeling overwhelmed and burnt out.
At least 31% of Missouri school districts, or 161 school systems, will be on a four-day week schedule during the 2023-2024 school year, according to KY3 News, a local outlet. Laclede County R-1, a school district in Missouri that recently made the switch, said the move was made in an effort to keep teachers from leaving the profession.
“Our biggest reason for doing this is recruitment and retention of our teachers,” Luke Boyer, former Laclede County R-1 superintendent, told the outlet about the switch.
The Independence School District, the latest Missouri school district to make the transition, noticed an increase from 91 to more than 500 educator applicants following the announcement that the school system would be switching to a four-day week, KY3 News reported.
Custodian Francisco ?Paco? Inzunza (R) hugs his younger son Anthony (L), who is a fifth grader at the same school, in a classroom at Bueker Middle School September 27, 2005 in Marshall, Missouri. Paco illegally came to the United States to pursue his American dream from Mexico in 1991. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
“You look at the material the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education has put out, and it says that 62 percent of teachers in Missouri leave by their fifth year,” Dale Herl, Independence School District Superintendent, told the outlet. “But we consistently hear from people who we are now interviewing that the four-day work week is something that really appealed to them, and we can’t think of any other reason that’s led to that increase in applications.”
In Arkansas, the Mayflower School District switched to a four-day week in the 2022-2023 school year and since has noticed an increase in teacher retention, THV 11 News reported. Lincoln School Board in March voted to move to a four-day week for the 2023-2024 school year to increase educator retention and recruitment, according to 5 News Online.
Anna Independent School District in Texas, is switching to a four-day week for the 2023-2024 school year after raising concerns over the shortage of bus drivers and teachers without affecting the school system’s budget, according to Local Profile, a Texas-based outlet. The school day will be lengthened by 45 minutes.
Following the COVID-19 pandemic, civics test scores declined in 2022 for the first time ever. Reading levels in K-12 schools fell in line with scores last seen in the 1990s in 2022, which is the largest drop in the scores on record, according to the Nation’s Report Card.
“It really is what’s best,” Jared Miller, Anna High School Principal, told CBS News. “You get that and you have a three-day weekend and our teachers are mentally prepared for Monday morning. They’re a little bit fresher and same with students.”
The Acadia Parish School District, Laclede County R-1, Independence School District, Mayflower School District, Lincoln School District and Anna Independent School District did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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