Thursday, September 26, 2024
As a parent and elementary school teacher at Evant Independent School District, Autumn Vann spends her Mondays preparing for the work week ahead or enjoying quality time with her family.
After adopting the change in 2022, Evant ISD enters another year on a four-day week rather than a traditional Monday through Friday schedule. For Vann, the extra day off gives her the flexibility to schedule appointments, run errands, or rest without sacrificing time in the classroom.
“With the five-day week, I always felt like I had to choose between getting stuff ready for school, relaxing, or spending time with family,” Vann said. “As a result, relaxing and resting didn't happen often.”
In recent years, the move to a four-day school week has risen among smaller, rural schools that do not always have the funds to compete with larger districts that offer higher pay. This includes Evant ISD, which made the change as a way to recruit and retain teachers in their small community.
“It's amazing how fast you can get used to the four-day week, as a teacher and as a parent,” Vann said. “The four-day week allows more time to be spent with family or to schedule doctor’s appointments without having to miss instruction.”
The school holds classes Tuesday through Friday with Monday as an “off” day, where teachers and students are encouraged to schedule appointments or plan other extracurricular activities, explains Superintendent Jennifer Ingram. The school also utilizes Mondays for other educational purposes, such as once-a-month professional development meetings for teachers and tutoring sessions for students.
“The benefit is that students can take care of personal business on Monday to improve attendance the remainder of the week,” Ingram said. “In addition, the time for targeted tutorials and intervention is an excellent opportunity to get one-on-one or small group help when needed.”
Vann believes that the shorter week also allows students to pursue other interests outside of the classroom.
“Even though the school day is a little longer, the thought of not having school on Monday makes most students excited,” Vann said. “I think that students are also more relaxed when they come.”
This year, Evant will include five-day weeks during the months of August and April, and then transition back to four days for the remainder of the year, Ingram said.
As of July 2024, at least 103 school districts in Texas have approved a four-day school week, according to KXAN.
In 2015, Texas passed House Bill 2610 that said schools no longer required 180 days of instruction, but instead they must provide at least 75,600 minutes of instruction. This allowed school districts to make the shift to a four-day school week by lengthening the school day to make up for the day off.
Along with retaining teachers, schools operating on a four-day school week have voiced other advantages such as improving student attendance and savings on operational costs.
However, the four-day week can also bring challenges, including longer school days and for parents who work Monday through Friday.
Despite the longer days, Evant High School senior Isabel Gandy appreciates the extra day that she utilizes for sports practice or catching up on homework.
“It’s pretty nice, because it gives us an extra day to catch up on work that we’re missing,” Gandy said. “The only main difference is that the school day is longer.”
During the first year, Ingram said they offered daycare on Monday for parents who work, but discontinued the service after finding it was not fully utilized.
“The first year, we offered daycare services on Mondays for parents, however, only one student was in (our) care,” Ingram said. “So, in December of that same year, we discontinued the service and there has not been a vocalized need since that time.”
Since the four-day school week is still relatively new, research on its impact varies. One 2021 study by the RAND Corporation found that a shorter week might affect the growth of student achievement compared to the five day week in some cases. However, in the same study, school personnel, parents, and students reported that they believed students learned just as much or slightly more in the four-day week.
“There are advantages and disadvantages to the four-day,” Ingram said. “For Evant ISD, we feel like at this point, the advantages outweigh the negatives.”
