(STUDY FINDS) – A four-day school week certainly sounds like a good idea from a student’s perspective, but a recent study by a team at Oregon State University finds making three-day weekends permanent would be bad news for children’s grades. Study authors found that high schoolers participating in a four-day school week performed worse on a series of standardized math tests than their peers sticking to a typical five-day schedule.
Interestingly, scores dropped even more among students attending non-rural schools, but the impact only seemed to impact math grades. Students across both experimental conditions (four-day week vs. five-day week) displayed roughly the same reading scores.
Advertisement - story continues below
The idea of switching to a four-day week has increasingly picked up steam in both schools and offices nationwide in recent years. Many argue that an extra day off helps workers and students alike perform and learn at a higher level the rest of the week. Advocates of the four-day school week say the schedule is also very attractive for teachers, helps adjust for students’ extracurricular schedules, and aids in cutting overall district costs.
