As four day school weeks become more popular across the nation, an Oregon State professor is weighing in.
Right now, 70 school districts across the state operate a four day school week schedule.
This model is supposed to help improve student enrollment and academic achievement when they miss school for extracurricular activities.
Oregon State University associate professor of economics Dr. Paul Thompson says this is good for high school kids, but shows a negative impact for younger grades.
“Elementary and middle school students they’re not really missing as much time for things like extracurriculars as high schoolers are,” Dr. Thompson said. “So those motivations aren’t really fitting with that age group of students and we’ve seen the big achievement declines happening for those students.”
Dr. Thompson says there is not enough data to see how the four day school week impacts a child’s overall success if the switch is made at a young age.
Right now, most of the districts implementing the four day school week are found in rural communities, most notably in Eastern Oregon.
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