From the inception of public schooling, one thing has remained true throughout the ages: most students don’t want to go. Sure, as students, we realize that we need an education to get ahead in life, but do we have to go so much?
Good news, students: According to a new research study in Colorado, the answer to that question is NO.
The original preconception was that a shortened school week would have a negative impact on student’s grades but as more research is done in Colorado, Wyoming, and New Mexico – where the school week has already been shortened, the opposite is proving to be true. Initially, the 4 day week was put in place to reduce costs in poorer school districts, but now other schools are looking at the program because of the academic impact.
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According to the report, 55.5% of students were achieving these top scores in their maths tests the year before they switched to a four-day week, and 63.1 % achieved the same marks with the 4 day week. O students began doing even better on math tests, with an average of 72 % of students scoring “proficient or advanced” on their maths tests in the second year of a 4 day school week.
Mary Beth Walker, a researcher from Georgia State University, said: “What interested me about our results is they were completely opposite to what we anticipated. We thought that especially for the younger, elementary school kids, longer days on a shorter school week would hurt their academic performance because their attention spans are shorter. Also, a longer weekend would give them more opportunity to forget what they had learned.”
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Walker admits that the results are not what anyone expected. Walker said, “My own personal hypothesis is teachers liked it so much – they were so enthusiastic about the four-day week – they did a better job. There’s some evidence in other labor studies that four-day work weeks enhance productivity.”
I’m sure that students across the country will rejoice in the good news that full-time 3 day weekends seem to be the way to go. Now if only this trend could catch on in the corporate world, we could all have 3 day weekends!
