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Part 2: Four Day School Week Report
Author: Alex Mitchell, Hechinger Report and Montana Free Press
Part 2: Four Day School Week Report
Alex Mitchell
Hechinger Report and Montana Free Press
This is Part 2 of a 2-part article regarding studies of the Four Day School Week being implemented in many school districts in Montana.
The full article is available on the MT43News website at https://mt43news.com
Montana researchers compared costs of the four-day school week and found them to be higher, as teacher salaries and payments for other services, like transportation, often remain the same or rise. Teacher retention was also higher under the five-day model — the researchers did not speculate why, but the districts that offer four-day weeks tend to be smaller; larger districts may offer more opportunities and professional growth, even without a three-day weekend.
The one clear positive for the four-day school week? Recruitment. When surveyed, more than 80 percent of new teachers preferred a shortened school week over a five-day week. Montana has the highest percentage of rural schools of any state in the nation, at 75 percent, and the largest number of one-room schoolhouses. That translates to many small schools struggling to attract teachers.
Related: What will it take for rural districts to compete with larger, better-resourced schools?
The study wasn’t the first to show declining academic results in Montana.
In 2014, Tim Tharp, then a doctoral student at the University of Montana, assembled academic results of all of the state’s schools from 2006, when the four-day school week was first adopted, to 2013. He found that students in four-day schools had lower test scores than peers who attended school five days a week.
“Really, it only makes sense,” said Tharp, now the chair of the Montana Board of Public Education and Richland County’s superintendent of schools. “After a certain period of time, you’re losing days, weeks, months of instruction over the course of years.”
In the decade that’s passed, the number of Montana school districts that adopted the four-day week has nearly tripled. Tharp describes its adoption as a “race to the minimum” as schools adjust calendars to reach state-mandated hours, sometimes down to the minutes. UM’s latest study has served to deepen Tharp’s conviction, supporting his earlier research findings and emboldening him to speak more pointedly about his belief that the four-day model has not proven successful in Montana.
“Personally, the absolute best thing would be for the students to not only go 180 days, but [for the districts to] even consider making it longer,” Tharp said.
Tharp concedes his opinion is unpopular among friends and colleagues. Even in his own Richland County, 12 of 15 public schools operate on the four-day model.
Although the UM researchers recommended revising state law to again mandate 180 days, no lawmakers sponsored such a bill this year. That means no changes are possible until the Legislature convenes again in two years.
“It is going to take a lot of intestinal fortitude from the Legislature to stand up and say: ‘No, this is what’s best for kids,’” Tharp said.
Without a change in state law, researchers see districts as trapped in the four-day model. Only one Montana school district has reverted to a five-day calendar, according to their research.
“We know, anecdotally, there are districts that want to, but in order to do so, you’re going to have your teachers wanting to be paid more,” said John Matt, one of the authors of the recent UM study. “That’s a 25 percent increase in days. They’re not going to want to work more hours for the same salary.”
Related: Teacher licensing rules are one reason small schools don‘t have enough teachers
Some states are trying to reduce or eliminate the adoption of four-day weeks. In Idaho, where two-thirds of public schools operate on the model, the state education board will begin requiring 152 instructional days in addition to mandated hours next school year. Idaho Superintendent of Public Instruction Debbie Critchfield has said she has been an opponent of the four-day model for years.
In New Mexico, home to some of the nation’s first four-day schools, the state education department tried in 2024 to require 180 days of school, with the governor voicing support for it as a way to counter persistent low academic scores. The new rule was struck down, though, after the state superintendents’ association said the new policy didn’t allow local flexibility. The case is still moving through the court system.
In Florence, Jason Breckenridge felt his only recourse was to sue the district to stop the change. Breckenridge spent part of a sunny spring break in a wood-paneled courtroom. He alleged the school board and district didn’t follow public process and acted in bad faith as they moved to the four-day model, with little certainty as to how the district would fully implement it.
“It was the only way we could get them to answer for the way the schools went about it,” Breckenridge said.
Related: Rural schools have a teacher shortage. Why don’t people who live there teach there?
Following the vote, school board chair Roth explained his abstention from the vote on a four-day week by saying he thought the board was “cramming this down our throat in record time” without enough consideration for what he called ripple effects. He later defended the adoption process in court.
A county judge ultimately ruled for the district, saying trustees ensured adequate notice and allowed sufficient public participation.
Staffing problems, a post-pandemic funding cliff and the loss of 50 students this school year put the Florence-Carlton school district of about 730 students in a tight spot, and it voted to adopt a shortened week. Credit: Sarah Mosquera for The Hechinger Report
While Breckenridge doesn’t regret the lawsuit, he’s still unsure exactly what the next school year will look like. He has put off starting his 4-year-old in kindergarten next year. Another son will attend school in the town of Stevensville, 10 miles away from Florence, where class is in session five days a week, and his daughter will be homeschooled. It will be his family’s first time trying homeschooling.
It’s an uncertain path, said Breckenridge’s wife Megan, but one the family feels is necessary. “We have three school-aged children with very different needs,” she said.
Mahn, who filed a complaint against the board, didn’t succeed in getting policy paused either. Now, she’s among the parents trying to figure out what the fifth day of the week will look like, when schools will be closed. Some Montana districts, like nearby Victor, provide in-district day care, while others collaborate with community organizations to meet the need for child care. Florence’s school board has taken no action to address the gaps created by the removal of a fifth day.
Mahn’s dad, a pastor at Florence-Carlton Community Church, is working on providing his church’s space for child care next school year. Mahn bought a curriculum to supplement her kids’ education, with her mother helping to provide instruction to her children on Fridays.
“I parceled out the pros and cons and it’s like, what am I most worried about? It’s not so much the longer days. It’s not so much that Friday off and I’ll have to pay for day care. But it’s more like the whole purpose of this school is their education,” Mahn said. “That’s what I’m most worried about.”
This story about the four-day school week was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education.
This article is republished courtesy of the Montana Free Press and the Hechinger Report.
