What Do We Actually Know about the Four-Day School Week?

The Center on Reinventing Public Education (CRPE) has been studying the four-day school week since 2015. Since then, the phenomenon of the four-day school week has spread into non-rural areas and interest appears to be growing. Given these apparent changes, the author wanted to know more about recent trends in the initiative. As districts continue to adopt the schedule, she would like to know what this trend means for students and communities in the long run. Is this a rural innovation born out of necessity that with accountability and strategic use can result in improved student opportunities? Or is this fundamentally a negative trend, one where districts have been forced into the schedule to meet increasing demands on a shrinking budget? Under what conditions can the four-day school week result in sustained benefits for students, if at all? In this brief, she responds to common questions about the four-day school week and concludes with some questions of her own.