Battle over four-day school week, teacher shortages is fought in rural school district

Parent Jason Breckenridge testified to stop the Florence-Carlton 
shift to a four-day school week. (The Hechinger Report photo)

Facing ongoing teacher shortages, rural Montana school districts have offered a four-day school week as a recruitment and retention tool since 2005. Most Montana schools accepted the shortened schedule without controversy, but the Florence-Carlton district became a loud exception. Community discussions about the change became fierce faceoffs about educational achievement, convenience and priorities, reports Alex Mitchell for The Hechinger Report, which covers education.

"There were standing-room-only public meetings with community members threatening not to support future budget levies. Parents filed two formal complaints," Mitchell writes. "One family sued. Some are transferring their children to districts miles away next year or will take on homeschooling out of concern their kids would otherwise fall behind."

The battle over the fifth day of school highlights a "larger divide and uncertainty around the four-day school week, even as districts in Montana and across the country continue to march toward it," Mitchell explains. "A three-part study from the University of Montana painted a grim picture of the four-day school week’s outcomes for both students and their schools."

Bill McCaw, one of the study's authors, told Mitchell, "When I look at the news reporting and schools [that] are considering the four-day, there’s all these reasons, pros and cons. Student achievement is never part of the conversation. Day care, convenience, longer vacation — all that’s being discussed. But not student achievement.”

The parent who sued the district, Jason Breckenridge, didn't want his kids to be part of an educational experiment. "He felt the school district disregarded the negative aspects of the shortened week," Mitchell adds. "Virginia Mahn, a Florence-Carlton parent and graduate, brought a complaint against the school board, alleging district leaders failed to meet their required responsibility of ensuring a quality education."

The University of Montana's study wasn't the only one to call out student learning deficits linked to four-day school weeks. Mitchell writes, "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."

Tharp told Mitchell, “If you look back at it logically, it only makes sense. After a certain period of time, you’re losing days, weeks, months of instruction over the course of years. . . . 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.” Mitchell adds, "Tharp concedes his opinion is unpopular among friends and colleagues."

"A community survey showing that of parents and community members who responded, 51% favored a shift to a four-day school week," Mitchell reports. "The five-person board approved the model 3-to-1 in January, with one abstention. Starting this fall, the school day will be lengthened by 45 minutes, and schools will be closed on Fridays."