Teacher Quality and Turnover in the Four-Day School Week

• In Event: Strategic Staffing and Incentives

Abstract

The four-day school week (4DSW) is an alternative school calendar arrangement in which students are required to attend school for four days each week, although the length of those school days and opportunities available on the fifth day vary with implementation. Districts adopt a 4DSW calendar for multiple reasons including perceived cost savings, reducing absenteeism, and boosting teacher retention (Barnes & McKenzie, 2023). Historically, adoption of 4DSW calendars increased during times of economic distress (Donis-Keller & Silvernail, 2009; Thompson et al., 2021) with the earliest implementations emerging during the energy crisis of the 1970s. Despite these relatively lofty goals, little rigorous evidence exists documenting the effects of the 4DSW calendar on student, teacher, and fiscal outcomes.

The strongest evidence for 4DSW effects documents the fiscal impacts of a shorter instructional week. While the purported savings of 4DSW calendars are said to be almost 20%, most evaluations find more limited benefits with a maximum potential saving estimated at just over 5% of a district’s annual budget (Griffith, 2011; Kilburn et al., 2021; Morton, 2021; Thompson, 2021). Less evidence exists for impacts of the 4DSW on students’ academic achievement with prior studies tending towards negative estimated effects. However, there appear to be heterogeneity in terms of urbanity and implementation (e.g., Morton, 2021, 2023; Thompson & Ward, 2022) with negative estimated effects particularly prevalent in suburban and urban districts that adopt a 4DSW calendar. While anecdotal reports of increased teacher retention are prevalent (Barnes & McKenzie, 2023; Kilburn et al., 2021), there are only a handful of quantitative analyses with one recent study indicating negative effects (Nowak et al., 2023).

This study contributes to the evidence surrounding 4DSW calendars by estimating the impact of adopting a 4DSW calendar on teacher retention and recruitment. Using individual-level panel data from Arkansas, I document a rapid increase in 4DSW adoption starting in the 2016-17 school year and continuing through the Covid-19 pandemic. Using a difference-in-differences approach which accounts for spatial spillovers stemming from localized teacher labor markets (Butts, 2021; Edwards et al., 2022), I find a small, positive, effect on teacher retention for 4DSW adopting districts and negative effects for nearby districts which remain on a traditional calendar. On average, teacher retention in districts that adopt a 4DSW increased by 2 percentage points with a corresponding decrease in nearby non-adopting districts. Planned analyses will investigate the extent to which 4DSW adoption may serve as a non-pecuniary benefit in teacher recruitment as well as changes in aggregate teacher quality at adopting and non-adopting districts.

These results are particularly relevant given the rapid increase in 4DSW adoption (Barnes & McKenzie, 2023) and unstable fiscal footing of districts following the Covid-19 pandemic (Silberstein & Roza, 2023). Given anticipated shortfalls in school revenues stemming from decreased student enrollment (Dee, 2023), districts may be tempted to adopt a 4DSW in pursuit of cost savings and perceived benefits. My results indicate that districts may see a small increase in teacher retention, although changes in teacher quality are not yet known.

Author

• Andrew Camp, University of Arkansas at Fayetteville