The Effects of Four Day School Weeks on Teacher Recruitment and Retention

• In Event: Comparing the Old with the New: Exploring 4DSW Adoption and its Effects on Teachers and Staffing

Abstract

In recent years, school districts across the United States have increasingly adopted four-day school weeks (4DSW). The pace of this growth has been striking, with 850 districts operating on the 4DSW calendar in 2023 as compared to approximately 600 in 2019 (Morton et al., 2024). Anecdotal accounts and limited peer reviewed evidence indicate that the primary motivation for adopting the calendar is to improve teacher recruitment and retention (Barnes & McKenzie, 2025). Districts that adopt the 4DSW calendar are more likely to be located in rural communities (Anglum & Park, 2021) and administrators view the shorter workweek as an alternative to increasing teacher compensation. However, there is limited empirical evidence about the 4DSW’s impact on either recruitment or retention of teachers.

Recent work focused on Arkansas, Colorado, and Oregon uses credibly causal identification strategies to determine these impacts with mixed findings (Camp, 2024; Morton & Dewil, 2024; Ainsworth et al., 2024). Across these three studies, one found small positive effects, one found negative effects, and one found null effects. We contribute to this growing literature by examining the impact of 4DSW calendar adoption on teacher recruitment and retention in Missouri, a setting that is uniquely well-suited to study the policy, using both qualitative data and a rigorous causal identification strategy.

We conducted a series of semi-structured interviews with school leaders and teachers throughout Missouri to document their motivations for adopting the 4DSW calendar and anecdotal assessment of its impact on teacher recruitment and retention. After presenting qualitative data showing that school principals strongly believe the four-day week will improve recruitment and retention, we estimate the effects of the four-day week on these outcomes quantitatively using a comprehensive teacher-level panel dataset. Two aspects of our analysis – the large take-up rate of the 4DSW in Missouri and our access to detailed teacher-level mobility data before 4DSW adoptions began – allow us to provide the most precise estimates to date of the impacts of the 4DSW on teacher recruitment and retention.

Despite the relatively strong beliefs among school leaders that a 4DSW calendar will improve teacher retention, we find no statistically significant effect of adopting the calendar on teacher retention, both overall and for teachers in hard-to-staff subject areas as well. This disconnect between the empirical reality and perceptions surrounding the 4DSW calendar raises substantial questions about the role of evidence in the policymaking process. Given the potential for 4DSW calendars to have negative impacts on student outcomes, our results indicate that adopting a 4DSW calendar is a risky bet to improve teacher retention that likely will not pay out.

Author

• Andrew Mitchell Camp, Brown University
  Presenting Author