CEPA Working Paper No. 21-05 - Effects of Four-Day School Weeks on Adolescents - Examining Impacts of the Schedule on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Behavior in High School

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel

Four-day school weeks have spread widely across the United States, yet evidence about their effects on high school students remains limited. This study applies district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences design to estimate causal impacts on ACT scores, attendance, and disciplinary incidents. Findings show sizable reductions in per-pupil bullying (~31%) and fighting (~27%) without detectable effects on other incident types, ACT scores, or attendance during school.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages70

Reading Time2 h 56 min

AccessFree to download

Abstract

Background on Four-Day School Weeks

Implementation

Growth

CEPA Working Paper No. 21-05 Eﬀects of Four-Day School Weeks on Adolescents: Examining Impacts ofthe Schedule on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Behavior in High School AUTHORS Emily Morton Stanford University ABSTRACT Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States in recent years, reaching over 650 public school districts in 24 states as of 2019, but little is known about the eﬀects of the four-day school week on high school students. This study uses district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a diﬀerence-in-diﬀerences research design to provide the ﬁrst estimates of the causal eﬀect of the four-day school week on high school students’ACT scores, attendance, and disciplinary incidents during school. Results indicate that four-day school weeks decrease per-pupil bullying incidents by approximately 31% and per-pupil ﬁghting incidents by approximately 27%, but have no detectable eﬀect on other incident types, ACT scores, or attendance. VERSION May 2021 Suggested citation: Morton, E. (2021) . Eﬀects of Four-Day School Weeks on Adolescents: Examining Impacts ofthe Schedule on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Behavior in High School. (CEPA Working Paper No.21-05) . Retrieved from Stanford Center for Education Policy Analysis: [http://cepa.stanford.edu/wp21-05](http://cepa.stanford.edu/wp21-05) Effects of Four-Day School Weeks on Adolescents: Examining Impacts ofthe Schedule on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Behavior in High School Emily Morton 1 1. Graduate School of Education, Stanford University 520 Galvez Mall, Stanford, CA 94305 [emorton@stanford.edu](emorton@stanford.edu) 617-365-3536 * Send correspondence [to emorton@stanford.edu](to emorton@stanford.edu). May 2021 Acknowledgements This work has been supported by the Institute of Education Sciences under Grant No. R305B140009. Any opinions expressed are those of the author alone and should not be construed as representing the opinions of the foundation. Abstract Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States in recent years, reaching over 650 public school districts in 24 states as of 2019, but little is known about the effects of the four-day school week on high school students. This study uses district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences research design to provide the first estimates of the causal effect of the four-day school week on high school students’ ACT scores, attendance, and disciplinary incidents during school. Results indicate that four-day school weeks decrease per-pupil bullying incidents by approximately 31% and per-pupil fighting incidents by approximately 27%, but have no detectable effect on other incident types, ACT scores, or attendance. A small body of literature on the effects of four-day school weeks has developed over the past six years, but the scope of this work has been limited. Most of the existing research has focused on economic issues, such as school finance (Thompson, 2021a; Morton, 2021), parental labor supply (Ward, 2019), and housing prices (Nowak, Perrone, & Smith, 2019), or academic outcomes among younger students in grades 3-8 (Anderson & Walker, 2015; Morton, 2021; Thompson, 2021b). To date, the only study that considers outcomes ofthe four-day school week for high-school aged students examines the effect of the four-day school week on juvenile crime (Fischer & Argyle, 2018). Thus, with the exception of Fischer and Argyle’s (2018) study on juvenile crime, there is a dearth of evidence concerning the implications of four-day weeks for high school-age students, who are primary stakeholders for the four-day school week policy, as they comprise nearly a third of all K-12 students. This study seeks to address this gap in our understanding of the effects of four-day school weeks on all students, with a particular focus on effects that have important implications for policy and have potential to vary based on student

FAQs

What causal outcomes does the study estimate for the four-day school week policy?

The study estimates causal effects on high school students’ ACT scores, attendance, and disciplinary incidents during school.

What do the results say about bullying and fighting incidents?

Four-day school weeks decrease per-pupil bullying incidents by about 31% and per-pupil fighting incidents by about 27%.

Do four-day school weeks affect ACT scores or attendance?

No detectable effects are found on other incident types, ACT scores, or attendance.

Oct 15, 2026

Uploaded by Angel