Effects of 4-Day School Weeks on Older Adolescents

Oct 15, 2026

Four-day school weeks have expanded across the United States, yet evidence on their implementation and student impacts remains inconsistent. Using district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences design, the study estimates causal effects on high school ACT scores, attendance, and disciplinary incidents. Results show 4-day weeks reduce per-pupil bullying and fighting incidents, while producing no detectable effects on other incident types, ACT performance, or attendance.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages27

Reading Time1 h 8 min

AccessFree to download

Effects of 4-Day School Weeks on Achievement, Attendance, and Behavior in High School

Background on 4-Day School Weeks

Implementation

Research Article Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis March 2023, Vol. 45, No. 1, pp. 52–78 DOI: 10. 3102/01623737221097420 Article reuse guidelines: [sagepub.com/journals-permissions](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)[ ](sagepub.com/journals-permissions)© 2022 AERA. [https://journals.sagepub.com/home/epa](https://journals.sagepub.com/home/epa) Effects of 4-Day School Weeks on Older Adolescents: Examining Impacts ofthe Schedule on Academic Achievement, Attendance, and Behavior in High School Emily Morton Northwest Evaluation Association 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 their implementation and there is no consensus on their effects on students. This study uses district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences research design to provide estimates of the causal effect of the 4-day school week on high school students’ACT scores, attendance, and disciplinary incidents during school. Results indicate that 4-day school weeks decrease per-pupil bullying incidents by approximately 39% and per-pupil fighting incidents by approximately 31%, but have no detectable effect on other incident types, ACT scores, or attendance. Keywords: achievement, adolescence, educational policy, educational reform, rural education, student behavior/attitude, econometric analysis, quasi-experimental analysis, policy analysis, secondary data analysis Four-day school weeks have proliferated across the United States in recent years, affecting over 650 public school districts in 24 states as of 2019, but little is known about their implementation and there is no consensus on their effects on students (Thompson et al., 2021a) . Policies enabling 4-day school weeks are disputed by many state legislatures: Oklahoma, for example, is currently debating financial savings and achievement metrics that districts must meet to continue to use a 4-day school week beyond the 2020–2021 school year. Historically, districts adopting 4-day weeks have been motivated by potential financial savings and located primarily in poor, rural areas. However, a broader range of districts have recently turned to 4-day weeks in response to challenges related to COVID-19 (Altavena, 2020) . Given the recent growth of 4-day school weeks, the relevant ongoing legislation, and their use in response to COVID-19, research on the implementation and effects of this policy is unprecedentedly salient and consequential. A small body of literature on the effects of 4-day school weeks has developed over the past 6 years, but the scope of this work has been limited. Most of the existing research has focused on economic issues, such as school finance (Morton, 2021; Thompson, 2021a), parental labor supply (Ward, 2019), and housing prices (Nowak et al., 2019), or academic outcomes among younger students in Grades 3 to 8 (Anderson & Walker, 2015; Kilburn et al., 2021; Morton, 2021; Thompson, 2021b; Thompson & Ward, 2022) . To date, there are few causal studies that consider outcomes of the 4-day school week for highschool-aged students. Thompson et al. (2021) use data from Oregon and find that the schedule negatively impacts nonrural high school students’ 11th-grade math achievement and on-time graduation rates, and it increases rates of chronic absenteeism (i.e., missing more than 10% of schooldays) among students in nonrural schools. Fischer and Argyle (2018) find that adopting the 4-day week schedule increased a county’s juvenile Effects of 4-Day School Weeks on Achievement, Attendance, and Behavior in High School crime rates using data from Colorado. Overall, the research examining impacts of the schedule for high school students is limited, as high-schoolage students comprise nearly a third of all K–12 students, and the schedule may affect them differently than younger students. Furthermore, the existing research is

FAQs

What research question does the study address about 4-day school weeks?

It examines the causal effects of 4-day school weeks on older adolescents’ academic achievement, attendance, and behavior during high school.

What data and method are used to estimate the effects?

The study uses district-level panel data from Oklahoma and a difference-in-differences research design.

What outcomes change and which do not?

4-day weeks decrease per-pupil bullying and fighting incidents, but show no detectable effects on other incident types, ACT scores, or attendance.

Oct 15, 2026

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