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School schedules
The Effects of Four-Day School Weeks in Texas
Topics: Student LearningFour-day school weeks (FDSWs) have expanded rapidly in Texas in recent years. Districts cite teacher retention and recruitment as the primary motivation, though little is known about the impacts of FDSWs in this context. We study the effects of FDSW adoption on students and teachers in Texas… more →
The Time Costs of Academic Credit Hours
Topics: Policy, Politics, and GovernanceDo students give up free time with added classes? We estimate the effect of additional credits on leisure using campus departure logs linked to academic records of U.S. Air Force Academy students and two natural experiments. Leveraging pre-assigned schedules, each credit reduces leisure by 7… more →
Staffing, Retention, and Expenditures in the Four-Day School Week
School districts across the United States are increasingly adopting the four-day school week, often in the hope of addressing teacher staffing challenges. We examine the effects of the four-day week on non-teacher staffing and recruitment, and schoolwide expenditures in Missouri, where three in… more →
The Effect of Four-Day School Week Adoption on Teacher Retention and Sorting
As teacher shortages worsen across the U.S., many school districts have implemented a unique solution to attract and retain effective teachers: switching from the traditional five-day school week to a four-day school week (4DSW). I use 17 years of teacher-level employment data from Texas in a… more →
More Often or Longer? The Effects of the Academic Schedule on Postsecondary Academic Outcomes
Tags: Human capital, School schedulesOne of the most common scheduling decisions in higher education is the determination of biweekly or triweekly classes. On the surface, these two formats are equivalent in terms of the number of minutes in a course (75 minutes twice a week or 50 minutes three times a week). However, the two… more →
The Four Day Gamble: The Quasi-Experimental Effects of Four-Day School Week Adoption on Teacher, Principal, and Paraprofessional Staff Turnover and District Financial Outcomes
Four-day school week (4DSW) adoption is an increasingly popular policy, particularly for rural districts that are seeking to reduce educator turnover and district expenditures. Using a staggered treatment event study design, I am among the first to estimate the quasi-experimental effects of 4DSW… more →
A Multi-State, Student-Level Analysis of the Effects of the Four-Day School Week on Student Achievement and Growth
Topics: Student LearningTags: School schedulesFour-day school weeks are becoming increasingly common in the United States, but their effect on students’ achievement is not well-understood. The small body of existing research suggests the four-day schedule has relatively small, negative average effects (~-0.02 to -0.09 SD) on annual,… more →