These Louisiana Schools Will Use A 4-Day Week For The 2024-2025 Year

ACADIA PARISH, La. (KPEL News) - The 2024-2025 school year is almost here, and by now, students across the state are wondering what their schedules look like or have started seeing them online.

But the class schedule isn't the only thing that might be new or different for some students. There are a handful of school districts around the state that have altered their weekly schedule in an attempt to ease burdens on teachers while not sacrificing child learning.

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Acadia Parish is one such district here in Acadiana. That district voted in January of last year to make the change. But they weren't the first.

Avoyelles Parish was one of the first in the state to make the shift back in 2019. Their school board voted to eliminate classes on Mondays. Overall, Acadia, Cameron, Evangeline, Grant, LaSalle, Avoyelles, Caldwell, Beauregard, and Franklin Parishes, as well as Bogalusa City Schools, have adopted the new 4-day model. Other school districts have at least considered it.

What Are The Benefits?

Some advocates of the change cite the savings that come with shutting down schools one extra day a week, though some admit that those savings can be modest at best. Rather they focus on teacher recruitment and better mental health.

More than 500 districts nationwide have adopted the new system, and many are reporting higher attendance rates and lower discipline rates. However, due to state requirements for the number of minutes students have to get in each subject, school days become longer to accommodate.

Cameron Parish, which has five schools and about 1,100 students, according to The Advocate, earned top marks from the state during the 2022-2023 and 2021-2022 school years.

Cameron Parish Superintendent Charley Lemons told the Baton Rouge newspaper that:

[O]ne of the main advantages of a four-day workweek is teacher recruitment and retention. Because the average teacher salary in Cameron Parish is only $50,561, about $6,000 less than the state average, Lemons said the shorter work week is a plus for some educators. Classrooms in his district all have permanent teachers and the teacher turnover rate is generally less than the state’s 14% average, he added.

What Experts Say

• “It is harder for rural districts to get teachers that are highly qualified or honestly, sometimes to get teachers period, into their buildings and to retain them than it is for town or suburban districts. All of this is anecdotal, but they’re saying in interviews that teachers are happier. They like spending more time with their own children. It gives them time to do things that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to do.” -Emily Morton, NWEA

• “In school districts that don't increase time in school on those other four days, students are really suffering because they're losing a lot of ‘time-in-seat’ as a result. We see a lot of negative achievement effects in places that didn't decide to expand the school day much on those remaining four days.” -Paul Thompson, Professor at Oregon State University

• "Our results generally indicate a positive relationship between the four-day week and performance in reading and mathematics. These findings suggest there is little evidence that moving to a four-day week compromises student academic achievement. This research has policy relevance to the current U.S. education system, where many school districts must cut costs.” -D. Mark Anderson and Mary Beth Walker, MIT