Should school districts consider 4-day weeks?

Posted at 3:11 PM on August 4, 2010 by Michael Caputo

Insight Now held on online debate on the topic: Minnesota School Districts should strongly consider four-day weeks as an option.

North Branch Superintendent Deb Henton argued for the position. Perham Superintendent Tamara Uselman argued against the position. Then we tried to put the issue InContext.

Check out the discussion....

For the full conversation click here

Background on the topic of four-day school weeks

This week the Lake Superior School District received permission to go to a four-day school week from the state education department. It became the tenth school district in the state to move to (or already have moved to) a four-day week. Many others have mulled over the option but decided against it.

Money is the big factor. But there are so many other factors at play, such as day care duties, the effects on student achievement, how much it helps school costs?
Minnesota school districts face tighter budgets and are looking at ways to cut costs. One way that a number of them are taking is going to a four-day school week.
There are few studies that have been able to document the impact of the four-day week on student achievement, one research paper on four-day weeks points out according to a 2009 study by the University of Southern Maine.

Explaining the online debate format - InContext

Insight Now has experimented with its space to hold live online discussions. Now we have a new experiment to try - we call it InContext.The concept is simple we start with an extreme position. We invited two people to argue for and against that position. Then we invite all of you to help put that position in better context. By finding some common ground, we can move this discussion forward.

These debates can be held on any number of issues discussed here. And the goal is to put them InContext.