Do Four-Day School Weeks Reduce Teacher Turnover?

Across the United States, as of 2022-23, 2,100 schools in more than 850 school districts had adopted a four-day school week—an increase of 500 schools since 2019. While more urban and suburban schools have considered this move, four-day school weeks are still significantly more prevalent in states with large rural districts.

After the Great Recession in 2008-10, districts began looking at the four-day week to cut costs (which have proven to be meager). More recently, especially after the COVID pandemic and a widespread educator shortage, recruiting and retaining teachers has emerged as the top rationale.  

In Texas, the number of districts that have adopted a four-day week has increased exponentially. By the 2024-25 school year, 126 districts, affecting 126,000 students, had taken this step. 

“Our ’why’ is simple and straightforward. We want to find, recruit and retain the best teachers in the state in the classrooms for our students,” Paula Patterson, a superintendent in Harris County, Texas, told an Austin TV station in 2023. Patterson said four-day school weeks would make her district a “top destination for educators.”  

This optimism is shared widely across districts that have made this shift. But what do we really know about whether four-day school weeks are in fact having this desired effect, not to mention impacts on other outcomes?  

As more research into this trend surfaces, it is fair to say that four-day school weeks, as they have been enacted in most districts, haven’t really delivered. Does that mean districts should reject them as an option? Not necessarily. The fact that educators and parents in many districts approve of four-day school weeks is important. According to a 2023 Education Week survey, 70 percent of teachers expressed support, compared with 60 percent of school leaders and 57 percent of district leaders.

Still, school leaders should carefully weigh the pros and cons, get all the necessary information, and proceed with caution, says Andrew Camp, senior research associate at the Annenberg Institute at Brown University. 

So far, the research indicates that four-day school weeks are generally not working out as advocates hoped—particularly if improved retention is the goal. “It’s concerning that people expect too much of this schedule,” Camp says. “Because there could be downsides.” 

Misplaced Optimism? 

Under a four-day school week (some districts opt out of Friday, others Monday), students typically start their school days a little earlier, and finish classes a little later. This schedule has been especially appealing to rural districts because students face longer commutes, which cut back on their time outside of school. And rural schools, where salaries are not as competitive, usually have more difficulty attracting teachers. 

Missouri was an early adopter of the new calendar. By 2024, 32 percent of the state’s districts had made the shift. Camp is a co-author of a new study that looked specifically at the four-day school week’s effect on recruitment and retention in the state. 

Camp and his colleagues interviewed superintendents, principals, and educators about the four-day week and found strong, but not unanimous, approval for the new schedule. District leaders expressed optimism around filling vacancies, while teachers cited improvements in work-life balance, more time for planning, etc.   

However, these views—particularly concerning retention—weren’t supported by the researchers’ analysis of state administrative data between the 2008–09 and 2023–24 school years.

“We didn’t find any evidence that it actually helps better retain teachers,” Camp says. “But it doesn't mean that teachers don't like it. They probably do—but what our study suggests is that maybe they don't like it enough to change their decisions. They leave for other reasons.” 

Salary Still Matters 

One of those other factors is likely salary. And in the places that have adopted the four-day school week, pay tends not to not keep pace with other districts. 

In a recent study of four-day weeks in Oregon (another state with heavy adoption) by the University of California at Irvine and University of Missouri, researchers found that teacher turnover increased in districts with a four-day schedule. The turnover was highest in years 5-9 of adoption (around four points higher in these schools than those with the five-day schedule). The study found turnover among non-teaching staff was largely unaffected.

“Salary differences that were already large seem to get larger over time,” explains Aaron Ainsworth, a PhD student at UC Irvine and co-author of the study. “That may drive a decision to leave, despite the appeal of working in a four-day schedule. Maybe a teacher thinks it’s still not worth it to stay in their district.” 

Changing to a four-day schedule, says Ainsworth, is a dramatic change to educators’ working conditions, which many surveys suggest is the top factor in a teacher’s decision to stay or leave.  Working conditions incorporate everything from class size, health and safety, planning time, respect, autonomy, and administrator support.

A four-day school week could improve some of those conditions, but again, says Ainsworth, perhaps not adequately to make that much of a difference. “Teachers may find fitting the curriculum into four days is a challenge, and maybe they don’t have the necessary support from administrators. And teachers do end up working longer days—and sometimes on that fifth day when students aren’t in school.” 

Given how important salary and working conditions are to teacher retention, Ainsworth and his colleagues conclude, “boosting one and not the other may not move the needle in the long term.”   

The Impact on Students 

If the positive impact on teacher recruitment and retention is at best negligible and cost savings are minimal, are the results any better for students? Again, the research on various outcomes is mixed, but there are warning signs.  

The HEDCO Institute at the University of Oregon recently conducted a comprehensive review of 11 research studies (from 2021-2024) into the four-day school week’s impact on several student outcomes: academic performance, attendance, graduation rates and behavior. The review found “little evidence" that the schedule benefits students.  

“Districts often turn to four-day school weeks to address budget and staffing pressures, but the evidence suggests this change may come at a cost to students,” Elizabeth Day, an assistant professor at the HEDCO Institute and co-author of the report, said in a statement. “There’s no consistent evidence that moving to a four-day schedule improves learning outcomes — and in some cases, it may do the opposite.” 

In rural districts, the review found that four-day weeks decreased math and reading achievement for K-8 students, but increased math scores and on-time and five-year graduation rates for high-school students. Chronic absenteeism for high school students also increased. In non-rural districts, there was “little to no effect” on K-8 student achievement, but math scores and on-time and five-year graduation rates dipped for high school students. Absences also increased.  

A big question is whether schools on this schedule are losing instructional time. "School districts that are unable to maintain instructional time seem to be seeing these detrimental impacts," says Paul Thompson, an associate professor at Oregon State University. 

In addition to keeping instructional hours, community engagement and collaboration is also essential. “Maintaining activities that foster healthy youth development on the fifth day is important for minimizing other negative impacts,” the HEDCO report notes. These include organized sports, school-based remedial instruction, or youth programs.   

The potential downsides of the four-day week underscore why lawmakers and districts must resist the “bandwagon effect” and tread carefully when adopting the schedule, says Andrew Camp—particularly if they think it will help address educator shortages. 

“We all want to make teaching a sustainable profession," Camp says. "So, what I worry about is folks thinking, ‘hey, we can make this switch and that'll solve our problems.’ But then they might ignore other issues with school culture that deserve more attention.”