- It's back to school
season around the country
which makes it a good time to look
at a trend underway in
many school districts.
Many of them have switched
from a five day week
to four days, particularly
in western states.
In Colorado, for example, more
than half of all districts
now follow a four day week.
In New Mexico, around 40%.
But officials in New Mexico have placed
a moratorium on the practice
because of their concerns
about the impact.
Special correspondent Kavitha Cardoza,
with our partner, Education Week,
visited New Mexico to
see a school district
that just completed its
first year of the change.
For our weekly segment, Making the Grade.
- The lifecycle of a chicken, right?
- [Kavitha] Alexis Parela and
Michael Lozano's reactions
to the shortened week
couldn't be more different.
- When I heard that the school is moving
from five to four, I was like yes!
- I kind of don't like it a little bit
because I just really
wanna learn about things.
- [Kavitha] A year ago,
Cobre Consolidated School District
moved to a four day week to save money.
Now on Fridays, schools are closed.
Overall, students spend
22 fewer days in class,
even though they have longer
days and shortened breaks.
Superindendent Robert Mendoza says
90% of parents agreed with the change.
- Overall, it's been real positive.
- [Kavitha] But Howie Morales,
a former teacher turned state senator,
has serious concerns
about a four day week.
- What are the positives of
going to a four day school week,
what are the negatives, I
want every single opportunity
for my children, and other
children to have to learn.
- [Kavitha] Georgia Heyward
is a researcher with the
University of Washington Bothell.
She says while most districts
shorten school weeks
to save money, they don't save much.
- There's very little savings
in the four day school week.
It might be 2% of the district budget.
- [Kavitha] Cobre's school
saved $71,000 the first year,
far less than the $160,000 they projected.
But Mendoza says there
are other advantages.
It's such a geographically
large school district,
it saves students time.
- They ride a long time in the buses,
an hour and a half to come,
and an hour and a half to go back home.
So that's three hours a day.
- Right, what happens after
that fertilization takes place?
- [Kavitha] Sixth grade
teacher Laura Brown
says a big reason she
moved to Cobre schools
the four day week.
- I feel that extra day gave
that possible one day off
to rest and recover as well, but it also,
it made my classroom and my
teaching that much better,
because my lesson plans
were better, more in depth.
- [Kavitha] It also meant she could start
a district-wide drama club on Fridays.
- Hours and hours and hours
went in on our days off
to bring those kiddos in,
it was their day off, too.
Not once did we have one kid missing
- [Kavitha] New Mexico
has a teaching shortage.
Mendoza says that's particularly a problem
in rural districts like this one,
where there's usually only one educator
for each grade, who teaches all subjects.
- Right before we went to this,
we had a hard time
filling, we had vacancies,
and this year we have none.
- [VO] Student Brianna
Martinez's week is jam-packed.
- I play volleyball,
basketball, and softball,
and in school I'm involved
in National Honors Society,
Student Council, and I'm a class officer.
- [Kavitha] But she was always stressed
trying to juggle everything.
Not anymore.
- [Brianna] A lot of our games
are now scheduled on Friday
which is awesome for us.
- Shaggers, you guys are in the cage,
cage, you guys are live.
- [Kavitha] Like many parents here,
Coach Randy Dominguez
works at the copper mines.
- As a coach, it is beneficial just being
that we could bring the
girls in or the boys in
on Fridays and get a little
bit of extra work in.
- [Kavitha] But as a father of three,
it's tough to find childcare.
His wife works full-time as well,
so they have to rely on family.
- There are times where we're like,
we don't know exactly what we're gonna do.
- We're a little more than
halfway through the book.
- [Kavitha] At first, high
school teacher Kathy Ryan
didn't like the idea.
- My first reservation had to be with
how am I going to teach
everything that I need to
with one less day a week.
- [Kavitha] Now, she prefers
the longer class periods
and full days of professional development.
Ryan also says more of
her students show up.
- My absenteeism has
diminished quite a bit.
- [Kavitha] It's not just students.
Teacher attendance improved as well.
In fact, the district's biggest saving
was from substitute teachers.
But does Ryan worry about what
her students do on Fridays?
- Well I teach high school,
so I worry about what they
do every day. (laughs)
- [Kavitha] There are
concerns outside school.
- I was dumbfounded.
- [Kavitha] Sonya Dixon runs
the Bayard Public Library.
She beefed up programming on Fridays,
but didn't see a big
increase in attendance.
Also, she found parents
were dropping off their kids
for hours unattended while they worked.
So Dixon had to limit library time.
She's not in favor of the full day week.
- It's great for teachers, they love it.
And why wouldn't they?
But I see a lot of
grandparents and relatives,
seemingly a little
overwhelmed and burdened.
- [Kavitha] New Mexico ranks last
in the nation for child wellbeing,
according to the 2018
Kids Count Data Book.
- Sixth Grade will be
this side of the table.
- [Kavitha] It's Friday.
Volunteers are packing food
supplies for almost 300 kids
to take home for the
traditional two day weekend
at a neighboring school district.
John Conway, who runs the
program, says he worries
about what kids on three
day weekends will eat.
- We have a large percent
of the population,
that are below the poverty level.
They may be hungry and
not getting enough to eat,
particularly on the weekend.
- [Kavitha] Athletic events
are now held on Fridays.
Howie Morales, the state senator,
says he's seeing a domino
effect when larger,
urban school districts also want to change
to four days weeks.
He's worked to temporarily
stop the practice
until he gets answers.
- How are the students performing,
is it really helping as far as financially
in savings for the school district,
what's gonna happen in
an economic development,
in a jobs perspective, when parents may
have to take Fridays off
to care for their kids.
We have to get a handle of it to see
if it's something that we should
allow all school districts
to do, or if this is something
that we need to put the breaks on.
- [Kavitha] Researcher
Georgia Heyward says
there's no consensus on how
four day weeks affect academics.
- There's been a bunch
of different research.
Some of it rigorous, some not.
And basically, we see
kind of neutral impact.
So, students over time do about the same
as they did on the five day school week.
- [Kavitha] This year, Cobre
schools saw an increase
in reading and math test scores overall.
But it's unclear what
the impact is on students
who struggle academically and
might need more time in class.
The debate is far from over.
Even after a year, sixth
graders Michael and Alexis
haven't changed their minds.
What would your reaction be if the school
suddenly announced, you know what,
we're gonna go back to five days.
- I would be happy.
I mean I love my teacher,
and I love my friends,
and I wanna stay with
them as long as I can.
- I'd be like, erm, I
don't really like this.
I'd be like eh, I don't
think I wanna do extra work.
- For the PBS news hour
and Education Week,
I'm Kavitha Cardoza in
Bayard County, New Mexico.
(news programming music)
