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4-day school week?

post #1 of 12
1/24/06 at 6:41am
Thread Starter 
Heard on this morning's news that Tucson's largest school district, TUSD, is considering a four-day school week. The rationale is that having a shorter week will attract better quality teachers. It seems to me that offering more money, for less work is merely going to attract the lazy ones, only in it for the paycheck.

I also forsee howls of outrage from parents, who will be scrambling to find day care, an extra day per week, not to mention the very few, who actually CARE about their children's education.

Having matriculated and graduated from TUSD schools, long before the current "dumbing down" of public education, I am appalled at the current state of the system. If I had school-aged kids, I would definitely be sending them to charter schools, rather than sending them to a TUSD school. As it was, I made sure to live in better districts, when my kids were still in school

What do you all think, about this notion?
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post #2 of 12
1/24/06 at 7:50am
I think if they try to implement it, there will be a revolution. LOL
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post #3 of 12
1/24/06 at 8:39am
typical misguided logic. I dont think the problem is necessarily the quality of teachers. I think the problem is the students attending the schools. Many non motivated, misbehaved making the public school classroom hell. Then the curriculum is watered down to the point that HS grads read on an 8th grade level if we are lucky. Keep the 5 day week, start insisting on excellence again, and give the teachers more control over the anarchy in the classrooms. Then you will attract more quality people to teaching.
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post #4 of 12
1/24/06 at 10:13am
Quote:
Originally Posted by sbw999
typical misguided logic. I dont think the problem is necessarily the quality of teachers. I think the problem is the students attending the schools. Many non motivated, misbehaved making the public school classroom hell. Then the curriculum is watered down to the point that HS grads read on an 8th grade level if we are lucky. Keep the 5 day week, start insisting on excellence again, and give the teachers more control over the anarchy in the classrooms. Then you will attract more quality people to teaching.

I have to agree with some of your statments. The so called "dumbing down" of the curriculum can be blamed on No Child Left Behind... Now we teach to the test not for knowledge. You have to think of the students you have to deal with. Are they a good group of kids who care about getting good grades and listening to the teacher? Or do they see school as a waste of time? You also have to look at the parents. Are they supporting their child in school? Are they engaged parents? What about the teacher? do they make the lessons fun? Kids learn though play, if it's fun then they will learn more.

A good teacher has a good disipline plan for the classroom. They have a democracy, not a dictatorship. If the students know that the rules are they are more likly to follow them and understand what the consinquences are. A teacher is able to relate to his or her students on a personal level. They treat them as people not as kids, they make the classroom a very confortable environment.
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post #5 of 12
1/24/06 at 10:55am
Quote:
Originally Posted by eburgess
I have to agree with some of your statments. The so called "dumbing down" of the curriculum can be blamed on No Child Left Behind... Now we teach to the test not for knowledge. You have to think of the students you have to deal with. Are they a good group of kids who care about getting good grades and listening to the teacher? Or do they see school as a waste of time? You also have to look at the parents. Are they supporting their child in school? Are they engaged parents? What about the teacher? do they make the lessons fun? Kids learn though play, if it's fun then they will learn more.

A good teacher has a good disipline plan for the classroom. They have a democracy, not a dictatorship. If the students know that the rules are they are more likly to follow them and understand what the consinquences are. A teacher is able to relate to his or her students on a personal level. They treat them as people not as kids, they make the classroom a very confortable environment.
BINGO
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post #6 of 12
1/24/06 at 11:13am
At this point in my education, a 4 day week would be to die for.

But I'm a disaffected college student, so there.

But their rationale is attracting better teachers? Man, if you want better teachers you should do a few things, many of which have been mentioned here (sbw999 and eburgess!), especially having to do with NCLB, but also, you need to educate your teachers better, in ALL levels of their education. I would NEVER want my kid taking a class with some of the people who graduated with me in high school and went into teaching.

But alas, if you're not going to properly fund education and pay them the buckets of money they deserve, then all of the smart people are going to continue to go into law, business and medicine (though, that's even becoming a thing of the past as insurance rates and certain legislation continues to drive the quality doctors out of business).
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post #7 of 12
1/24/06 at 2:21pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by katl8e
Heard on this morning's news that Tucson's largest school district, TUSD, is considering a four-day school week. The rationale is that having a shorter week will attract better quality teachers. It seems to me that offering more money, for less work is merely going to attract the lazy ones, only in it for the paycheck.
Well I will be the first person to support the 4 day week. First, it is important to recognize that 4 day week doesnt mean less instructional hours. It means that the other 4 days will each be a little longer (and there has been LOTS of research showing even the youngest elementary students can handle this) to make up for the lost time. I think you were misled as to the rationale. A number of school districts in the US have changed to a 4 day week with EXCELLENT results, including:
*Significant budgetary savings (1/5 less for buses, meals etc)
*an increase in both student and teacher attendance
*increased student morale
*increased participation in extra curricular events
*more rigorous academic content....
(before I go on, Ill provide a link that I found which best summarizes all the many many positive reasons for a 4 day week
http://www.hssd.k12.sd.us/4day.htm)
To me, this has the LEAST to do with paying "better" teachers more money. Youll notice that in a survey of current teachers, including the "bad" ones and the "good" ones, they overwhelmingly supported the notion of the 4 day week (and no, not for the extra day off, teachers would require to work many of those days, its a 4 day week primarily to the students)
I think the switch to the 4 day school week is an excellent proposal that may well IMPROVE the TUSB, and will not at all contribute to "dumbing down".
for more reading see:

http://www.bctf.bc.ca/info/research/...choolWeek.html
http://www.educationworld.com/a_admi...admin073.shtml
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post #8 of 12
1/24/06 at 3:01pm
Weren't they considering something similar for Oregon??

I'm not sure how I feel about this. On one hand, I would have loved it (still would love it) as a HS student because I would have had some more time to recooperate from homework. (I was regularly up till midnight.) IF the material was condensed to fit in a 4 day format, I would have been perfectly happy.

Unfortunately, there were other students in class with me that probably wouldn't have been able to handle a 4 day week as 1)It would have just meant an extra day to party and 2) the (supposedly) condensed material would have been too much for them.

For me personally though, it would have been wonderful!
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post #9 of 12
1/24/06 at 3:04pm
I think because the school week is shorter, the school year will be longer, to make up for all those missed fridays. They cant decrease the amount of required school days, so if they reduce it to 4 days, that will make them extend the school year, possibly having to go to school during the summer?
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post #10 of 12
1/24/06 at 3:21pm
Not at all. Adding 90 minutes each to the other 4 days, and Voila.
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post #11 of 12
1/24/06 at 3:21pm
Katl8e, I agree with everything you said. 100%
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post #12 of 12
1/24/06 at 3:40pm
I think that a four day week will be very hard for working families where both parents work. Who is going to look after the children on that day when parents both have to work?

These families need two incomes and will not be able to support an extra day of childcare when they are barely coping with the costs now.

And I know for a fact that I could have not coped with an extra 90 minutes at school. As it was I was leaving home at 7.30am and getting home at 4.30. This is a long day.

Its ok for children who live very close to a school but not all children live that close to their school and it will only be added stress for their families.

Someone in the system obviously wants a 3 day weekend.
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