Yesterday this showed up on CBS News, and in USA Today

(from Dorie Turner, Associated Press Writer)

FORT VALLEY, Ga. – During the school year, Mondays in this rural Georgia community are for video games, trips to grandma's house and hanging out at the neighborhood community center. Don't bother showing up for school. The doors are locked and the lights are off. Peach County is one of more than 120 school districts across the country where dents attend school just four days a week, a cost-saving tactic gaining popularity among cash-strapped districts struggling to make ends meet. It was that or lay off 39 teachers the week before school started, said Superintendent Susan Clark.

"We're treading water," Clark said…There was nothing else for us to do."

The results? Test scores went up. So did attendance — for both students and teachers. The district is spending one-third of what it once did on substitute teachers, Clark said.

The four days that students are in school are slightly longer and more crowded with classes and activities. After school, students can get tutoring in subjects where they're struggling. On their off day, students who don't have other options attend "Monday care" at area churches and the local Boys & Girls Club, where tutors are also available to help with homework. The programs generally cost a few dollars a day per student.

StudyBuddy went looking for California school districts working on this issue. In Riverside County California last November, George Landon, Assistant Superintendent for Lake Elsinore Unified School District, sent a memo to all employees. It stated that the district had been asked to consider the 4-day week for 2010-2011. It named the pertinent California Education Code Section 37710.

He said that currently only eight of the state’s school districts have official authorization for the 4-day week, and only two have implemented it., Pacific USD (Monterey County) and Leggett Valley USD (Mendocino County), both small rural communities. Assembly Bill 868 is current legislation that is pending to authorize the Palo Verde USD in the city of Blythe to implement it also. Landon pointed out that, among those school districts already authorized to implement the 4-day week, only Marysville is the size of his own, and Marysville has not yet done so. He also pointed out that the local union of classified employees (such as custodians, bus drivers, teachers’ assistants, clerical, and food service employees, would have to sign off on a 4-day week prior to new legislation being introduced in the Assembly. Lastly, he warned of possible parent opposition if other child care options were not found. His conclusion was that the district could consider implementing a 4-day week for 2010-2011, provided all the above could be met.

Doris Turner’s article claims that it’s a popular option to cut education costs:

Supporters of the shortened week boast of improved morale and increased attendance (by both students and teachers), open Fridays for sporting events and doctor appointments, and more time to spend with loved ones.  (Opponents of the four-day school week cite problems with long, exhausting class days and finding day care for children whose parents work outside the home.)  Caldwell Parish will be ditching a lot of school this year. Every Monday, to be precise--and they're doing so with the principal's permission. Starting Aug. 11, this rural school system in northeastern Louisiana will hold classes only four days a week, following the lead of more than 100 school districts in 17 states. The reason? To save gas money.

So far there have been no formal studies on the effects that a condensed schedule has on student performance. Anecdotally, however, the experiment appears to be paying off for some districts, both financially and academically. Five years ago, Kentucky's Webster County school district faced drastic budget shortfalls caused by waning revenue from local property taxes. But after debating whether to close one of the district's seven schools, officials decided instead to institute a Tuesday-to-Friday schedule, which to date has saved more than $300,000 on transportation, utility and insurance costs.

Student absenteeism has also fallen remarkably in Webster County. Ditto for teachers, which means fewer resources are being used to pay substitute teachers. Administrators also credit the schedule change for significant academic gains. The 2,000-student district went from being ranked 111th in the state on standardized tests in 2003 to 53rd last year. Says Riley Ramsey, district director of personnel and technology: "We took our budget savings and plowed it right back into instructional content," such as hiring one-on-one tutors and extending kindergarten hours.

Closer to home, a San Francisco--based network of charter schools called the Knowledge Is Power Program keeps its 16,000 students in class 60% longer than a typical public school, and last year 100% of its eighth-grade classes outperformed their district averages in both language arts and mathematics on state-administered exams. "All the evidence says the more hours our schools are open, the better off our kids are," says Jennifer Davis, president of the National Center on Time and Learning, a Boston research-and-advocacy group devoted to extending school schedules.

Yet communities love the 4-day week once they get used to it, across the country. This issue isn’t going away. StudyBuddy doesn’t need to remind local readers in San Francisco that our current summer vacation is now a mere ten weeks, with school starting up August 16th. Most of us aren’t ready to think of it right now. However, it’s important to take note that the National School Boards Association and the National Conference of State Legislatures have both come out in favor of the 4-day school week. The California Education Code allows it, but requires districts to show that performance does not decrease as a result of its implementation. So hold on to your hats: we may get to see this idea spread here.