Passage 1
Passage 2
PASSAGE 1: Four Days or Five?
By Phillip Jones
State legislators often view the four-day school week as a technique for continuing to support education despite a strained budget. The basic concept is clear: by offering instruction four days a week, schools save money. Theoretically, savings can be derived from a reduction in transportation costs, the cost of heating or cooling buildings, food costs, and the cost of personnel salaries. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, at least 21 states have school districts that operate on a four-day week.
Writing for the Times Free Press website during 2012, Tim Omarzu reported the financial success of a four-day school schedule experiment. With the principal objective of saving money, students in the experimental district would attend school about 160 days annually, rather than 180 days. In exchange, the students have longer school days. In one county, the shorter school week saved about $333,762 on salaries, $221,000 for transportation, $154,000 on power, and $88,000 for substitute teacher pay.
“Best thing in the world” was how Superintendent Jimmy Lenderman characterized the four-day week. “There’s a lot of positives that have come out of it we weren’t expecting,” Lenderman told Omarzu. The unexpected bonuses included improved test scores, reduced absenteeism from both teachers and students, and fewer student disciplinary problems.
Jazmine Anderson wrote about her experience with a four-day school week in her March 2016 article for the Odyssey website. Anderson went to school four days a week (Monday through Thursday) from first grade through 12th grade. One benefit of the schedule, she said, is that students do not have to miss class for sports and other extracurricular activities, which are characteristically scheduled for Fridays.
Anderson’s school day typically ran from 8:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., a schedule that she said was not very challenging. “In the four-day model, core classes (AKA the ones that require actual thinking) are set in the morning while students’ brains are still fresh,” she said. “Electives (the ones that don’t demand as much focus) are usually after lunch.”
However, the four-day schedule failed to prepare Anderson for the five-day schedule of college. “Only getting two days in during the weekend killed me,” she said, “and now, a semester and a half into my freshman year of college, I still haven’t completely adjusted.”
Proponents of the traditional five-day school week argue that the four-day schedule does not train students for college or the workforce. In addition, the shorter school week creates a dilemma for families with two working parents: leave the child unattended for a day or pay for supervision. Some people also argue that a three-day weekend gives a student more time to forget class lessons and fall behind.
What about the improved test scores with a four-day week? The results are unclear. Three studies of Colorado schools yielded different conclusions: one study showed some academic gains with the four-day week, one showed no difference between four-and five-day weeks, and one showed a possible gain for the five-day schedule.
PASSAGE 2: School Schedule
By Mark Smith
School districts across the United States are experimenting with different schedules. One experiment is the four-day school week: students attend school four days a week with each day lasting around eight hours. Typically, the prime motivation for trying the schedule is to save money.
In her June 2010 article for The Associated Press, Dorie Turner profiled a school district which switched to a four-day schedule while facing a one-million-dollar budget deficit. The modification saved about $400,000 per year and enabled the school district to avoid firing about 40 teachers. The four-day schedule reportedly creates other benefits: a rise in test scores, increased attendance of students and teachers, and a higher graduation rate. In addition, students can use the extra day for sports and other extracurricular activities without sacrificing class time.
The four-day schedule also provides students and teachers more relaxation time. “Teachers tell me they are much more focused because they’ve had time to prepare,” Superintendent Susan Clark told Turner. “They don’t have kids sleeping in class on Tuesday.”
Sometimes, the four-day school week is deemed a failure. A school district in Marlow, Oklahoma switched back to a five-day school week. “It was harder on the teachers,” Superintendent Bennie Newton told Turner. “We were asking the kids to move at a quicker pace.”
The Macomb Public School District in Oklahoma also switched back to the five-day school week after students showed no improvement in performance. During a 2015 interview with Tulsa World reporters, Superintendent Matthew Riggs cited another reason to prefer the five-day schedule: about 76% of the students in the district live in households that qualify for free or reduced-rate school meals. “There were kids I firmly believe were leaving school on Thursday and weren’t getting a good meal until Monday morning when we served breakfast again,” Riggs told the reporters.
What about the four-day school week cost savings? Paul Hill noted that professional salaries account for the “lion’s share” of school district costs in his July 2017 article for the Education Week website. “All teachers and most professional staff get the same annual pay for the four longer days,” Hill said.
The obsolete purpose of the traditional school calendar with its extended summer vacation was to allow children to help harvest crops. Year-round schooling is another school schedule experiment. One popular year-round schedule has students attending school for 45 days followed by a three-week vacation. This cycle continues throughout the year with adjustments for important holidays.
Some schools try the year-round schedule to save money. Yet year-round schools can cost more money due to expenses such as extra transportation costs and summertime air-conditioning. Another reason that a school switches to a year-round schedule is to prevent summer break learning loss. David Hornak, Superintendent of Holt Public Schools in Michigan, explained this phenomenon to Erin Barry for his August 2016 CNBC article. “On average,” Hornak said, “a teacher on the traditional calendar is required to re-teach between four and eight weeks annually after the summer intermission.”
4. What central idea can be found in BOTH Passage 1 and Passage 2? Use at least ONE detail from EACH text to support your answer. Write your answer in the space provided.
Both Passage 1 and Passage 2 discuss the implementation of alternative school schedules, such as the four-day school week, as a cost-saving measure for school districts. In Passage 1, it is mentioned that schools save money on various expenses such as transportation, heating or cooling buildings, and personnel salaries by switching to a four-day week. Similarly, in Passage 2, it is highlighted that one school district saved about $400,000 per year by implementing a four-day schedule. This central idea of saving money through alternative school schedules is present in both passages.
WRITING TASK
Many schools have switched to a four-day school week, and some schools are considering it. Is this schedule beneficial for everyone involved?
Weigh the claims on both sides, and then write an argumentative essay in your own words explaining whether or not students should only attend school four days each week.
Be sure to use evidence from BOTH texts in your argumentative essay. Write your answer in the space provided.
Before you write, be sure to:
think about ideas, facts, definitions, details, and other information and examples you want to use;
think about how you will introduce your topic and what the main topic will be for each paragraph;
develop your ideas clearly and use your own words, except when quoting directly from the source texts; and
be sure to identify the sources by title or number when using details or facts directly from the sources.
Now write your argumentative essay in the space provided. Be sure to:
introduce your claim;
support your claim with logical reasoning and relevant evidence from the texts;
acknowledge and address alternate or opposing claims;
organize the reasons and evidence logically;
use words, phrases, and clauses to connect your ideas and to clarify the relationships among claims, counterclaims, reasons, and evidence;
establish and maintain a formal style;
provide a concluding statement or section that follows from and supports the argument presented; and
check your work for correct grammar, usage, capitalization, spelling, and punctuation.
Please use two line spaces (using the "enter" key twice) between each paragraph.
Switching to a four-day school week has become a popular trend in many school districts across the United States. Proponents argue that this schedule is beneficial for both students and schools as it allows for cost-saving measures and potentially improved academic performance. However, there are also opposing views that question the effectiveness and consequences of this alternative schedule. When considering whether students should attend school only four days each week, it is crucial to weigh the claims on both sides.
On one hand, the implementation of a four-day school week can lead to significant cost savings for school districts. Phillip Jones, in his article "Four Days or Five?" discusses how schools can save money on transportation, heating or cooling buildings, food costs, and personnel salaries by operating on a four-day schedule. This financial relief can enable schools to avoid teacher layoffs, improve resources, and enhance overall budget stability. Additionally, Mark Smith's article "School Schedule" highlights how, in some cases, the four-day week has resulted in higher test scores, increased attendance rates, and improved graduation rates.
However, the benefits of a four-day school week do not come without drawbacks. Critics argue that this schedule may not adequately prepare students for the demands of college or the workforce. Jazmine Anderson, as mentioned in Jones' article, found it challenging to transition from a four-day high school week to a traditional five-day college schedule. Furthermore, concerns are raised about the potential negative impact on student learning, as a three-day weekend may lead to forgetting classroom lessons and falling behind academically.
Moreover, the success of the four-day school week in terms of academic performance is inconclusive. While some studies, as cited in Jones' article, show improvements in test scores with a four-day schedule, others demonstrate no significant difference or even a possible advantage for the traditional five-day week. Additionally, as noted by Paul Hill in Smith's article, professional salaries remain a significant portion of school district costs even with a four-day schedule, raising questions about the long-term financial implications of this model.
In conclusion, the decision to switch to a four-day school week should consider both the potential benefits and drawbacks for students, schools, and communities. While cost savings and academic improvements may be appealing, the concerns about inadequate preparation for higher education and workforce readiness cannot be ignored. Therefore, before fully embracing this schedule, thorough evaluation and consideration of all factors are necessary to ensure that students' education and well-being are prioritized. Ultimately, a balanced approach that takes into account the diverse needs and outcomes of all stakeholders is essential in determining the most effective school schedule for the success of students.