Nearly 60 school districts across Texas have implemented four-day school weeks in an effort to prevent teacher turnover.
According to Austin-based outlet KXAN, at least seven other school districts offer a hybrid schedule with four-day weeks implemented for part of the school year. This trend among the school districts began at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. An investigation by the outlet found that a record number of teachers either resigned or retired throughout the 2021-2022 school year, citinglow pay and increasing workloads without additional resources and planning time as some of the reasons why.
Reportedly, school districts that began implementing four-day weeks started seeing teacher retention. And, it offered a competitive advantage when it came to hiring new teachers.
“Our why is simple and straightforward,” Superintendent Paula Patterson of Crosby Independent School District told KXAN. “We want to find, recruit and retain the best teachers in the state in the classrooms for our students. This change immediately makes Crosby ISD a top destination for educators in Harris County.”
La Vernia Independent School District near San Antonio conducted a survey that found that 82 percent of staff were interested in four-day weeks.
This is possible due to a change implemented In 2015 by Texas lawmakers. The change required school districts to provide a minimum of 75,600 minutes instead of a set number of 180 days of instructional time per school year. As a result, districts now have more flexibility with their schedules.
This idea has made its way to large school districts in other states. This week, Fox 10 Phoenix reported that one of the city's largest school districts would also switch to four-day weeks beginning in the 2023-2024 school year in an effort to recruit new teachers.
In September, Townhall reported that a school district in Florida considered a four-day school week to address its teacher shortage. Townhall also reported how funding provided to school districts during the COVID-19 pandemic was meant to be spent to raise teacher salaries and bring teachers out of retirement to get students back on track after lockdowns. Since lockdowns, Townhall covered how lower academic performance, chronic absenteeism and mental health challenges that have become prevalent among students since the pandemic. In 2022, a U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study found that more than 40 percent of teenagers felt "sad" or "hopeless" during the pandemic.