The idea of a four-day school week has been rising in popularity. However, this new schedule has both positive and negative effects.

It is actually possible to have a four-day school week and have the same amount of class time in all five classes. To have the four-day school week, ten minutes would need to be added to each class. This would make enough time for four essential classes and one elective class.

However, this may cause social problems for people who only see their school friends on those days. Students will receive less time for non-school-related activities that take place within the school, such as school meetings, lunch, and recess, all things that they would get considerably less of with a four-day school week.

With this new schedule, the school year would be shortened by around 31 days. With this extra time, “students tend to spend their extra time on a variety of activities, but they also spend substantially more time on chores and work (for their family or at a job) over the course of a week than students in a similar five-day week district”, according to the RAND Corporation. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research organization.

Emily Morton, from the American Institutes of Research, stated that this new schedule has been more popular in the rural parts of states west of the Mississippi River. This makes up for 90% of all schools with a four-day school week.

This version of the school week may bring more time for the students, yet this has some consequences.Morton stated that studies have found negative effects on the smaller scale on average. There is a gap in learning that can be compared to “ a student being two to seven weeks behind where they would have been if they stayed on a five–day week”, according to Morton.

Logistically, this would increase the average amount of sleep a student receives during the week. “ 73 percent of high school students get between seven and seven and a half hours of sleep... many students attempt to catch up on lost sleep by sleeping late on the weekends”, according to Harvard Summer School.

While this idea of a four-day week may lead to more sleep and a shortened school year, it is also possible that it can hinder social lives at school and lead to delays in knowledge.