More schools moving to 4 day school week to retain teachers

This is what we did during COVID. Teachers DID work on Wednesdays. But no kids. It is so draining being on for kids every day all day, that a day of work without them legitimately feels like a day off to most teachers.

This is correct. Parents, lawyers and courts have ruined public education. Vocational tracking was a great thing and should be put back. College is not and should not be for everyone. Inclusion is a joke and is just there to make parents feel better. School administration and policy cater to the lowest kids and sacrifice the majority for fear of lawsuits. School discipline is horrible because parents are horrible at raising kids.

IMO one of the reasons for the many behavior problems and issues in schools is that we ARE treating these older teens like 10 year olds, so that is what leads to their issues. While it sounds contradictory, I think if we give older teens MORE autonomy over themselves, MORE responsibility, and MORE real world consequences we would see improvements across the board.

We have placed a layer of restrictions upon them that are unnatural, all with good intentions, in the name of safety; but it only creates frustration, confusion, and results in them acting out. Then we call them disorderly. We set them up to fail.

My guess is that if you went 4 days, you are still in school the same total amount of time in the week. Many states dictate the number of minutes one is to be in school. For this reason there is not concern about a loss of learning.

There is a practical effect that cannot be ignored in what to do even with high school kids on those days. Many older ones can work, but younger ones might not have access to transportation for working. So it is something that has to be a consideration.

It seems that when these moves are made, they never solve the problem they were intended to solve. The biggest money savings from 4 days has to be running busses. You are still going to heat buildings and have a good number of lights on so that does not seem like a huge savings (maybe I am off on that and likely varies greatly depending on where the school is and how new it is). If it does not increase teacher retention or attract better teachers, then assess it accordingly.

An answer in some places with enough schools is to have some on 4 day schedules and have a lot more freedom to choose. There might be families that prefer a 4 day schedule and can manage it, but for those who do not you would have traditional schools available.

"Grade level" is a moving goal post instigated by testing and text book companies to ensure that there is a continuous need for their services.

OR in other words...how can something be grade level when 60% of the population cannot meet it?

You can tell the difference between an essay by a student at a tenth grade level and a student at a 5th grade level.

I have taught in public schools for nearly 40 years in California - mostly in metropolitan Los Angeles. In that time I have had student counts of between 150-270 per day. Anyone that thinks like the quote above, "Hold teachers accountable." Has never taught in a modern (urban) clasroom, school or district. In my time as a teacher, I have know plenty of really good to excelent teachers who were not able to generate students' outcomes/results commensurate with their abilities and efforts because if the environments and dynamics in which they were teaching - both in terms of the schools and the communities. Social media, electronics and cell phones have done nothing to help the situation. And though we are finally getting past tits consequences to the education, the pandemic didn't help the situation at all. Before you bash teachers and schools, go volunteer in a local school, or better yet get your teaching credential and see if YOU can make a difference toward drastic improvement.

New teacher here. I love my job but a 4 day work week will not solve teacher retention. A few things I have noted which makes teaching extremely difficult over my first 3 months are listed below:

1. Students suffer from apathy. The minority amount of students who are apathetic makes the job hard because they do not care about the assignments or consequences. The lack of care makes facilitating the classroom difficult.

2. Lack of value in education and respect to teachers. The US is respecting teachers less and less. Parents are undermining teachers authority, which can cause students to not look at teachers as an authoritative figure. Also, the lack of funding in areas of education that are needed is causing larger class sizes, inadequate support an materials that are outdated.

3. Compensation! As a first year teacher, the amount I am paid is not up to par on the expectations that the school and district put on me. I have to sponsor clubs to supplement my income a little bit. I get the argument that we have plenty of breaks and are not working whole years BUT we play more roles than just teacher and even on weekends or breaks, I find myself spending hours preparing upcoming units and responding to parents.

4. The last area I will bring up is the lack of teacher autonomy. We have set standards that must be followed and must teach to these standards at the way we are told. Students are behind in categories like literacy or mathematics because we have to teach something a specific way even if there is another way that benefits the students.

I have much more to say and solutions to certain problems but nobody will listen to a lousy first year teacher like me.

Agreed. We have students who are getting slaps on the wrist that are otherwise serious consequences that would have serious backlash in the real world.

Teaching 146 brats like yourselves is the lot in life of a Florida middle school science teacher. It's no wonder that burnout is extremely high and students and teachers have to suffer not only monthly or weekly shooting or bombing threats and lockdowns, which actually is the case there, but students have a constantly changing roster of teachers and Ron DeSantis's attacks on teacher's unions have only made the massive shortage of teachers worse. What do you propose to do to increase the # of teachers? Why should my child go months without a teacher because conservatives have made the job even worse than it already was? Low-paying, disrespected, powerless, dumbed down.

I hear a lot about teacher shortages, but I rarely see that be the case. Maybe I just dont see it because it's not newsworthy, or because they don't want to answer the question about why some schools can't find teachers. Any way, the local colleges here are churning out loads of teachers every 6 months. I would think you can feast and churn those people long enough to keep ahead of the curve.

Regarding teacher pay, I think differential pay is something teachers should embrace, but instead they cling to the old outdated Time Served model. Sorry but someone teaching computer programming, or physics is worth more in the job market than someone teaching Kindergarten.

Teachers = Leaches

Covid proved that public school systems DO NOT NEED them all. Put one in a room and broadcast to many schools. Have auto graded papers or hire non union people to grade.

Better yet, have the kids stay home and work from their laptops. No more school shootings or boys starting the school year and finishing up as girls. Do that crap at home!

They're doing it to save money. Opening the doors costs money, thanks to utilities, food service, hourly staffing and so on. Plus buses don't need to run that day, which saves fuel, hourly bus driver staffing costs, and a bit on maintenance long term.

Sure, salaried teachers still get paid the same, but they save everywhere else.

It didn't take long for this type of moron to appear. The contract is divided into 10 of 12 months. Most teachers take a second job during their summer. Some teachers would prefer to have year round school because of the massive drops that occur during the summer. Planning period is spent cleaning, grading, making copies, contacting parents, planning and a lot of work is taken home for the evening and the weekend. Grow up moron.

I’d love to take my kids out of school.

If it wasn’t for the social aspect I would.

The education system (in the UK) is not fit for the modern world, stuck in the Victorian ages.

Ignorance is bliss. You really think taking away teachers is a good solution and isolating students? We live in the 21st century where skills like collaboration and communication are important, especially considering a majority of job are in person. How are you going to expect this next crop of kids to function around other humans if you want them to all be learning behind a computer? Better yet, what about the parents who are gone at work and can’t watch there kids.

Schools are important but need some reform

If it's such an "easy ride" why is there a teacher shortage?

🖕Oh man you teachers need a real job.. Teachers can all be replaced by AI. You losers in CA demanded a pay raise and wouldn’t show up for work during “Covid”. You’re all overpaid, stop complaining. Tired of the whiny teachers that can’t afford a home in CA , none of you can. Haha wow must be hard to babysit for 5 hr days and get a massive pension and six figure salary. Go away 😆🖕