The four-day school week led the InformED Report for April 24, 2017, edCircuit’s short video news briefing for educators. The edition looked at North Callaway R-1 in Missouri, one of a number of rural districts that had decided to hold classes four days a week rather than five, and at the budget and staffing pressures behind that choice.
The edition also covered two international reports showing that noise and disorder were keeping many Australian students from hearing their teachers, and closed with a spotlight on a New Jersey principal who ran a 5K race pushing a 10-year-old student’s racing chair. Each story concerned how schools protect time, order and belonging when resources are limited.
In this edition
- North Callaway R-1 in Missouri planned a four-day school week from 2017-18, estimating savings of about $100,000 a year.
- Two international reports found that in some Australian classes up to half of students could not hear the teacher, and Education Minister Simon Birmingham called for zero tolerance of bad behaviour.
- Spotlight: Principal Vincent Myers of West End Memorial Elementary in Woodbury, New Jersey, pushed 10-year-old Andrew’s racing chair through a 5K so that Andrew could cross a finish line.
A Missouri district moves to a four-day school week
The North Callaway R-1 School District in Missouri announced in March 2017 that it would move to a four-day school week beginning in the 2017-2018 school year. Under the plan described in the episode, students would no longer attend on Mondays and would instead have longer school days on the remaining four days. Superintendent Bryan Thomsen presented the change as a response to state funding cuts, and KBIA reported his estimate that the schedule would save roughly 1 percent of the annual budget, or about $100,000 a year.
Thomsen told KBIA that the district weighed three factors: finances, fit with the community, and the effect on recruiting and keeping staff. He said small rural districts struggle to compete with larger neighbours on salary and benefits, and that a four-day week could make North Callaway more attractive to teachers. Before deciding, the district surveyed parents online; about 65 percent supported the change, 13 percent opposed it and 21 percent were undecided.
District officials also visited schools already on a four-day schedule, including Montgomery County R-II, whose assistant superintendent, Della Bell-Freeman, said the shorter week had made her district more careful about how it used instructional time. For leaders weighing a similar step, the North Callaway account is a reminder that the savings are modest relative to the whole budget, and that the harder questions concern child care on the fifth day, the quality of the longer days, and how the change will be evaluated, which Thomsen said the district would do as it went while keeping parents informed.
Australian reports link classroom disorder to weaker results
Two international studies released in March 2017 described Australian classrooms in stark terms. As reported by Yahoo News Australia, the Programme for International Student Assessment, which tested 14,500 15-year-olds at 758 Australian schools, placed Australia significantly below the OECD average on classroom discipline, and some classes were described as so affected by noise and disorder that up to half of the students could not hear the teacher. The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study added that 20 percent of Year 4 students and 9 percent of Year 8 students reported being bullied regularly.
The reports connected these conditions to Australia’s weaker standing in mathematics and science. Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham responded by calling for a zero tolerance approach to bad behaviour, arguing that extra spending does not by itself produce better discipline or engagement and that families and communities share responsibility for attitudes to school. Labor’s education spokeswoman, Tanya Plibersek, offered a different reading, saying disadvantage was the largest factor holding students back and that the schools in greatest need should receive the most support.
The data describe the problem more clearly than they settle its cause, and both arguments have a place in a school’s planning: shared expectations for behaviour, and targeted support where the load is heaviest.
InformED Report spotlight: a principal at the 5K finish line
The edition closed with a story from Woodbury, New Jersey. FOX 29 reported in March 2017 that Vincent Myers, principal of West End Memorial Elementary School, ran the Haddonfield Adrenaline 5K pushing the racing chair of Andrew, a 10-year-old student with autism who was completing his first 5K. Andrew’s twin brother, Austin, held on to the chair and helped push him to the finish, while family members, classmates and teachers cheered along the course.
Myers organised the run through Ainsley’s Angels, a nonprofit that helps children of all abilities take part in races, and invited the brothers and their classmates to join him. He told FOX 29 that the school’s aim in Woodbury is to personalise what it does, and that it wanted to give Andrew the experience of crossing a finish line. The story shows how inclusion can reach the events where a school community gathers, often through partners that already exist for that purpose.
Sources
- Alexis Reese, “North Callaway School District to Have Four Day Week in 2017-2018 School Year,” KBIA, March 3, 2017.
- “Unruly Aussie children the ‘reason students are failing’,” Yahoo News Australia, March 14, 2017.
- “NJ principal assists 10-year-old with special needs to the 5K finish line,” FOX 29 Philadelphia, March 20, 2017.
About the InformED Report
The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on April 24, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.
Subscribe to edCircuit to stay up to date on all of our shows, podcasts, news, and thought leadership articles.
Related reading
More on InformED Report
