Working Papers
The Effects of Four-Day School Weeks on Juvenile Crime
Abstract: Schools are increasingly adopting four-day school weeks to address financial, attendance, and teacher retention issues, a trend that the COVID-19 pandemic has amplified. However, little is known about the non-academic behavioral responses of juveniles to such transitions. We examine the impacts of adopting a four-day school week on juvenile crime, focusing particularly on disparities across rurality and locale size, using a difference-in-differences estimation approach. We find significant upticks in juvenile crime, primarily in property and violent crimes, within non-rural and large law enforcement agencies. Conversely, we find evidence suggesting a decrease in juvenile drug and alcohol-related crimes during school hours. In addition to changes in juvenile crime on non-school weekdays, we observe spillover effects on the remaining weekdays and weekends, primarily in non-rural and large agency settings. Thus, decision-makers should be cognizant of the potential increase in juvenile crime that may result from the four-day school week.Four-day School weeks and teacher mobility: Evidence from Missouri and Oklahoma
Abstract: Four-day school week schedules are being adopted with increasing frequency, to promote teacher retention and recruitment in the face of growing teacher shortages. This study examines the effects of four-day school week adoption on teacher turnover. Using teacher employment records in Missouri and Oklahoma from 2009-2019 and a difference-in-differences empirical design, I find that four-day school week adoption is effective in its two main aims of promoting retention amongst teachers that would have left for another four-day school week district and recruiting teachers out of geographically close five-day school week districts. However, as the local teacher labor market becomes more saturated with four-day school week districts, some teachers are more likely to exit the teaching profession entirely. Beneficial teacher recruitment and retention effects are most prevalent in rural schools, in states where the four-day school week is motivated by teacher recruitment and retention efforts, and amongst teachers that are women, white, Bachelor’s degree holders, and young to mid-career teachers. Effects on teaching exit due to increased four-day school week prevalence in the local teacher labor market are seen for most subgroups, but most pronounced for non-white teachers and advanced degree holders. These heterogeneous effects help reconcile the mixed results observed in four-day school week teacher retention and recruitment effects across different states examined in the existing four-day school week literatureThe Impact of Four-Day School Weeks on Food Insecurity in Rural U.S. School Districts and the Role of Off-Day Food Provision (with Katherine Gunter, Coleen Jones, John M. Schuna Jr., and Emily J. Tomayko)
Abstract: Purpose:Food insecurity remains a significant issue in the US, particularly in rural areas. Federally-subsidized school meal programs help alleviate food insecurity, but access is limited during school breaks. The adoption of four-day school weeks (4DSW), common in rural districts, may further limit access to these programs. This study examines how 4DSW schedules impact food insecurity and whether food provision on the non-school weekday can mitigate any impacts.Works in Progress
One four-day school week model for all? An analysis of state-specific four-day school week achievement impacts (with Jason Ward and Samuel Absher)
The effects of four-day school weeks on parents and families: Evidence from focus groups in Oregon and Montana (with Katherine Gunter, John M. Schuna Jr., and Emily J. Tomayko)
District-specific four-day school week achievement impacts and four-day school week implementation
Time to win? The effects of four-day school weeks on high school sports performance
External grant projects
Principal Investigator, “Effects of Four-Day School Weeks on Student Achievement and Child and Family Wellbeing” (Spencer Foundation Large Research Grant), January 2021 - December 2024: $373,517 (with Emily J. Tomayko (co-PI), Jason Ward (co-PI), Katherine Gunter, and John M. Schuna Jr.)
Co-Principal Investigator, “Evaluating the effects of four-day school weeks on child and family health, well-being, and socioeconomic factors” (National Institutes of Health R21), September 2020 - August 2023: $408,375 (with Emily J. Tomayko (PI), Katherine Gunter, and John M. Schuna Jr.)
Principal Investigator, “Impacts of Four-Day School Weeks on Academic Achievement and Achievement Gaps” (Russell Sage Foundation), June 2020 - May 2021: $16,248
Principal Investigator, “The effects of shortened school years on school district finances, school programs, and principal and teacher perceptions of school climate” (AERA Research Grant), October 2018 - September 2019: $20,000
Principal Investigator, “Is Four Less than Five? The Effects of Four-day School Weeks on Student Achievement Across Racial, Socioeconomic, and Special Education Subgroups” (Spencer Foundation Small Research Grant), January 2018 - December 2019: $45,664