Should the school week be shortened to four days?

Java Python  

Submission 1

Research Proposal Form. and Background Section

Working title	Should the school week be shortened to four days?  This is clear.
Future discipline/course	Educational leadership and management
Research question(s)  Your main research question(s) and any other questions you might ask to understand, research, and develop your controversy	What does four days school system mean?  Is four days school system better then five days system?  Does a shortened school week have a positive or negative impact? On what? The students’ health, the curriculum?  Perhaps you could ask what the ideal school week is and the school day's length. Would shortening the week lengthen the days?
The controversy  Including why this generates discussion amongst experts and academics and some of the positions within the controversy (including your own current position)	Four days school system has a lot of benefits,such as save (saving) money,bring free time to teachers and students but it also has a lot of problems, for example, it may increase the juvenile delinquency rate, affect the efficiency of learning,etc.  The controversy is whether four days school system can be implemented compared with longer school days.  In my opinion,I prefer not to shorten school week day. And for the week?  You will need to say why?
Link to discipline/future course	Educational leadership and management
Rationale (significance and/ or relevance, why it is important)	It is a very important topic because it is about the development of the school and the students.
Purpose/Aims (possible views, groups and/or aspects you plan to write about)	Aspects: education  The aim of this paper is to discuss the controversy of whether the school day system need +S to be shortened to four days in terms to know more about the effect of school week length on schools and students.
Background section (200 words)	Four days school system refers to students attending classes four days a week instead of the traditional five. It means that school schedule eliminates one day per week from the school calendar and extends the length of other  four school days. The four-day system is usually found in rural areas and some urban areas. It is a concept that has been used in rural areas for decades to cope with budget shortfalls(Turner,2019). After the the COVID-19 pandemic, teacher burnout and shortages have plagued the education system ( Should the school week be shortened to four days? Morton,2024).In order to save potential costs, more and more schools are adopting a shortened school week, from five days to four days. It has implications for schools, teachers, and students. The four-day school week can bring a series of benefits, but it also has a series of negative effects. It can help to increase student engagement, reduce substance use behaviors, reduce non-school screen time and increase physical activity,but it also increased bullying, increased sexual activity, decreased sleep, and breakfast consumption( Israel, et al.2020).  The purpose of this research is to investigate the pros and cons of four-day school system and whether it can be referred. ? Adopted or deferred?     This part is just for the background.  Give the word count here.
List of References[Text Wrapping Break](sources cited in the proposal/background section)	Turner, Jon, Kim Finch, and Ximena Uribe-Zarain. “Three Midwest Rural School Districts' First Year Transition to the Four Day School Week: Parents' Perspectives.” The Rural educator (Fort Collins, Colo.) 40.1 (2019): 1–15.  Put the year after the author’s name.     Morton, Emily, Paul N. Thompson, and Megan Kuhfeld. “A Multi-State, Student-Level Analysis of the Effects of the Four-Day School Week on Student Achievement and Growth.” Economics of education review 100 (2024): 102524.   Israel, Whitney et al. “Adolescent Health Behaviors in Schools with 4‐ Versus 5‐Day School Weeks.” The Journal of school health 90.10 (2020): 794–801.   Use the Harvard Style. with only initials for first names and the year of publication after the names.
Reading List[Text Wrapping Break](sources read, but not cited)

Genre:  

You have a clear working title. In the aim, give the reason(s) for suggesting this topic. Are students in the 5-day school week really tired?  There are a lot of sources about this.  

You can also add to the questions such as which day would be chosen for closing? Would Wednesday be the best choice to rest in the middle of the week? See what your sources suggest and if you agree. Some would suggest Friday to have a longer weekend.  

Be more precise in the rationale. Are there issues about the current system? Can the change be sufficiently positive to make a change worthwhile? Evaluate the reasons. Some schools currently have 4.5 days and want to lower the time spent in school to set aside time for other activities. Is this justified? 

You will have to give reasons for your own opinion which is to maintain the 5-day week.  

Criticality  

You need more sources and list them using the Harvard style. with the year of publication just after the author’s names. You found rather recent sources, which is good.  

What is the scope for your background? Does it refer to the USA, GB or other countries. Give precise laws about it. Some schools work on Wednesday mornings and Saturday mornings, meaning 6 days a week for students to get up early, yet that only comes to 5 days. You should refer to that option as well as having school only in the mornings. Try to widen the topic. You should also mention if the debate concerns all types of schools including private and independent ones or just state-funded public schools.  

Language 

Your written English is clear with only a few errors, such as in subject and verb agreement (the system needs).  

Next steps 

Go over the feedback and make the scope more specific. You can bring out the differences in several countries if you would rather not work on just one country, but it should be mentioned in your paper. You need to find more sources before you write Submission 2 and have from 10 to 12 sources for the final submission (using the Harvard Reference Style)