ST. LOUIS - Many schools in the state of Missouri are set to begin school this week. Some like St. Mary's South Side Catholic High School and Rosati-Kain Academy begin new eras for their schools.
Other schools will begin new era under different circumstances. Many schools in the state are set to begin the school year under a new four-day school week. More than 161 school in the state has transitioned to a four day school week.
Most of the schools districts that have transitioned have mostly been on the southern and western side of the state with district like the Independence School District in the Kansas City-area among those to transition to a four-day school week so far. The Independence District is the largest district so far in the state to transition to a four-day school week, with the district housing nearly 15,000 students.
The trend has not quite picked up on the St. Louis-area yet with the Crystal City 47 School District down in Jefferson County being the closest district to St. Louis to transition to a four-day school week. Crystal City only has about 550 students in the district.
Jon Turner, an Associate Professor in the Department of Counseling, Leadership, and Special Education at Missouri State University joins Debbie and Megan on Total Information A.M. talking about four day school weeks.
Turner says that the four-day school weeks could ultimately be a huge benefit, especially when it comes to keeping teachers in the field, something that has been a challenge in the state of Missouri.
"At our most recent data that has come out of the Blue Ribbon Commission Report on teacher retention, only 56% of new teachers are remaining in the field after five years, you can see there's a lot of things that are pushing people out of the teaching career in Missouri when less than half are making it to year five," said Turner.
Turner downplayed the concerns of kids potentially losing learning time in the state of Missouri if school districts transition to a four-day school week.
"If you transition to a four day school week in Missouri, you're not losing any instructional minutes in the state. That's been the law in Missouri since the beginning that if you transition, you have to extend the school day," said Turner.
Turner thinks there there will be a time where St. Louis-area schools will transitions to a four-day school week after they see how well a major school district like Independance School District fare.
"Let me tell you this, when they hear schools like Independence get four times the number of teacher applications, and as that spreads across the state, I think there's going to be some job market place pressures on the Eastern side of the state of Missouri," said Turner
However, Turner does also believe that a four-day school week might ultimately not be a long-term solution to fix the problem, but it still forces school districts to think outside the box.
"The things we did in the 1970s and the 1990s, things aren't the same anymore," said Turner, "When I began my teaching career back in 1988, it was expected teachers were going to take their work home and grade papers at home. That doesn't fit the modern worker anymore."