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Poverty rates for Hispanic children increased from 30 to 34 percent, an increase of 14 percent. Poverty rates for African-American children went from 32 to 24 percent. At the same time, the poverty rates for white children stayed nearly flat at about 11 percent.

The poverty rate for Asian-American children was 19 percent during 1996–2000.

Children in two-parent families in California are more likely to be poor than they were two decades ago, but they continue to have much lower poverty rates than children living with single mothers.

Rural four-day students generally learned as much as rural five-day day students. Statistically, both groups’ test scores rose by about the same amount every year.

small town and suburban students who switched to four-day weeks were far worse off than other students in the state

One possible explanation, Morton says, is sports. Many rural athletes and young student fans leave school early on Fridays or skip school altogether because of the great distances to travel to away games. In effect, many five-day students are only getting four-days of instruction in rural America.

The four-day work week is an attractive work perk in rural America that may lure better teachers.

By this theory, four-day schools may make it easier to hire better teachers, who could accomplish in four days what a less skilled teacher accomplishes in five days.

five-day weeks have their own drawbacks in rural America: hidden absences, skipped lessons and lower quality teachers.

Hispanic students, who accounted for one out of every six rural students in this study, suffered much more from four-day weeks than white students did. (Native American students, who made up one of every 10 rural students, did relatively better with the four-day week.)

biggest surprise to me in this review of the research is how tiny the cost savings are: 1 to 2 percent.  It does save some money not to run the heat or buses one day a week, but the largest expenses, teacher salaries, stay the same.