The 2018 legislation that removed the requirement that Missouri public schools be in session for at least 174 days per year was intended to provide flexibility to districts. The minimum number of hours that students were required to be in class each year remained 1,044. In one sense, the legislation worked as intended, as many districts instituted scheduling changes such as a four-day school week. However, the authors estimate that removing the number-of-days requirement also led to students spending, on average, 24 fewer hours in school each year. This policy brief documents and explores this decrease in learning time and discusses the possible consequences of a decrease in learning time for students in a state that has been steadily falling behind other states in terms of academic achievement in recent years.
Click here to read the full policy brief.
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