Will Oklahoma Shift from Traditional School Week to a 4 Day School Week?

Recently, it was reported that several school districts in Oklahoma were to attend a summit to discuss shifting from the traditional fivedays a week schedule to a four days a week schedule.Needless to say that the comments on the move have been split and the discourse has been rather heated. Some praised the move suggesting that their kids would no longer have to miss school days for appointments, while others critiqued the idea, saying that it would make Oklahoma's already low ranking in education even worse. It seems to me, however, that in order to understand if this is a smart move, we need to think about this from all perspectives and understand the practical application of the teaching and learning strategies used by teachers and students.

Accreditation Issues and Perceptions of The Other in Education

Yesterday I had the displeasure of overhearing a colleague from Puerto Rico have a conversation with a representative of a certain private, for profit institution that will remain unnamed. My colleague was applying to the university's Master of Education program. The representative asked him a few demographic and background information questions along the lines of "Do you have a B.A.?" and  "Do you have professional experience? " Once the first round of questions was completed, they forwarded his call to the admissions office. There, they asked the same routine questions, with an additional one on top: "where did you obtain your bachelor's degree?" My colleague answered "The University of Puerto Rico." This is when the representative at the other side of the line said "I'm sorry, we only accept students with bachelor's degrees from accredited universities."