Tuesday, February 01, 2000
Kings High reconsiders class schedule
BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
DEERFIELD TWP. — For three years, a committee at Kings High School studied different schedules in use by high schools across the nation. It decided to stick with the traditional seven-period day.
But now the school is reconsidering.
“We're looking at what does it take to be an effective school district. Of the 17 categories that pertain to high schools, we meet all but one — the graduation rate,” Principal Doug King said. “We're looking at our schedule again to see if we can improve the graduation rate. To see if there's something more flexible.”
Kings High School graduates 87.3 percent of its seniors, which falls below the state standard of 90 percent.
“We surveyed staff, students and teachers and found maybe our pace — changing classes every 50 minutes — allowed too many interruptions, class sizes were big, and teachers wanted to see fewer students each semester,” Mr. King said.
Other concerns were common planning time for teachers, tutoring sessions and less congestion in halls.
Last fall, the committee was reactivated to review scheduling options the research had provided. More visits will be scheduled this year as the committee re-examines scheduling options, Mr. King said.
From 1996 to '98, the committee researched block schedules, in which students took four classes each semester and completed a year's work in two quarters. Under one of the schedule variations studied, students had half their classes one day, the other half the next day. That research will be re-evaluated.
“In a seven-period day, you don't have any flexibility,” Mr. King said. “We'd like some form of a new schedule, but we've not arrived at what it will be.”
Mr. King said the committee should finish its work in late spring or early summer. Teachers, parents and students would have a year to prepare for any changes the committee might recommend.
Committee member Kay Munson said there are pluses and minuses to the block schedules and other schedules many area districts have changed to, but she has not yet decided whether Kings High would benefit from a change.
“There's an advantage to students in taking fewer classes. They're not spread so thinly,” said Ms. Munson, who heads the Kings math department.
Longer periods are particularly useful in science, where labs have to be set up and broken down every period, Ms. Munson said.
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