Albemarle parent group's report slams new class scheduling

A small army of Albemarle parents has risen against new class scheduling, arguing that a switch from yearlong to semester classes has high school students cramming information, with little time for processing.

Citizens of Albemarle Supporting Education handed Albemarle School Board members a 38-page report on Thursday night, citing a slew of studies it believes prove high school students are worse off in semester classes.

Early this year, the financially strapped School Board decided to implement a class schedule in which many classes are taught daily on a semester basis, with some classes continuing to be taught yearlong.

School administrators had said the change would save the division more than $800,000 by allowing the division to cut 13 teaching positions without increasing class sizes, because the new system now has most teachers instructing six classes per year instead of five.

Administrators had initially planned to propose the idea for the 2011-12 school year, to give the community time to vet the proposal, but School Board members fast-forwarded implementation to this school year, saying they were convinced the change would work better for students and allow the division to avoid additional painful spending cuts.

A slew of parents sent the School Board angry letters, obtained by The Daily Progress through the Freedom of Information Act. They contended that they should not have been cut out of the decision-making process. Many parents said they first heard of the idea from a news article — after the School Board approved the schedule.

Now nine weeks into the school year, some still believe the schedule is a downgrade.

“I taught English at Western [Albemarle High School] for six years and left because of the new schedule. I already worked evenings and every weekend, and I could not see how I could add one more class, and a large class at that, to my grading load,” Nancy Hiles Johnson wrote to CASE. “My friends at Western are suffering due to complete overload. This schedule is going to compromise the education our children receive; how do you teach 160, 170 students well and give them the individual attention they deserve?”

While school officials have compared the semester classes to the systems used by universities, parents have countered that few college classes convene daily and that, in some ways, more is being expected of high school students than many college students.

The CASE report contends that semester classes force students to “cram” information, and the report’s authors point to studies that indicate students retain more information long-term, and they are better able to analyze the information, when there is ample time to absorb information.

School administrators, however, have said giving students the opportunity to hone in on subjects can actually help academic performance in some cases, and the schedule, called an “eight-period hybrid,” has built-in flexibility.

The new schedule also allows students to take up to eight classes yearly, instead of seven.

The previous system had students taking classes on a yearlong basis, but only attending the same class about once every two days. Though many classes now meet daily for a semester, under the new system, some classes continue to meet on an alternating basis for a full year.

The move has teachers instructing more classes each year, though fewer at a given time.

One county teacher says the change has drastically increased her workload, according to a statement from the woman received by CASE, while another teacher says he’s now unable to give students adequate individualized attention.

The College Board concluded that results of its 1998 study “generally suggest that students, on average, obtain higher [advanced placement] grades when instruction is given over an entire year rather than in a semester block schedule format.”

Administrators, however, have said they’ve addressed many of the concerns outlined in earlier studies of semester classes. The division, for example, offers many courses on both a semester and yearlong basis, and some electives are offered only as yearlong classes. In addition, several school officials have said students are given opportunities to take sequential courses of math and certain other subjects, in consecutive semesters, to avoid long gaps in instruction.

Administrators say one advantage of the hybrid schedule is that students have the opportunity to take up to 32 classes in their high school careers, compared with 28 under the old system. This gives students a slew of new options, considering students are only required to pass 26 courses to earn an advanced diploma.

Some students will be able to take more electives or participate in more college dual-enrollment courses, for example, while others will be able to have fewer classes as seniors, administrators say. Students can also more easily retake classes that they perform poorly in without having to go to school another year, administrators say.

Albemarle is also considering offering new yearlong online courses, possibly beginning in the summer or next school year — another way to give students flexibility.

CASE is scheduled to meet with the School Board, to discuss the report’s findings, at a special work session in November.