By Morgan Buerke, Editor
Many students are confused about registration going on this week for next year’s schedule change.
The eight-period day, decided upon last year as a way to improve student learning, is being implemented next year in the hopes that it will give students enough time to learn what they need for college, Assistant Principal Diane McFarlin explained.
Kaneland is switching from the current four-block schedule to an eight-period day, a change recommended last year by the schedule committee. Research showed that having an eight-period day may raise student test scores and provide fewer gaps between sequential classes.
“A committee of teachers, counselors and administrators that researched a variety of different schedules [decided that] the eight-period day was the best for student learning,” Counselor Cynthia Violett, who was on the committee, said.
McFarlin said that studies showed high school students learned the best with hands-on experience in a classroom with more time to process what they’re learning.
The change was originally scheduled to take place next year but was delayed because of certain circumstances where seniors wouldn’t be able to meet all graduation requirements.
“I think kids are nervous about it, and we’re trying to make kids feel at ease,” Violett said. “Change is scary, and it can be overwhelming, but just relax and it’ll be okay.”
McFarlin suggested that students sit down with their parents before registering to plan out their classes and write down any questions that they have so their counselors can answer them during their meeting time.
Counselors are going to take more time with each individual student in order to make sure their questions are answered.
“The counselors have been working really hard with the department heads to try to make sure that they know what the very best would be in each case,” McFarlin said.
Some things are definite with the new schedule. Next year, the high school will have eight periods: seven main classes and one period split between lunch and what administrators are going to continue to call “STEP,” which is ultimately a modified version of study hall.
“We’re actually going to have more instructional time,” Erika Schlichter, Director of Educational Services, said.
This is true because each period will be about 50 minutes long and each semester class will last for a year, each term class for a semester. With the old schedule, teachers would have 84-minute blocks and they’d meet with students for 90 times a year but, with the new eight-period day, teachers will have 180, 50-minute periods to teach the same material.
This will give teachers 9,000 minutes to teach material, whereas this year’s schedule only gives them 7,560 minutes to teach. The difference: 1,440 minutes a year, or 28.8 more 50-minute periods of instructional time.
In order to get ready for this drastic change, students have been doubling up on any classes that were necessary, and administrators have been working through logistical issues.
One challenge is that switching costs more.
“We knew there would be some money issues, but the committee wasn’t looking at the finance part of it,” Violett said.
While its unclear how much the switch will cost, there are many things to be factored in.
Schlichter said that administrators need to look at electives, staffing and material needs and make sure they have enough of everything. She said that the amount of money needed to support the switch won’t be known until February or March, but that the district is working hard to get those numbers.
It’s likely that the eight-period day would either require more faculty or raise class sizes, however, because teachers will teach five periods per year instead of six. For example, in a class such as English, if the current class size is about 27 with 12 faculty members, then under the eight-period day, the average class size next year would be raised to about 32.5 students, 5.5 more than this year.
