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The administration has presented to the Board of
Education a proposed middle school day schedule
that will add 23 minutes per day to the math and
science periods. The proposed schedule will also block language arts and social studies into one 126-minute period per day in order to allow teachers the flexibility to incorporate some of the reading and writing components of the social studies curriculum into a language arts activity. This is the first review in a long process designed to place more minutes into the core academic subject areas at the 7th and 8th grade levels.
By making this change, the District will increase the
amount of minutes spent on core academic subject areas by 13% or 55 minutes per day. The majority of those minutes will be applied to math and science. As the graphs show, currently students spend approximately 51% of their day in language arts, math, science, and social studies. The current proposal would increase that percentage to approximately 64% and place our 7th and 8th grade core academic subject time allotments more in line with our elementary schools.
The proposal does not come without some tradeoffs. Because the District elected not to change starting times (a decision made in December 2004) the ability to add minutes to the middle school day is not possible. Therefore, time must come from somewhere else. The
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most susceptible place in the current schedule is the encore periods. Currently, 80 minutes or 20% of a student’s day is spent in art, music, family and consumer science, health, technology lab, communications, or foreign language. Seventh and eight graders are enrolled in two classes each
quarter. One of those periods would need to be eliminated under this proposal. The lunch period would also be reduced from 40 minutes to 30 minutes. Physical education class is a mandate from the State of Illinois and needs to remain as a daily subject area.
During the summer months, the administration will
be looking at ways to redesign how, when, and in what format encore subjects can be offered to students. Different options will be presented to the Board of Education in September. Time will then be established to obtain feedback from parents, teachers, and the community. The November 20, 2006 board meeting has been established as the date for the Board to make its final decision on a new middle school day schedule.
The basic academic expectations placed on middle school students and teachers are growing. Ideas, topics, and subjects, once reserved for high school years, are now part of a middle school student’s learning standards. We owe it to the students to review our curriculum delivery
processes to insure that we are providing them the best opportunities to succeed in high school.
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