Interesting topic for me in part because, as I said in another thread, my “underachieving” son is only taking 6 courses junior year, when 7 is the norm for his school. He’s at a California private where official policy is students must have one open period, but I was just talking to a sophomore who will take PE as an 8th course. I do understand why the school would make an exception for PE: it can be hard to fulfill the two-year PE requirement for kids who don’t play school or club sports and who are very involved in a time-consuming extracurricular like theater or robotics.
Another poster mentioned the limiting 6-period schedule of CA publics, and, yes, that was true in our area until a couple of years ago when the HS somehow added a 7th period (not sure how, since the bell schedule is the same). They did it to compete with the newer public HS in the area (not so new now–opened almost 15 years ago) that has a “4x4” block schedule in which kids take 3 or 4 yearlong courses per semester, for a total of up to 8 courses per year. The newer school was originally opened as a smaller magnet academy but quickly became so popular that it’s now basically just a second public option.
Anyway, in our area, public or private, 8 classes/year is the maximum I’ve heard of; 6 or 7 is the norm.
“Many high schools in California only allow kids to take 6 classes per year.”
Limiting in taking more courses to learn more in high school or for college admissions? It does not limit for college admission, as CA is the most represented state at selective colleges, not only because of the population of course but the academic quality of the students. Now if it’s about not having electives to try out courses in CS, business, art, to see what’s interesting, that’s a legitimate concern.
10 classes does seem like a lot, but if that’s the school’s expectations and the student can handle it, it allows for more exploration. I was complaining on another thread that our kids’ school only allows 5 classes plus 1 elective. And, because it’s a 6-12 school where many of the kids have been taking an instrument since 6th grade, they keep up that elective (or art). That leaves no ability to try new subjects (like Econ, computers, etc). This was a detriment to our older S, who doesn’t know what to study in college. So, I think the more opportunities, the better.
One of the biggest places it is causing problems is just the time drain. The school day is longer, and each class has less instruction time than in the past (it is within minutes of the state required minimum for each class, and in reality it is lower because the passing periods are too short for instruction to start right at the beginning of class). So that leads to more reading and homework for each class because less is covered in class.
It also means that before school is the only time for EC’s to meet and for quizzes, tests and labs to be made up. So for example this week, D has had to be at school at 7:00 every day. She goes straight into athletic practice after school, so she gets home needing a shower around 6-630. One night she had an EC event, so she didn’t get home until after 9:00. And still had math homework and quizzes in Bio and Spanish to study for. And of course back at 7:00 am the next morning.
Lunch is staggered over 4 time slots during the 3rd class block. So that isn’t an option to meet with teachers or to have EC meetings. Yet another budget saver. They just built a new school 3 years ago, and built the cafeteria so it only holds about 1/4 of the students at one time. Which means that for 1/2 of the kids, their 3rd block class is interrupted 30 minutes for lunch.
I realize part of that is because she is very involved, and is taking a challenging schedule. And this probably won’t be a typical week. But these kids are being run ragged.
It does seem overwhelming, but don’t see what you can do. There’s no way my D would survive! She’s a sophomore and just has AP World, AP Chem, trig/precal, spanish 3, English and sculpture (no homework, obviously) and is a bit overwhelmed. She’s already skipped some tennis clinics. Plus, the early hours your school implemented aren’t great for teens, but it sounds like your daughter is up for the challenge. Good luck!!
If students are taking 10 classes instead of 5 or 6, they are getting less depth. Perhaps that is why some schools have kids doing so poorly on AP tests, despite getting good grades in class. I know in our school most students get 4s and 5s on the APs and come to college well prepared having had time to write real research papers and to have the academic basics covered thoroughly.
DD’s high school is 8 periods per day, one of which is lunch. There are a huge number of requirements including four years of gym (you can get out of gym and go to study hall only if you are junior/senior in varsity and only during your sport’s season). The classroom hours of Drivers Ed are actually a requirement (road time and license are optional), plus Consumers Ed, Health, World Language, Art/Music/Applied Science, and, of course, the cores.
DD takes 7 classes and has no study hall. We were concerned about that, until we heard some almost unbelievable stories from her fellow freshmen friends. 9th & 10th grades are in closed study and are not allowed ANY electronics at all, including the school-issued iPads (they are allowed drinks, but no food). Considering DD was issued no textbooks (because they’re all online), and close to 100% of her homework is, in fact, online (including the math problems she has to do every night), the study period is fairly useless. Some of her more ambitious friends have been scrambling to get into art or chorus classes just to get out of “prison”. The rest seem satisfied with a nap. Why there aren’t hundreds of parents burning up the phone lines to administration is beyond me. Since DD doesn’t have a study hall, it’s not our fight. Tonight is Curriculum Night, so maybe we’ll hear about it then.
The block schedules are great for lab classes, but not for much else IMO.
Totally agree on the depth. Like I said, they have it timed down to the minute and in my opinion the way they do passing periods is cheating they aren’t really getting the minutes they’re supposed to be getting. Probably part of why our students do not do well on AP. S19 didn’t even bother to take the tests last year.
Block schedules are particularly bad for foreign language. We have not great foreign language instruction anyway, and having the kids take a break for 8-12 months between classes is not conducive to learning a language.
Our public high school in our last state went to a 10 period/day schedule. The classes were less than 40 minutes long. My daughter’s school had 7 1/2 periods/day (with the 1/2 period being lunch). Classes were 55 minutes - 60 minutes (depending on if the class fell in a lunch period). IMO having the extra time makes a big difference to delve deeper makes a big difference.
That schedule would have killed my kids! But if your D is the low-stress type and can handle it, more power to her. I hope the GC mentions this tax-cutting measure in every kid’s LOR, though.
I might drop the AP Human Geo in favor of an art, drama, or music class. It’s more balanced, and you don’t really need 2 APs as a sophomore.
The district where my D spent her first two years of high school wouldn’t allow any APs before junior year. They had to max out on honors first. This school routinely sends kids to HYPS. You really do have to balance rigor with breadth of interest.
I think she will enjoy human geography more than art or music. Plus she’s probably committed at this point anyway. Her brother had the class, it wasn’t too hard and was actually really interesting. I know that class gets knocked on CC, but we treated it more as an interesting elective, like art or business or psychology.
The way they do class rank it’s a huge benefit to have that extra AP too. I’m annoyed that schedule management for class rank is an issue. But I didn’t design the system, I just have to work with it. And when the other top kids are doing it, you have to or you get left behind.
Standard here is 7 classes at a time, but there are 2 block days, so each class is 4 times per week with one of those a longer class for labs, projects, etc. And we have a long lunch break when kids can get homework help, clubs can meet, etc. (Just started this last year to be fair to bus riders who can’t stay after school, and to reduce stress. ) Only one year of PE is required, and that can be done outside of school. ( But school sports can’t count for PE). I’m glad our schools stopped ranking because it came down to who took the fewest unweighted classes (avoiding/quitting art and music) and whose parents got their kids special permission to take AP classes as freshmen ( which is generally not allowed). There was too much focus on the numbers instead of kids learning what they want to learn.
We have 7 classes a year with a 6 classes a day rotating schedule. Starting 10th grade you can take 1 dual enrollment class for free - that is new my just graduated daughter couldn’t. Junior and Senior year kids have the option to take one de class a semester on top of a regular school day. Kids who opt to do full time dual enrollment can do 5 classes a semester so 10 classes a year. No AP classes are allowed freshman year. I think sophomore year if you did honors science in 9th you can take the AP version of the class and perhaps APUSH and an AP English but it isn’t recommended nor that common. By junior year you can take whatever APs your qualified to take.
I think most periods are about 50 minutes but period 4 is a long block. That means each class meets 1.5 hours out of 2 with the remaining 30 minutes being 1 of 4 lunch periods. It is great the days you like the class or not so great the days it isn’t a favorite class. It also means all students have a lunch break and can’t take an extra class instead. Other than for students who get academic support in a specific subject, study is rare for students to take. Some students do have a class period to help a teacher but it primarily sorting papers, making photocopies etc.
Based on my oldest who graduated in June class rank doesn’t seem to be a highly competitive thing here. The kids find out rank sometime in senior year when it is put up on naviance and updated at the end of every quarter. Some kids I’m sure are more competitive than others but overall it doesn’t have that feel.
Update: The “no school-issued iPads in study hall” rule died a quick, well-deserved death, thanks to parent outcry. The monitors were not happy to be overridden by administration, so they will stand over the shoulder of any student using an iPad to make sure they are indeed doing homework. At least students who can live with that can now get actual homework done.