Texas High School Athletes May Get More Credit For Sports

Parents Forum
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<p>In our TX district, kids who are NOT on sports teams can take a regular PE class. Kids who ARE on sports teams are assigned to that sport’s “class” either 1st or last period. In general (altho there are exceptions), JV teams are 1st period and Varsity are last. While it is pretty easy to get an A if you are a dedicated athlete, there are kids who get Bs and Cs. At least in golf, grading is based on participation in tournaments, attitude, attendance at practices, etc.</p>

<p>So, my son who is on the JV Golf team has practice 2-3 times a week in the mornings. I take him to the golf course at 6:45 and they practice until 8:00 (school starts about 7:30), then I pick him up and get him to school in time for 2nd period. On the other days, the team spends class time talking about rules, strategies, upcoming events, do weight training, etc. If nothing needs to be covered, they have a study hall. On these days that they don’t have morning practice (generally due to golf course conflicts), JV is welcome to practice with the Varsity team in the afternoon. The Varsity kids leave school at the beginning of the last period (about 1:45) and head to one of the local golf courses and practice until 5. They do this everyday (weather permitting, of course).</p>

<p>That’s just the way it works here, so if the district is going to require the athletes to use a class period when they are part of a sports team - then they need to be given credit for it. </p>

<p>As for the band - the fall is marching season, so the students earn 1/2 credit which can be substituted for PE. As Youdon’tsay commented - marching band is intense and exhausting and they earn that PE credit. It is both physically and mentally demanding.</p>

<p>Practice starts 3 weeks before school. They march, practicing their drill performance for 2-3 hours in the morning and 2-3 hours in the late afternoon/early evening. In between, they are inside working in small and large groups to learn the music. All music (for an 8-9 minute performance) must be memorized and the students are tested individually to make sure they have it memorized. </p>

<p>Once school starts, in addition to practicing/perfecting their music during band class, they have marching practice 3x a week for 2.5 hours each, and also for 2-3 hours prior to every football game or marching competition. There were days last year when my son had to be at school at 6 am and didn’t get home until midnight…doing 2 different marching competitions and a football game. </p>

<p>In the spring, band focuses on concerts and individual/ensemble competitions. This is where the fine arts credit kicks in. They play a variety of music and learn a lot of music theory along the way. </p>

<p>Again, grading is based on participation, attendance, behavior/attitude.</p>

<p>Note: the Color Guard works as hard as the marching band in the fall and get their PE credit that way. They continue working in the spring on performances (dance) not related to the band. I am guessing that this is how the PE/fine arts credits are earned.</p>

102

<p><<but you=“” think=“” costume-making=“” should=“” be=“” a=“” class=“” credit?=“”>></but></p>

<p>Is costume-making all they do? I could see a class dedicated to the non-technical side of theater production - props, costumes, makeup, direction, choreography, musical direction, etc. There is actually a lot to be learned if done correctly. I would also hope that some theatrical reviews would be involved.</p>

<p>In the Technical Theatre class my son took last year (and is taking the next level this year), they did spend time building the sets for plays/musicals, but they also learned all the theatrical vocabulary, the different types of lighting, how the sound booth works, and various curtain riggings. They had to take a script and draw a set design (to scale) taking into consideration the period of time the play was set in and all the on-stage and off-stage “needs” of the actors. They also had to read various technical theater articles and do a technical review of a performance each semester.</p>

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<p>Yeah, we also have a Production class…the students have to be selected and they do work in class and also a whole lot outside of class. Of course, they should get credit. But no, if you’re not in the class but volunteer to make skirts for the eight sailorettes, no credit.</p>

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<p><<but no,=“” if=“” you’re=“” not=“” in=“” the=“” class=“” but=“” volunteer=“” to=“” make=“” skirts=“” for=“” eight=“” sailorettes,=“” no=“” credit.=“”>></but></p>

<p>I agree. I can’t imagine anyone getting credit for doing that.</p>

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<p>I live in Texas and I’m in track. We have a block schedule and sports are double blocked so during first period eevry day for an hour and a half I have track. The problem with this is that it takes up two out of my eight classes and four of those are already taken up all four years with my core classes. So if I do track all four years I only have two classes a year for electives and we’re required to take a language so that takes up a class for two more years. So that gives me six chances to take the electives that i want. and if we’re required to take health and speech and computer classes that gives me know room for electives and I end up taking my sport for eight classes but they only count two of them. I wouldn’t be able to take any electives that I wanted to take (lucky for me I took health in middle school so I got to take business law this year) and I would never be able to get late arrival or early release.</p>

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<p>And - to give our legislature a tiny bit of credit - that is why they eliminated the health/speech/tech requirements. When double blocked drill team D started high school, I wrote down all the required courses, plus foreign lanugage and drill team and determined that when all was said and done, she’d have one other elective.</p>

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<p>The bad thing about that is I already took health, speech and half of the computer class. :slight_smile: I was trying to plan ahead and I took a whole year of health in middle school instead of a semester in high school which if I had waited I wouldn’t even have had to take.</p>

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<p><<to give=“” our=“” legislature=“” a=“” tiny=“” bit=“” of=“” credit=“”>></to></p>

<p>Do we have to??? :)</p>