By Aaron Chelliah
Opinion Editor
Roberto Kampfner
Staff Writer
The recent ratification of a new school calendar will be beneficial to students because Advanced Placement students will be able to cover the entire curriculum before the test, students will be able to participate in more summer internship programs, and the schedule will be more aligned with the surrounding colleges and districts.
For many years, Costa has struggled to fit in the entire AP curriculum to meet the early May deadline for AP testing. This is largely due to the constant interruptions in the school year, like the mid-winter break and the extended Thanksgiving holiday. The new schedule provides ample time for teachers to teach the curriculum to AP students and would allow study sessions to take a review, rather than a supplementary class time, role in AP testing practices.
The school year would allow finals to take place before the winter break as well. According to the American Psychological Society study, 45 percent of students are still feeling stress even throughout breaks. The new proposed schedule would be able to address this unnecessary stress and provide a more streamlined schedule. The traditional disconnect between review before break and tests right after would become nonexistent and allow teachers to prepare students for these final exams in a more comprehensive and continuous manner.
This schedule also has the added benefit of extending the traditional 10-week summer to 12 weeks, providing summer school students with more time to relax and recuperate before beginning the school year by starting the summer school sessions earlier in June. This benefits a large number of Costa students, many of whom take summer school classes to free up room in their schedules.
Additionally, the summer is also a positive change not only because of its increased length, but also because of its earlier start. This earlier start date will allow students to participate in internships, programs and classes that were previously inconvenient and difficult to take part in due to Costa’s late release date.
For example, summer classes at El Camino, introductory military camps, and many business and science internships start before the end of the current Costa school year. This problem will be easily and effectively addressed by this slight shift, which will enact a number of other beneficial changes for students and teachers on campus.
Board member Christine Cronin Hurst says that the Board of Trustees voted in favor of this new schedule to eliminate unneeded breaks in the school year that disrupt the flow of teaching. She believes this change will streamline teaching and give students a true summer.
The school schedule is bombarded by late starts, four-day weeks and travel trips, so the fewer the interruptions the better. With the current schedule, teachers will not have to worry about as many distractions to their teaching. This change will benefit the continuous nature of the learning environment at Costa and enable more content to be covered, which is even more positive for AP students with May tests.
This reworked schedule will also put Costa in sync with other surrounding schools, which end earlier in May or June. By adopting a schedule that is similar to our surrounding schools, sporting events, social events, social gatherings and Costa participation in summer activities will all be more easily organized and achieved.
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