Costa’s entire schedule needs changes, especially concerning winter break.

This article is part of a PRO/CON opinion piece on potential changes to Mira Costa’s master schedule. To view the opposing side, see here.

Friday, February 26, 2010

By Rachel Bracker
Editor-in-Chief

The MBUSD academic calendar should run from August to May. Doing so would have multiple academic benefits, both for individual students and for the school as a whole.

As students currently worrying about finals know, it is difficult to have two weeks off only one month before these important exams, which count for 20 to 25 percent of their grades. Some students begin studying for finals over winter break, effectively defeating the purpose of a break.

This demonstrates how Mira Costa’s yearly schedule is contradictory. Although the school has a semester system, students are in school from September to June, something more characteristic of a quarter or trimester system.

Students in a semester system enter classes in August and take fall semester finals before their winter break. They have a short spring break in the middle of their spring semester.

The same tends to be true for high schools. Most schools on a semester system begin in August and end in May. Students take their first semester courses before winter break. Such a system corresponds with Advanced Placement exams and Standardized Testing And Reporting exams, which both take place in May.

Mira Costa has the potential to increase STAR scores and AP test pass rates if it switches to this new system, thus increasing the school’s already high Academic Performance Index score.

If the school year ended in May, all of the academic curriculum would be covered in time for STAR. Currently, teachers must briefly and superficially cover the last month of material to boost student success. Additionally, students would be more committed to reviewing for the tests, because finals would occur soon after.

An academic calendar from August to May would also help AP students by giving them the full school year to prepare for the exam. The current schedule creates over a month of idle time after the exams where students do little more than watch movies.

The school board should consider altering the academic calendar to better fit national and statewide testing dates in order to make testing less stressful.