Susan Dickson
Staff Writer
While middle school students should be able to get credit for high school level courses taken in middle school, extending the school day is not the best way to allow that, school board members said in a work session last week.
Members of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools Board of Education reviewed the changes as part of a set of recommendations from the Middle School Review Committee regarding improvements to the middle school program.
The recommendation to extend the middle school day stemmed from policies passed by the North Carolina State Board of Education in 2007 that allow middle school students to receive graduation credit for high school math, world language and science courses taken in middle school. In order for students to receive credit, the courses must meet the same standards as courses offered in high school.
The State Department of Public Instruction requires 50-minute high school course periods, while middle school course periods range from 43 to 47 minutes.
Chapel Hill-Carrboro middle schools already offer high school level Algebra I and world language classes. Rodney Trice, director of curriculum and instruction for the school district, said staff has “been creative in how we can meet that seat time for our students for them to receive high school graduation credit,†but have not yet found a long-term solution.
Trice said the committee has considered a number of models that would allow students to receive high school credit for those courses, including models that would extend the school day.
Louise Peters, a reading specialist at McDougle Middle School, said she and other teachers had reservations about making changes to the middle school schedule.
“We worry that extending class time for everyone in order to accommodate a limited number of student will compromise the middle school concept of exploration and undermine our work to narrow the achievement gap,†she said. “We are concerned that this plan, which focuses on an elite group, will adversely affect our neediest students.â€
Peters said teachers were especially concerned about the possibility of cutting time between classes and the advisory time at the beginning of the school day, which could cause students to feel rushed.
Superintendent Neil Pedersen said he would like to see the district discuss the seat-time requirement with the state board.
“It wasn’t really fair for children to take Algebra I in middle school, pass the [end-of-course exam], then get no high school credit for it,†Pedersen said.
In addition, the school district already has a tight transportation schedule with the elementary, middle and high schools, and extending the middle school day would create scheduling issues, he said.
Board member Jamezetta Bedford agreed that the board should appeal to the state board of education, adding that she did not think extending the middle school day or cutting out the middle school advisory periods were options.
Board vice chair Mike Kelley pointed out that students who took Algebra I in middle school but did not receive high school graduation credit would be forced to take calculus in high school in order to graduate.
“That may be extending them beyond where they would want to go … or where they would be successful,†he said.
Board members offered alternatives to extending the school day, such as adding online study or shortening elective courses while lengthening core courses to meet the seat-time requirement of high school courses.
“I think that extending [the school day] should be sort of a last option,†board chair Lisa Stuckey said.