Costa’s yearly schedule, which begins in late August and ends in late June, deprives many students of the ability to participate in summer programs; therefore, a shift in the schedule would greatly benefit students’ abilities to take off-campus summer school classes and better prepare students to study for Advanced Placement exams.
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Currently, Costa’s schedule keeps students in school until June 20 and doesn’t start its first semester until late August, making it one of few schools in the South Bay with this schedule. This inconvenience hinders students’ abilities to participate in off-campus summer school and to prepare for AP exams.
Due to Costa’s late start, most AP teachers are unable to fit their entire curriculum into the year before AP testing and, therefore, are forced to teach new material in study sessions outside of the normal day. Moving Costa’s schedule to start earlier in August would allow more time for teachers to teach their AP curriculum.
Not only would a new schedule lengthen the time AP teachers have to teach all of their material, but it would also enable them to use their study sessions as strictly review sessions. Students should be able to review material with their teacher, without the educational burden of having to cram in new material directly before the AP exam.
With AP examinations being graded on a national testing curve, changing the schedule to be aligned with a greater majority of high schools is necessary. This would provide AP students with a more adequate time frame to review and compete on a national level.
In addition, since El Camino Community College’s summer school session starts before Costa’s graduation, departing Costa seniors are not eligible to apply as high school graduates. According to senior Michael Whinfrey, these students must apply for concurrent enrollment, meaning that they attend both high school and community college. This in return provides community college students with an advantage in class registration over concurrent students. Costa should reevaluate its current schedule considering the disadvantages that students are presented with.
A large student concern with changing the current schedule is that the initial shortened summer would potentially eliminate Costa’s summer school for that year, which would harm those who were depending on taking a class over the summer. This is a valid concern, but recent incentive to create online summer school would accommodate a shortened summer.
To adapt to a shortened summer, courses should be extended from a four day week to a five day week, creating room for two blocks. This would accommodate students who want to enroll in classes not offered online and potentially eliminate student concerns about an altered yearly school schedule.
It is evident that a change to Costa’s schedule would address the needs of the student body regarding off-campus summer school and AP testing.
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