By Parnia Mazhar
Opinion Editor
The Manhattan Beach Unified School District adjusted this school year’s calendar to allow the week of semester exams to take place before the 14-day winter break, thereby reducing the first semester by 15 days compared to previous calendars.
Although the new schedule effectively freed students of schoolwork over break, the decreased number of school days in the first semester compared to prior years left many students at a disadvantage in semester-long courses and feeling unprepared for finals, according to a La Vista survey.
The initial reason that MBUSD scheduled first semester exams before winter break was to allow seniors to have access to their mid-year transcripts and grade reports earlier than in the past in order to meet college deadlines, Costa Principal Dr. Ben Dale said. The new schedule also extended the school’s goal of fostering a stress-free environment beyond school days and into holiday breaks. The district expects the new final exam schedule to remain until 2019, when administrators will revisit the calendar, according to Dale.
Photos: Students relax due to a lack of work and limited stress.
The new calendar provides students with a much-needed resting period over winter break, as they are no longer obligated to study for finals, which previously took place two weeks after school began in the new year. Dale also encouraged teachers to refrain from giving any projects or assignments over the break in an attempt to further alleviate students’ workloads, he said.
According to a survey of 200 Costa students, 87% of respondents believes that the new schedule relieved stress and allowed the students to enjoy break more than the students had in previous years. Therefore, the new schedule is beneficial to students in that during the break, most students felt no added pressure or anxiety from school work.
Leading up to the break, however, timing concerns arose among certain teachers and a majority of the student body due to only having 77 school days in the first semester this year compared to 92 last year. According to the survey, 63% does not feel as though teachers had enough time to adequately teach the material; 65% of teachers felt the same.
Georgetown University monitors the growing levels of student stress during finals week.
In order to effectively reduce student stress and improve students’ understanding of the course material, it is important that all teachers take the new semester timing into account to allow for proper adjustments, all changes that will come over time as both teachers and students become accustomed to the schedule.
For teachers that teach year-long courses, learning the necessary curriculum could be more time-efficient and feasible for students if all teachers chose to cover more material in second semester rather than dividing their curriculums equally between the two semesters, since second semester has approximately 15 days more than first. With this method, both students and teachers would feel less rushed during the first semester while also ensuring that courses continue to encompass all of their usual curriculum throughout the year.
While teachers that teach semester-long courses face the same timing constraints as year-long course teachers, they do not have the option of redistributing course material between both semesters. The survey revealed that 60% of teachers of semester-long courses polled believes that it is unfair that first semester classes have two fewer weeks to learn the course content than second semester classes, ultimately putting first semester students at a disadvantage.
College students explain how they handle the stress present within finals week.
According to Dale, the new semester division should not be an issue with regard to semester-long Advanced Placement courses, considering the fact that the number of days in the entirety of first semester compared to those in second semester until the start of AP testing are nearly equivalent. For the remainder of second semester that follows AP exams, Dale believes that AP teachers should stop teaching new curriculum and instead work on “fun projects,” since both semesters will have had the same amount of instructional time to that point.
Despite the fact that this plan following AP testing may be enjoyable and relaxing for students, the aim of schooling should be for students to learn as much as possible during the time given. Using the last month and a half of the school year to repeat material through methods such as projects, for example, instead of expanding to new curriculum, is not the best possible way to increase the knowledge of students.
Although the new finals schedule resulted in significantly less stress during break, semester-long curriculum should be better structured to ensure that Costa does not put certain students at a disadvantage with regard to their education at Mira Costa.
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