NRHS Late Starts and Class Sizes April 6, 2016 1 Late Start Key - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

NRHS Late Starts and Class Sizes April 6, 2016 1

Late Start Key Questions  How have late starts been used at NRHS this year?  What has been the staff, parent, and student reaction to late starts?  What is proposed for the 2016-17 year? 2

Use of late start activities  Need for collaborative time was a key finding by NEASC  Used for curriculum/assessment/instructional planning, for example: – Interdisciplinary literacy group w/English, SS, and Special Educators – Multiple same-course groups working on curriculum and assessment (e.g., Spanish, CP Biology, Senior English) – Interdisciplinary group working on developing alternative education programming 3

Summary of response to late starts  All groups responded very positively to late starts  Most common concern was lost instructional time, but only noted by a small minority of teachers and parents 4

Staff responses 2/3/16 5

Parent responses 3/3/16 6

Student responses 3/3/16 7

Student responses 3/3/16 8

Proposed for next year  12 Late Starts for collaboration  4 Late Starts for mid-terms  3 Late Starts for finals  8 Early releases  Total instructional hours – 994.1 (above the required 990) 9

Instructional hours  Calculations exclude passing time  153 “normal” days at 349 instructional minutes each = 53,397 minutes  8 early release days at 213* instructional minutes each = 1,704 minutes  7 mid-terms and finals late starts at 251 minutes each = 1,757 minutes  12 late starts for collaborative work at 239 minutes each = 2,868 minutes  59,688 total minutes = 994.8 hours 10

Class Size Key Questions  What are high school average class sizes?  How many classes have fewer than 10 students?  How do classes end up with fewer than 10 students?  How will the high school limit excessively small class sizes for next year? 11

2015-16 class size averages Avg. class % fewer than % 22 or more % 26 or more size 18 English 19.1 39.7% 32.4% 7.4% SS 19.4 35.2% 32.4% 11.3% Math 21.4 27.8% 51.9% 24.1% Science 20.0 29.3% 56.9% 0.0% FLD 18.2 43.6% 23.1% 7.7% 12

Classes with fewer than 10  452 total sections across the high school; 23 (5.1%) have fewer than 10 students  Of those 23: – 5 are year-long core academic sections – 2 are semester-long core academic electives – 16 are semester-long electives 13

How do classes end up with fewer than 10 students?  Enrollment changed from schedule build to Fall – 11 classes (48%) – Example: Ceramics 2 with 70 requests across 4 sections  Newer programs/classes – 8 classes (35%) – Example: Theater Arts, Molecular Gastronomy  Specialized courses/cases – 4 classes (17%) – Example: AP Latin, CP Chemistry 14

What are we doing for next year?  More conservative section numbers for build, especially with electives  “Many new” courses have now been in place several years; if they don’t draw enough students, they won’t be scheduled  At the same time, we want to balance reasonable class sizes with maintaining specialized programs (e.g., AP Physics, AP Latin) 15

QUESTIONS? 16