Time for electives
Forward-thinking middle schools make a commitment to providing interest-based and career-related electives that will keep middle grades students engaged while letting them experience the joys of lifelong learning. One study on extended time listed the following schedule variations that allowed for electives (each example is from a different school):
- Four 60-minute elective periods per week (Choices include step aerobics class, chess, basketball, art, and chorus.)
- Two periods of physical education, two periods of art/music, and two periods of computers/research per week
- Eight to 15 hours of electives per semester (Choices include instrumental music, computer lab, yoga, dance, an engineering program called “Destination Imagination,” crochet, swimming, and French.)
- Two 50-minute physical education classes and two 50-minute computer classes per week
- Four 50-minute elective periods per week (Choices include art, drama, engineering design, computer web design, tae kwon do, world dance, knitting, instrumental music, soccer, basketball, softball, and field hockey.)
- Eight 50-minute periods of electives per semester (Students chose two of the following each semester: art, dance, theatre, Japanese, Chinese, or physical education.)
- One 45-minute physical education class and one 60-minute art class per day
- Approximately 4.25 hours of electives per week (Choices include hip-hop/Latin dance, drumming, woodworking, chess, theatre, introduction to photography, music technology, basketball, soccer, swimming, and golf.)1
In the Spotlight
Rancho Cucamonga Middle School, Cucamonga Elementary School District, a 2006 On the Right Track school
Rancho Cucamonga Middle initiated a fifth period called the “Dangling Fifth.” Struggling students receive an additional class in math or English language arts (ELA). Students who are at grade level or above receive an elective. The success of the program means that fewer students need supplemental classes, and so the master schedule now includes more electives. In addition, to meet the needs of students who entered Rancho Cucamonga Middle School reading at the second- and third-grade level, the school professionals modified the master schedule to include the following:
- Multiple subject-credentialed staff members teach any one of the four core subject areas.
- If the students need both ELA and math—more than they can fit in the “Dangling Fifth"—they take a seventh period after school.
- A Title I coordinator does a pullout program with students who are far below grade level.
This program, along with other strategic school improvement efforts, helped the staff members to raise the school’s Academic Performance Index from 554 in 1999 to 727 in 2009.
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Footnote
1David Farbman and Claire Kaplan, Time for a Change: The Promise of Extended-Time Schools for Promoting Student Achievement (PDF; Outside Source). Boston: Massachusetts 2020, 2005, 13.
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