My
action research project has produced some very interesting data. This year our
school district moved to a new schedule making program. The program had a lot of
trouble balancing classes. For example if a class needed to be balanced it
would remove students from the class. Instead of placing them into a new class
it would move them into a free period. This created hundreds of schedule
changes for students. It also created teacher schedule changes. A few students I
spoke with were subjected to five days worth of schedule changes. Some teachers
were subjected to the same amount of schedule changes as well. This created
many problems for both the students and teachers. The student’s problems came
from never knowing if they were following the correct schedule. Also they would
get settled into a class then they would be moved to a different period or even
a different teacher. This upset not only the students, but also the parents. The
problems came for the teachers when schedule changes were made the students
grades were erased. In result many students lost grades and they had to be
found. This caused many problems for all stakeholders involved. The process has
still not been resolved totally and some schedule changes are still being
processed. In my classroom I have a state cap of twenty-four students. For
weeks I was not able to work in certain parts of my shop because I had too many
students. This caused delays that I still am having trouble making up for.
Hopefully by next year we can figure out how to work the system and it will
make a difference in next year’s schedule.
