Progress

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.