DCPS Looks at Impact of Schedule Change

(CAMBRIDGE, Md) – The school year is starting to wind down, and in Dorchester County that means the end of the first year of a major change for the high schools.

It was just over a year ago that Dorchester County Public Schools implemented a major schedule change in the high schools…alternating five class schedules every other day with the goal of improving student performance.

And with the school year coming to a close plenty of work needs to be done.

DCPS Assistant Superintendent of Student Services, Dr. Jodi Coleman elaborates, saying, “We put that model in place in order to allow for more opportunities for the students, for remediation, as well as advancement. And we also wanted to make sure that students had enough opportunities to become college and career ready, which is a requirement for Maryland’s Blueprint.”

The change was implemented with the goal of bringing Dorchester County Schools into the top 15 school systems in Maryland.
However, as both Dr. Coleman and Dorchester Educators President, Katie Cole tell us, it’s had somewhat of an adverse effect on both students and teachers.

Cole tells us, “The schedule did negatively impact in terms of it increased workload for staff. Some staff seeing upwards of 140 students a term. There were also some students had had a course load of up to ten classes at an A and B day schedule. And so this became a challenge for them if they would miss a day…”

Katie goes on to say there are some growing pains that Dorchester Educators are working on with the school system to iron things out over the summer.

She says, “The overall feeling that I’m hearing from our high school staff is that they are hopeful that next year schedule will be a much more beneficial model for for both staff workload as well as students in being successful in their classes.”

But even with the snags being hit in the first full year of this change, Dorchester County Public Schools has seen some improvement in students.

Dr. Coleman tells us, “We also had a significant number of graduates of students who were able to graduate this year that would not have been able to graduate without the additional opportunities in their schedule. So still some positive trends.”

The state level results for Dorchester County public Schools will be available towards the end of the summer.