Every year on a Thursday in early September, IHS comes back to life after a long ability to have more information in the form of their schedules is crucial. Schedules may also summer as students, new and returning, clamour into the cafeteria, excited to see friends and eager to learn. Tables sit at the entrance with papers taped to the front, marking initials. Counselors flip through stacks of printer paper as lines of students form behind each table where they push and shove, anxious to get to the front. This is the messy, stress-filled ordeal that is the process of handing out schedules on the first day of school.
These papers hold the prized information that will define the school year, for better or for worse. Which period is my lunch? Which teachers will I have? Will I have friends in my classes? These questions that students frequently ask can be answered only by their schedules. This process comes at a substantial cost to students’ experience and wellbeing. Why is such crucial information only accessible on the first day of school, or at most, a few days before school for those who check SchoolTool? There has to be a better way, one that provides students with clari ty about the upcoming year further in advance.
The current process for releasing schedules fails students in several ways. First, many would benefit from additional time to plan for their upcoming school year. IHS students juggle a variety of responsibilities and activities. These commitments include jobs, sports, clubs, and family obligations and almost always require an understanding of what their school schedules are going to look like. Furthermore, academic success rests, among other things, upon the development of clear and effective study rou tines. Providing students with their schedules earlier in the summer would allow them to better develop a time management plan. In essence, by providing schedules earlier, the IHS administra tion would be more sensitive to student efforts to balance their lives both inside and outside the classroom.
Second, the transition from one grade to another, let alone from one school to another, should not be underestimated. A smooth transi tion from summer to classes is key to a successful year, and falling behind early in the academic year can derail a student’s progress. Students’ contain errors that could be addressed prior to the start of classes with sufficient time. This would allow students to sort out errors in their schedule before the school year starts, preventing them from missing valuable class time. It should be noted that freshmen and other students new to IHS participate in an orientation the day before classes begin where they receive their schedules and explore the school. However, this additional time does not do enough to set these students up for a successful year.
Third, the beginning of the school year, with all that it entails, is a naturally stressful period and can take a toll on the mental wellness of students at this critical juncture. This stress is amplified by the lack of prior knowledge about what their school year will look like and how it will unfold. The simple act of sharing sched ules with students earlier can go a long way to alleviate anxiety. Having a mental model of the school day, week, semester, and year can serve to calm or reduce the natural nerves that come with being thrust back into the pressures of school. Given the increased attention to students’ mental health over the last several years, the minimal investment in designing a new system that would provide students with knowledge of their schedule in advance would have obvious benefits.
Fourth, the connection between peer inter actions and student well-being is firmly estab lished. Students would greatly benefit from the ability to discuss their schedules with friends. This would help to develop a sense of community that would strengthen students’ support struc tures and help them cope with their stress and anxiety.
Finally, while advance knowledge of one’s schedule would be advantageous under normal circumstances, it is absolutely essential this com ing fall, after a year and a half of schooling im pacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. While some students have participated in hybrid learning, many have not walked the halls of IHS since the middle of March 2020, or set foot in the building for that matter. The transition back to school in a post-pandemic reality is going to be especially challenging, and giving students their schedules earlier could be the catalyst for a successful transition.
The IHS administration should work with guidance counselors, teachers, and students to develop a plan to release schedules at least one week prior to the beginning of classes. While the construction of the master schedule is complex and affected by multiple different factors such as teacher availability, student class demand, and other logistics, the benefits of an earlier schedule release outweigh the additional work that will be required to address these challenges. Students are asked to make any final changes to their class selections by early May and are extremely limited in their ability to make any changes thereafter. In a normal year, this leaves close to four months to construct the master schedule. It should be noted that this year has added a host of complexities due to the pandemic and that the IHS administration has yet to decide on the overarching structure. One of the possible drawbacks of this proposed system is the potential for increased requests by students to change their schedules due to teacher and classmate preferences. If faced with this challenge, guidance counselors would have to hold firm on their policy of not allowing schedule changes unless an error was made.
This coming September, when the halls of IHS are bustling once again, let’s hope that we can do away with an outdated schedule release ritual. With this proposed new model in place, students will arrive at school knowing where they need to go and what classes, teachers, and friends await them. We imagine the enhanced confidence that our peers will bring with them as they cross the threshold into a new academ ic year, full of promise and possibilities. Given the clear gains of an early schedule release and the absence of a convincing argument for delay, the IHS administration should welcome this proposal and implement it this coming fall.