Guest post by Britton Hart
We had a problem at Emporia High School—failure rates were going up but the time and money available to address student needs stayed the same. For several years, there had been a steady increase in economically disadvantaged and ELL populations. Our leadership team needed to find a solution using existing resources that helped us address the educational challenges of our evolving student population.
To meet these challenges, we decided to move from a traditional block schedule to a new trimester system for the 2016–17 school year. The trimester system has provided us a way to create a master schedule that better addresses the current needs of our students.
What is a Trimester Schedule?
In general, a trimester system makes three significant changes to the master schedule. First is the way the school year isstructured. Instead of quarters or semesters, the school year is divided into three 12-week trimesters. Second, there is a reduction of the number of overall class periods. Trimester schedules usually run five class periods that meet every day; block schedules run eight classes (four classes per day that meet every other day) for one semester. Third, the trimester schedule offers varying course lengths. Typically, core classes are two trimesters, or 24 weeks; electives are one trimester, or 12 weeks; and some special classes such as AP and music, are all three trimesters, or 36 weeks.
Benefits of a Trimester Schedule
The trimester schedule has numerous advantages for our students and staff. The first, and perhaps most important, benefit is increased instructional time. Look at this comparison of our previous block schedule and the new trimester schedule for a core class:
YEARLONG CLASS CONTENT (ALGEBRA I)
|Block Schedule||Trimester Schedule|
|Course length||Yearlong (174 days)||Two trimesters (118 days)|
|Number of class periods||87 class periods||118 class periods|
|Block length||83 minutes||72 minutes|
|Total number of minutes||7,221 minutes||8,496 minutes|
Despite meeting for only 24 weeks, the trimester adds an additional 31 classes and 21 instructional hours, which is a substantial increase. This extra time has provided our students more frequent interaction with their core teachers, which was a struggle for us with our block schedule. Another benefit of the trimester schedule is that it has allowed us to embed academic interventions within the school day as part of our RTI process. Intervention takes place during the last 20 minutes of the block twice a week.
Other benefits of the trimester schedule:
- Students are able to focus on fewer core classes at a time (three or less).
- Students can repeat a class in the next trimester if needed.
- Students can maintain sport participation eligibility each of the three trimesters versus just two semesters. Eligibility mirrors the seasonal schedule for sports and other activities.
- Teachers have fewer students and classes to manage at one time.
Challenges of Switching to a Trimester Schedule
As we considered making the switch to a trimester schedule starting back in 2012, we faced a number of challenges; one of the most significant was trying to overhaul our scheduling program. We use Powerschool to schedule all of our classes, and it took a tremendous amount of time to ensure the new schedule accommodated all of the students’ requests. Another challenge was getting staff buy-in and changing their mindset. Teachers had to overhaul course curriculums to fit the trimester system, requiring some classes to add instructional content and others to trim material. We devoted many professional development hours and in-service days to support this transition.
Results and Future Direction
The second trimester is nearly complete, and our preliminary data indicates positive results. After the first trimester, we have already seen a reduction in failure rates and we look forward to seeing if this trend continues for the second trimester. Students and staff have been largely positive about the switch and see many benefits to it. The trimester schedule has allowed our students to focus more intently on fewer subjects and has provided students and staff needed time for academic interventions. At EHS, we are doing “more with less” thanks to a trimester schedule.
Could a trimester schedule improve your school’s capacity to meet student needs?
To learn more about trimester schedules, visit Mark Westerburg’s website, School Improvement Using the 3 x 5 Trimester Schedule.
Britton Hart is the 2016 Kansas Principal of the Year. He is completing his 17th year in education, with 12 of those years serving as a building principal and athletic director at the high school level. He is most comfortable working in diverse, high-poverty schools supporting positive change to close the achievement gap for all students.