It's a misguided strategy, Maynard and other social studies and science teachers say. They believe their classes can help instill students with critical reading comprehension and essay-writing skills needed for high school success and high marks on the state tests.
Under the newest proposal, some students would take one course the fall of one year, and wouldn't pick it back up until spring of the following school year - a lengthy gap during which middle schoolers could forget the subject matter.
In dozens of letters and e-mails to school board members, and in forceful testimony before the school board, parents urged the administration to consider offering a seven-period school day that allows middle school students to have all their subjects every day, albeit for shorter lengths of time. The countywide Citizens Advisory Council voted 42-2 to support such a schedule and denounce Maxwell's move to half-year social studies and science.
"We just don't believe that science and social studies should be treated as if they're electives, especially with the focus on STEM [science, technology and engineering magnet] programs and the focus on attracting NSA jobs for BRAC," said Eric Sullivan, chairman of the countywide Citizens Advisory Council, referring to the military base realignment and closure process.
Maxwell said he understands parents' concerns but that shifting to a seven-period day would cost the district $2.7 million in additional teachers. He also defended semester-long courses, saying that daily instruction will help students with continuity of learning.
Still, parents complain the narrowing curriculum in middle schools is already yielding damaging results. They pointed to recent data that showed half of ninth-graders in two high schools have below a C average in classes. In the other 10 high schools, the percentage of freshmen earning D's and F's ranges from 11 percent to 43 percent.
"Why science and social studies are playing second fiddle to reading and math really baffles a lot of people," said Terra Ziporyn Snider, a Severna Park parent who has been an outspoken critic of the district's schedules and in 2002 founded a grass-roots group advocating for a balanced curriculum. "These students need to be engaged in school so we don't lose them at such a critical time."
The shift to a daily schedule sounds promising to eighth-grader Dallas Butts. The alternating-day schedule he has now sometimes leaves the 13-year-old unsure about which class - social studies or science - he has on what day, and he's brought the wrong binder or homework for to class more than once.
"It gets confusing. It's hard to get organized," he said.
The new schedule won't be as befuddling, he says, but he does worry about forgetting what he learned in a particular class if he doesn't see it again for two consecutive semesters.
"It's hard to keep some of this stuff fresh in your mind, you know?" he said. "Already when I have a class every other day, I forget some stuff. So maybe, if I don't have the class until two semesters later, it'll be hard to catch up."
ruma.kumar@baltsun.com
