Eastern Pulaski School Superintendent, Dr. Robert Klitzman, says the school board made a decision this week concerning the number of semesters at the high school.
“We had been with the tri-semester plan for probably 12 to 15 years and it’s a good system and there’s nothing wrong with it. The issue came with the State and their student assessments. They do not follow the same schedule as our classes and we want to put our students, always, in the best position to be successful and we felt like based on the external forces coming from the state, the Department of Education and the federal government, that our students would be best served with a dual semester,” said Dr. Klitzman.
Dr. Klitzman talks about the advantages the tri-semester had for the students.
“With a tri-semester, they were able to take more courses and they were able to split courses up better. For example, for a full year course, they could take that course in the first semester and the third semester, they can take it in the second semester of one year and the first semester. It gave flexibility so they could fit things into their schedule.”
The tri-semester school year also had its disadvantages.
“What it didn’t give us is the continuity of getting ready for the End of Course Assessment. The Department of Education said, ‘We are going to give you an end of course assessment in Algebra on this date’. If the student hasn’t had the programming or hasn’t had it in a long time, they’re going into head-to-head competition with students that have had it consistently and it’s just not a good mix.”
