I.  Student Achievement and Core Class Instructional Time

There are many scheduling models employed in schools throughout the state and nation. These schedules are often based on an individual school’s core values, student achievement goals, and staffing resources. Draper Park Middle School uses a 6-period day because we value instructional time in all classes. A 6-period day allows teachers to build in both extension and intervention exercises during the 60-minute class period. Another advantage to a 6-period day is the consistent learning environment every day – students go to the same 6 classes every day, so there aren’t gaps in their learning from going every other day, like in an A/B day 4×4 schedule. And finally, another advantage to a 6-period day is that students only have 6 classes worth of work, homework, projects, etc. to worry about. Even in high school, when students are juggling the work of 8 class periods, sometimes assignments or projects get overlooked or forgotten until the last minute.Comparison of Instructional Time

SAGE data from 7 period day to 6 period day

II. TEAMING AND COLLABORATION

While the benefits and scholarly research of teaming has already been discussed in detail on this page, another reason why DPMS uses a 6-period day is because that scheduling structure supports interdisciplinary teaming. Our teaming structure creates a “school within a school” at DPMS, minimizing the effects of our 1,500 student population, and ensuring that every student has a close-knit group of teachers working with them and attending to their academic and behavioral needs.

While some schools employ what they term teaming, DPMS uses a “true teaming” model where a group of students (~160) are all placed with the same math, English, science and social studies teachers. This model creates the conditions for effective collaboration among teachers to address the academic, behavior, and social needs of our students.

III. REMEDIATION & ACCELERATION DURING THE SCHOOL DAY

Draper Park Middle aims to individualize instruction when it comes to providing both extension activities for learners who reach mastery as well as remediation lessons for learners who need more instruction to reach mastery. In traditional scheduling models, this extensions and remediation takes place before or after school. However, DPMS has made it part of the school culture that teachers ought to reserve the last 10 minutes of each class period and/or the entire period on Friday’s for re-teaching & interventions. By utilizing the full 60 minutes to provide targeted feedback and support for all learners, DPMS feels other scheduling models would limit teachers’ ability to provide this support during class time.

IV.  CHOICE OF ELECTIVES

Draper Park Middle offers a total of 56 different elective courses. Most students at DPMS take between 2-4 electives per year, based on the programs they have chosen to participate in. Click the link for a List of elective choices. In keeping with our “middle level philosophy,” middle school is a time for exploratory learning and schools should offer opportunities for students to experience a wide-variety of different subjects and topics.