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Coppell High School currently offers a semester level down/drop form that allows students to change their schedule. In the 2020-2021 school year, CHS administration will enforce a more rigid system to prevent changing classes in the middle of the year.
Akif Abidi, Staff Writer
January 14, 2020
Coppell High School has seen many changes in its system this year, from ridding of semester exams to introducing Friday Night Live. Next year, it plans to see a change to the student schedule changing system.
In the past, students often changed classes or switched them with a release period at the beginning of a school year, but starting next semester, CHS is planning to be much more rigid with its schedule flexibility.
Students will no longer be allowed to change or drop a class for a release period during the school year simply because they changed their minds. Students will still be allowed to change their schedule for “major issues”, according to CHS Principal Laura Springer. For example, if one takes a summer course with credit corresponding to a course he or she is taking in school, they may drop the course.
Levelling down will still be allowed; however, a student must spend at least four weeks in a class before he or she can request a level down. Even then, the school will consider if there is space in the class before granting a student’s level down request.
Every year, the population of students in a course vary. For example, the number of students and classes taking AP Statistics this year might not be the same as last year.
Therefore, before the start of every school year, CHS hires new teachers and determines teaching assignments based on the number of students registered for each course. And when students change their schedule in the middle of the year, it often leads to imbalanced classes.
“I want to advertise to our kids to make informed decisions and make decisions you can live with,” Springer said. “So don’t overload yourself with AP classes. If you get here and go ‘oh no, I should have never been taking this many AP classes’, that’ll be a learning year for you. So be smart.”
Some CHS students were disappointed with the announced change.
“It’s a bad idea to remove schedule changes in the middle of the year,” CHS junior Dario Dias said. “Because if people get into a class and if they don’t like it, they should have the ability to drop out or change it into something they like. Removing that, in my opinion, restricts [students].”
However Springer maintained that students have more than enough time to make a decision before the registration deadline.
“We give you an opportunity for your parents to see your course guide [with] counselors,” Springer said. “ Do a classroom presentation for the counselors to bring you in and do a one-on-one looking at all your credits, looking at your pathways, looking at everything and make sure it’s OK. And before you ever finally get the final registration due, you have had about four opportunities for us to see your schedule. So when you make those choices, those should be informed choices.”
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