Jennifer Saddington, a teacher at Lawrence North High School, said her students have heard the talk about uniforms. They think it would be too restrictive and hard to enforce in public school. Clothing, however, is just one of many changes on the educational horizon. Some are already seeing the light of day. One of the most sweeping changes is in the way classes are scheduled.
Alternative schedules are more like college schedules.
Students are in each class longer, but they only attend a given class on a given day, not all seven classes every day. Class periods now range from 66 to 90 minutes each. Some schools are adopting year-round schedules that offer shorter grading periods with longer breaks in between. In her freshman and senior English classes, she said the shorter breaks would result in less review than is required after a long summer break. Educators say alternative scheduling and year-round school offers flexibility.