Night School starts earlier

As part of an ongoing effort to improve the MCPS Evening High School program, Blair Night School classes now begin one-and-a-half hours earlier.

Other changes this year include increased efforts to hire certified teachers and improve rigor for Night School to match the standards of day school. Most teachers at Night School adhere to upgraded curriculums, according to student interviews and teacher's lesson plans.

However, teachers have encountered ongoing problems at Night School. Lack of motivation among students and insufficient resources from the county still prevent many attendees from succeeding, they said.

Raising standards

Effective this semester, Blair's Night School classes, which previously took place from 5:55 p.m. to 9:35 p.m., now take place from 4:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. According to Night School Principal James Short, the earlier hours will benefit Night School students, most of whom opted for the time change in a survey taken this year. "I'm excited for the kids. They can get home early enough," said Short.

Before the schedule change, spending late nights at Night School drove teachers and students to exhaustion, according to former Night School teachers Patricia Anderson and Leslie Van. Van quit teaching Night School because she felt she could not devote enough time and energy to it. "It's too much of a time commitment for me," she said. "I don't concentrate enough, and it's not really fair to [students] that I'm not awake enough."

Junior Nicole Salgado said that with the former schedule some students had no time to do homework for Night School when balancing day school and work.

MCPS principals worry about the instruction their students at Night School receive, Short said, because the High School Assessment scores of Night School students still affect their respective home schools' Annual Yearly Progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.

Since the program's relocation to Blair this year, Short took steps to make Night School classes as rigorous as day classes. "The role of evening school is changing," he said. "The students have to prepare themselves like [they must] for classes in the daytime."

In addition to upgrading curriculums, Short enforced the evening loss-of-credit (LC) policy, recruited certified teachers and improved security.

According to Short, eight out of every 10 Blair Night School teachers are content-certified, which requires teachers to have college degrees in the subjects they teach. Blair Night School has more content-certified teachers than any other site in the county.

A Night School culture

However, the initiative has not spurred all Night School students to succeed, Short said. "The biggest frustration is making them realize that this is a valuable opportunity, and they need to take advantage of it," he said.

These unmotivated students only want to do the minimum work required, Anderson believes. "Most of the students expect to show up, do dittos and watch videos and get an A," she said. Anderson also saw students distracted by cell-phone use and classroom socialization.

Van feels the problem is more deeply rooted, emphasizing that her students were manipulating the system. Receiving a C first quarter, failing second quarter and failing the exam qualifies as passing the course. Knowing that policy, her students were content to do the bare minimum to pass, she said.

Van and former Night School science teacher Wendell Hall observed poor academic performance in their classes, citing second-quarter student failure rates of 39 percent and 67 percent, respectively.

Absenteeism presents another ongoing concern, according to Short. As of Jan. 10, between 60 and 70 Night School students had lost credit for a class, and 95 percent of them had been granted appeals. Students who appeal an LC need to sign a waiver and agree to attend all remaining classes.

According to an informal Silver Chips survey of 18 Night School classes taught by 11 teachers, 14 percent of first-semester students dropped out or were absent at least seven times.

A one-semester Night School course consists of 36 blocks of one hour and 40 minutes each, totaling 60 hours of instruction. A one-semester course in day school lasts a total of 66 hours. Night School classes fulfill the state requirement for hours of instruction, according to Short. Classes take place on Mondays and Wednesdays.

But with calendar interruptions like Back-to-School Night, Night School is far more inconsistent than day school, said Night School teacher Jacquelyn Shropshire. Since Night School classes already meet sporadically, she added, nighttime students miss more instruction with each absence than day students would.

Lack of motivation, Night School teacher Earl Lindsey believes, is the reason that many students must attend Night School in the first place. "The problem isn't the system itself," he said. "It's the mentality of students today that it's okay to go to Night School."

During the first semester, Blair Night School enrolled 762 students, 247 of whom attended Blair during the day, according to MCPS Alternative Education Specialist Marjorie Jenkins.

Hall noted that expectations for students have risen since the program's relocation to Blair. "Students say, 'This is not like Northwood. You make us do work,'" he said.

Covering the curriculum

According to the MCPS Evening High School brochure, the purpose of Night School is to grant credits "based upon successful scholastic achievement equivalent to that expected of pupils enrolled in the day program."

The shorter time span of an evening class still permits teachers to cover the curriculum closely, though it makes for a "condensed course," according to Night School Health teacher Tim Coleman.

Anderson said that she taught the curriculum fully, but she assigned no homework to Night School students because they have tighter schedules from attending extra classes. Since homework reinforces class learning, her evening students may understand the material less thoroughly, she said.

According to an informal Silver Chips survey of eight teachers, six rarely or never assign homework to Night School classes.

Night School student Jason Pearson, a senior at Walter Johnson, criticized the quality of night classes. "This is a second-rate education where people pay for their credits," he said. As of Jan. 3, his English 12A and English 12B Night School classes had both completed only two of their six common tasks as outlined by MCPS instructional guides. As of Jan. 12, day school English 12A teachers Judith Smith and Stephen Albright had completed six and five common tasks, respectively.

However, former Night School teacher Sandra Ivey refuted unfavorable perceptions of Night School, citing the effectiveness of Short's initiative and the maturity she observed in her students. "The belief was that teachers are not teaching and students are just sitting there, but that's a myth," said Ivey. "Most students were older, hard-working and conscientious. Only one scoffed at the idea of homework."

Funding and resources

Media specialist Andrea Lamphier expressed concern about another discrepancy between Night School and day school: the media center does not have enough textbooks to distribute to Night School students. "The students who might need more resources to succeed have fewer than they need," she said.

Raising the student fee for Night School, which is currently $40 per course with a $10 registration fee, would generate sufficient funds to cover more textbooks and other resources, according to Jenkins.

Short suggested giving proportionate funding to Night School and day school as a means of making them more similar. Even with this year's curricular improvements, Short considers the initiative a short-term solution to problems at Night School. "Right now, we're just putting a bandage on it. We're not saying it's the same as day school," he said.