New same-teacher policy for freshmen is unfair — let them choose
Editorial
Originally posted on March 4, 2016
This semester, Lowell’s administration implemented a new policy that requires freshmen to take the same teachers in biology and history for the entire school year instead of being able to choose their teachers for those courses in the self-scheduling Arena, as has been done for years.
If Lowell truly wants the best for its freshmen, it should allow students to choose in Arena.
Various administrators say their intentions are to improve freshman academic performance, strengthen teacher-student relationships and help students feel more settled and secure in their first year at Lowell. The administration would like to expand the policy next year to more subjects but has not figured out all the logistics yet, according to assistant principal Margaret Peterson.
While the relationships between students and their teachers are important, so is academic performance and sovereignty over education. The policy should not be expanded to other subjects. If Lowell truly wants the best for its freshmen, it should allow students to choose in Arena and switch out of classes that could hurt them academically rather than help them. If the administration cannot fulfill this, then the policy should be abolished altogether.
A significant number of freshmen don’t feel close to an adult on campus, according to Peterson. This was based on the voluntary Youth Voice Survey conducted by Lowell’s Peer Resources Outreach Program every year.
The Lowell and the Lowell Data Club conducted a survey by selecting two random registries from each grade; 48 percent of freshmen said they feel comfortable talking to an adult on campus, while 14 percent do not. It is not clear whether this was a result of the new policy or already the case.
Assuming there is a need for this policy, one intended benefit is better relationships between students and teachers. Some students have built better relationships with their history teachers during second semester, like freshman Juana Tostado and her history teacher, who has tried to help her get her grade up.
Students could be forced to adapt to their teacher’s teaching style even if it does not suit them.
The policy could also help teachers better plan how they can help students get the best learning experience. World History teacher Stephanie Bellville thinks that her students staying with her for the whole school year allows her to get good feedback when she talks to the students because they feel comfortable and safe. With group work, she tries to put students in mixed-level learning groups to improve the learning of everyone, which is easier to do once she knows the students better after a semester. Research and the Theory of Proximal Learning supports that this method produces the best outcomes, according to Bellville.
Another intended benefit is convenience of year-long, rather than semester-long, curriculum, because there is less pressure to have every class end at the same place in the curriculum when the first semester finishes. Freshman Minerva Xiang said that she would not want to switch her biology teacher because they were ahead in the textbook. “If I switched my biology teacher, I wouldn’t be able to learn as much,” Xiang said.
But the policy may not be best for the students’ academic performance.
Students could be forced to adapt to their teacher’s teaching style even if it does not suit them. Although freshman Tiffany Yau felt that she did create a bond with her biology teacher, her teacher did not cater to her individual needs or positively affect her academic performance. “She really just does the same as the beginning of the semester,” Yau said. “She just does reviewing before and [then uses] Quizlet.” According to The Lowell’s and the Data Club’s survey, although 23 percent of students from all grades said keeping the same teacher in a class would have helped their academic performance, 30 percent said it would not have. Some students may benefit from keeping the same teacher for the full year, but not all students should be required to. “My history teacher is hard, and it is my worst subject,” Tostado said. “We have quizzes every day, and I don’t learn much because he teaches the material after the quiz.”
Fifty-one percent of students say freshmen should not keep their fall history and biology teachers for the spring semester.
Lowell is a college preparatory school, and requiring freshmen to keep the same history and biology teachers from the fall undermines its ideals of giving students a college-like experience in choosing their own classes, since classes in college go by a semester system. According to The Lowell’s and the Data Club’s survey, 51 percent of students say freshmen should not keep their fall history and biology teachers for the spring semester, rather than choose them in Arena.
Additionally, if students are locked into taking the same teacher both semesters, they cannot rearrange their schedule as freely to take other classes they want or need.
In brief, requiring freshmen to keep the same teachers in biology and history for the full year is taking away a college-like experience, can be harmful to the students’ academic performances, and may not even necessarily help build student-teacher relationships. Therefore, the option of changing teachers should be given to the students who want to. However, if this cannot be accomplished, the school should repeal this policy altogether, as there are likely more students who would want to change rather than keep their teachers.