A new accelerated learning bell schedule has been introduced strictly on Wednesdays with the arrival of a state mandate, and students and staff members are having trouble adjusting to the sudden change.  

The state of Texas is requiring students who either did not take, or failed state testing, STAAR (State of Texas Assessment of Academic Readiness), to acquire up to 90 hours (about 4 days) of test prep. Wednesdays have been shifted to accommodate forty-minute sessions held in homerooms for all students after third period classes. 

Each Wednesday, accelerated learning day, comes around and classes are cut 13 minutes short to add the extra homeroom class period. Sophomore Brianna Roman said she gets more homework because of the shortened class periods. 

“I’m literally in the middle of writing something and then this bell rings,” Brianna said. “So, then she [teacher] gives me more homework.” 

 Being on a block schedule, teachers like math teacher Mr. Crank sometimes find it hard to plan for the different schedule.  

“It throws off an A or B Day,” Crank said. “I have to find a way to balance the time on those ACL Wednesdays.”  

While the time dedicated to test prep may be very useful for some, students like senior Millianney Diaz who are not explicitly included in the mandate, think differently.   

“So, what’s the point of us being here?” Milianney said. “I understand the other people who didn’t take the STAAR and needed to catch up for it. But the rest of us, we already have eight classes, some nine or ten because we failed one last year. “