Kalamazoo High School

Kalamazoo, Mi-Kalamazoo Public Schools Isa says goodbye to Trimester.

The KPS curatorium approved a change of trimesters to semester to District High Schools at a board meeting on Wednesday, March 5. The change applies to the Loy Narrix High School, the Kalamazoo Central High School, the Phoenix High School and the innovative learning program from Kalamazoo from 2025-26.

The students now have seven 50-minute courses a day. With the trimester plan, the students took five 70-minute courses in one day.

The number of credits that the students need for the degree also also slightly drops from 26 credits to 24. The district reduces the amount of the required election subjects from 5.5 to 4 and eliminates a requirement of the “computer applications” of 0.5.

The high school of the district has operated in three 12-week sections in three 12-week sections since 2010-11. The semester format will have two 18-week segments.

Core classes such as mathematics, English, social sciences and natural sciences will be taught in the course of the year, while election classes will be taught in one semester.

The district will also add a “seminar” period worth 0.5 credits during the day. The seminar should offer teaching opportunities to support what the students learn in their classes.

The change was made because too many students fall off track in a trimester format, said Craig McCane, deputy superintendent for secondary school formation and leadership. When a student failed a class in his first year, he was often only able to repeat it in his second year, McCane said at a parent meeting in January about the change.

With the core courses that were taught over the course of the year, the students can spend more time with teachers and teaching material, said McCane. A semester format increases the lesson time in a class of 72 hours to 75 hours over the course of a year.

A stronger connection to teachers could also help reduce chronic absenteeism, said McCane.

The Schedule Switch also corresponds to how classes are offered at partner institutions such as the Career Connect Center of the Kalamazoo Regional Education Service Agency and double registration at local universities.