After discussion amongst faculty and with Student Council in the fall, the academic calendar for the 2013-2014 school year was finalized on Tuesday under the new system of equal term lengths. Next year, each term will be 11 weeks long, including Extended Period Week at the end of each term. Other changes include moving Wellness Week to the last week of January during Winter Term, as opposed to having it during Fall Term. “With a shorter Fall Term, there was a feeling that having something like Wellness Week to disrupt the adjustment in the first term at Andover for a lot of students didn’t seem [like] the best idea,” said John Rogers, Dean of Studies. Under the new calendar model, Parents Weekend falls on the same weekend as the PSAT test every other year, which includes the 2013-2014 school year. Because the date of Parents Weekend is determined by the athletic schedule, it cannot easily be changed to avoid overlapping with PSATs, said Rogers. Next year, Lowers and Uppers will take the PSATs on Wednesday, October 16 instead of on a Saturday to avoid coinciding with Parents’ Weekend. Seniors will be given the time on that Wednesday to either work on their college applications or participate in a special program with the College Counseling Office. Other activities will be arranged for Juniors on that day as well, according to Rogers. “We need facilities like [Paresky] Commons and [Case Memorial] Cage to host meals for Parents Weekend, so trying to have 600 kids take the PSATs on Parents Weekend would just be too much happening on campus, ” said Rogers. The length of Fall Term previously varied depending on when Labor Day and Thanksgiving fell, causing Fall Term to be up to three weeks longer than Winter Term and Spring Term at times, according to Rogers. “With the adoption of the new calendar, we will have terms that are the same length as each other and that do not vary in length from year to year. For the purpose of curriculum planning, a consistent envelope is very helpful,” wrote Rogers in the “Summary of Pros and Cons of the Revised Calendar.” Next year, Fall Term will end on Friday, November 22, followed by a 12-day-long Thanksgiving Break. Students will return for the start of Winter Term on Thursday, December 5. Winter Term will resume on Tuesday, January 7. Compared to the 2012-2013 calendar, next year’s Thanksgiving Break is two days longer, while Winter Break is one week shorter. However, Winter Break for the 2012-2013 school year was unusually long due to the date of Thanksgiving. Under the new schedule, Winter Break will vary between 18-25 days, which will only be about two days shorter on average compared to Winter Break under the previous calendar model, according to Rogers. With Winter Break in the middle of Winter Term, the Academic Council is working to produce clear guidelines for faculty regarding the amount of work that can be assigned over break. This will ensure that students are not overwhelmed by assignments over the holiday season, said Rogers. Another reason for equalizing the term lengths was to make Fall Term grades available to colleges for Seniors applying early. There has been a growing trend showing that more and more Andover students were put at a disadvantage in admissions because the lack of concrete Fall Term grades, according to Rogers. “A number of colleges were reporting back to us that it was really hard for them to make decisions, and some were actually refusing to do so. And, even if colleges were willing to look at Andover students, they just might have just assumed the students grades were more or less the same as before, but the reality is, Senior Fall tends to be a really strong term academically for most [students],” he said. The new calendar model is expected to give college counselors more time with the Seniors prior to Winter Break. “My office and the Academic Council are the ones that brought the proposal to end the Fall Term before Thanksgiving to the whole faculty, and they voted on the outline of the calendar. The Registrar, Betsy Korn, is the one that actually puts together the calendar every year in consultation with all the major offices around campus like athletics and College Counseling,” Rogers said. www
