Tombstone High School wants to improve English education while cutting costs and attracting potential teachers.

Tombstone High School Principal Robert Devere proposed new hybrid English classes for the 2012-13 school year at the most recent school board meeting. If approved, the classes would be offered to freshmen that need more time to develop basic writing skills.

In his presentation Devere noted one out of every seven students at Tombstone High School typically has to retake English classes.

“We are trying to break the fail and repeat cycle,” Devere said. “With these new hybrid classes, we can take those students who are moving at a remedial pace and build up some basic skills that for whatever reason they did not come in with.”

Tombstone High School classes last for 90 minutes, and these new hybrid classes would conform to that.

“The whole idea is that you get a year worth of classes done in one semester,” Devere said.

The proposed classes would have all freshmen take a nine-week assessment course during their first semester. If a student is unable to meet the state’s reading and writing standards by 70 percent at the end of that course, they would be placed in a remedial English class. Students who meet the standard would only have to complete the remaining portions of the semester.

Devere said while the main point of the new English classes is to stop students from retaking freshman English, he thinks these new classes might also improve students’ reading and writing AIMS scores. The AIMS test is required by the state each year and assesses schools’ performances.

“If a student knows and performs our English curriculum better, it’s going to show in their testing,” Devere said.

Tombstone High School scored 77 percent in the reading portions of the AIMS and 68 percent in the writing last year. That’s below last year’s state average for reading, which was 78 percent, and the same as the writing average.

“We are right where we need to be,” Devere said. “Especially compared to other rural schools in the state.”

Kat Clamon, who has been an English teacher at Tombstone for 11 years, says she thinks the proposed courses would benefit students who aren’t strong readers or writers.

“I personally feel that not everybody can learn what they need to know in one semester,” Clamon said. “And reading and writing takes practice.”

Clamon said while students are giving an assessment for reading, writing and math prior to attending Tombstone High School, it does not give teachers the chance to pay attention to specific learning problems.

“Sometimes giving a student a test in the beginning of the school year doesn’t tell you everything you need to know,” Clamon said. “And I think you need that time to teach them to find out where they really are.”

The new English classes also would reduce the number of English teachers needed since the school would no longer have to offer a repeat course to sophomores who fail freshmen English. This could be a relief for the school, Devere explained, as it will decrease school spending and bring into account their low teacher retention rate. Devere says it is not that uncommon for teachers in rural districts like Tombstone to only stay for a few years because the salaries are smaller compared to bigger cities and districts. The average salary for a Tombstone High School teacher is $38,980, according to National Center for Education Statistics  and the average salary for high school teachers in Arizona is $44,672, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“There is a huge discrepancy between the rural and metro schools on pay scales,” Devere said. “We also lose a lot of people from the math and science field because they typically have skills that can pay considerably more than what teaching does.”

While other departments may experience an influx of new teachers every school year, Clamon said for the most part the English department has a good teacher retention rate.

“For some reason, it works and we can watch students progress,” Clamon said.

The school is also in the first year of offering introductory English college courses on their campus. The school partnered with Cochise Community College so Tombstone students can take college English classes for credit instead of upper-division advanced placement courses.

Clamon, who is teaching these classes, said the move from advance placement classes to college courses have been beneficial to students who are ready to expand their education but are not set for the college environment yet.

“They can still be in high school and have the feeling of security than be stuck unprepared in a college class,” Clamon said. “And that is what we really want to do is prepare students.”