Academics
All full-time faculty, librarians, and counselors are represented by a labor union and have a collective bargaining agreement with the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The CBA governs the terms of their employment. The labor union's official name is The San Francisco Archdiocesan Federation of Teachers, Local 2240, which is an affiliate of the California Federation of Teachers (AFT, AFL-CIO).
ARHS utilizes an "intensive block" schedule commonly known as the 4x4 block schedule. The school year is split into two semesters, Fall and Spring, and students take four courses each semester. Each class lasts eighty minutes, providing time for students and teachers to delve more deeply and actively into topics and activities. This emphasis on depth promotes greater understanding of skills, concepts, and ideas than the traditional fifty-minute period allows.
In addition, the 4x4 allows ARHS students to take eight different ten-credit courses per school year rather than six, as is the norm in traditional school schedules. Therefore, throughout a four-year career ARHS students will be able to take eight more classes than students in schools with traditional schedules. A Riordan student’s academic courseload will not merely fulfill University of California and California State University requirements, it will exceed them, with ample room to spare to sample the expanded elective opportunities available.
One major criticism of the 4x4 schedule is in respect to Advanced Placement courses. Such AP courses taught in the Fall semester would end in December, but students take the actual AP Exam in May. Thus, the student is expected to retain the learned material for five months. In addition, because the AP exam is administered in early May, courses taught in the Spring semester are often cut short by three weeks. Three weeks, while seemingly a short amount of time, is very valuable in the 4x4 block schedule and often forces the instructor to "cram" the material in the weeks approaching the AP exam. Most AP teachers compensate for this with review sessions held outside of class.
Archbishop Riordan High School offers a variety of Honors and Advanced Placement courses. Advanced Placement offerings include:
AP Calculus AB/BC
AP Chemistry
AP Environmental Science
AP Physics
AP English Language
AP English Literature
AP Spanish Language
AP Statistics
AP European History
AP World History
AP United States History
AP United States Government
AP Psychology
AP Economics (Micro and Macro)
The AP Calculus class, taught by Mr. Paul Arrigotti from the 1970s through 2009, is nationally recognized for its high passing rates and scholastic achievement. Archbishop Riordan has also been the home to five AP exam readers: (Paul Arrigotti - Calculus; Ed Borges - US History; Bob Dalton - English Language; Jeff Isola - US Government; Steve Flowers - Environmental Science).
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Famous quotes containing the word academics:
“Almost all scholarly research carries practical and political implications. Better that we should spell these out ourselves than leave that task to people with a vested interest in stressing only some of the implications and falsifying others. The idea that academics should remain “above the fray” only gives ideologues license to misuse our work.”
—Stephanie Coontz (b. 1944)
“Our first line of defense in raising children with values is modeling good behavior ourselves. This is critical. How will our kids learn tolerance for others if our hearts are filled with hate? Learn compassion if we are indifferent? Perceive academics as important if soccer practice is a higher priority than homework?”
—Fred G. Gosman (20th century)