AUGUSTA — Cony High School officials say students are performing better since the 2009 implementation of a new schedule that gives them fewer classes to focus on at a time.

Administrators say fewer students are failing classes, more students are making the honor roll, and there are fewer discipline incidents — all since the “4×4” schedule was enacted for the 2009-2010 school year.

“It was a significant change — the big intervention we did,” Assistant Principal Kim Silsby said. “What it’s allowing us to do is ensure students are performing academically and behaviorally. We’re very pleased with the initial data on this.”

The year prior to the 4×4 schedule, 143 students made the honor roll at Cony. Last school year, 301 students made the honor roll.

In 2007, 369 students, or 39 percent of the student body, failed at least one class. In 2011, 165 students, or 20 percent of the student body, failed at least one class.

In 2008, there were 1,643 detentions and 439 suspensions of students. In 2011, there were 849 detentions and 302 suspensions.

Instead of the previous schedule of attending the same class every other day throughout the school year, students take the same class, every day, for just half the year. As a result, students take fewer different classes at a time but still end up with the same number of classes at the end of the year.

Principal James Anastasio said the schedule resembles a college experience.

Students, for example, may take English, mathematics, social studies and art for the first semester; and once those are completed in January, they take four different classes.

That, according to Tina Meserve, curriculum coordinator, allows students to have three or four classes they can put all their focus and attention on for a semester before starting another round of courses for the second semester.

“It gives them consistency to their day as opposed to juggling seven or eight classes all year,” Meserve said. “They do the work every day, so there is no gap in their learning.”

The 4×4 schedule was controversial when first proposed, with some parents and students expressing concern it would be harder to schedule advanced placement courses, would make it hard to fit band and chorus into the day, and would force teachers and students to cram a year’s worth of lessons into half a year.

Anastasio said at the time the school’s failure rates were too high and something needed to change.

Silsby said concerns about fitting advanced placement courses, which are standardized, yearlong programs, into the schedule have been addressed by careful scheduling and “braiding” advanced courses together, so students take two classes all year, attending each every other day. For example, she said a student could take AP literature and AP government at the same time, attending literature one day and government the next, during the same class period.

Cony continues to offer the same number of AP courses — eight — as it did in 2008. In 2008, 196 students took AP courses, compared with 192 in 2011.

Band and chorus are offered in a similar, “braided” manner, with band one day and chorus the next. Students who participate in one but not the other have a study hall on their off days.

Silsby acknowledged that many variables can affect student performance. Even so, the big picture of the data improvements over all four grade levels since the 4×4 was implemented indicates a strong connection between the new schedule and student performance, she said.

“We are seeing the gains we hoped for,” Silsby said.

Average daily attendance is also up slightly at Cony since the schedule change. In 2007, average daily attendance was 90.06 percent, compared with 91.52 percent in 2011.

Now there are 790 high school students attending Cony. Middle school-age students, who also attend classes at Cony, follow a traditional schedule, not the 4×4.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com