Why dosen't the City care about science (or social studies for that matter)?

Being middle school science teacher has its challenges and I expect them from the students, however I seem to get more from the city and administration. Middle school science and social studies are the red-headed step-children of academics. I say this because we aren’t considered important enough to have our students everyday for a full year. The argument was because they aren’t tested subjects, however this mentality sends a negative message to the students. This argument is also null and void since science is a tested subject as of this year.

The biggest issue is the city’s mandated schedule for science and social studies. At my school last year we were on a semesters, but saw the students everyday. This had to change since the students second semester would not get the amount of material needed before MSA. However the solution was AA, BB alternating Fridays as the class schedule. The issue with this is I can go 5 days and not see a group of students. This does not work well when we are in the middle of a lab or preparing for a lab to do the following class period. As much as I try to plan around the schedule, it doesn’t always work out. My students this year don’t feel like they are learning anything and I have noticed a much lower retention rate of the information.

I am now hearing unofficially that the schedule will change again next year to math and language arts staying at 90 minute class periods and the rest will be 45 minutes. I don’t understand why all the classes can’t be viewed as equally important. The skills of reading, writing and mathematics are done in other classes especially science, so why can’t we have our students the same amount of time? I think we could easily have all 70 minutes classes and be able to achieve the high standards we aim for. With this schedule every teacher would see every student everyday and there would be plenty of time to get a solid lesson taught and completed, also giving science teachers ample time to complete laboratory activities. Whatever is decided, they need to remember that science and social studies are also considered core classes and need to be treated that way.