Study hall consists of a classroom full of students where they can all take the time to catch up on missing assignments, tests, homework, and credits and help boost their grades along with their grade point average. Last year, Pahrump Valley High School decided to add this class to its schedule. Although it’s not a class that’s worth any credits, it’s still in a classroom setting. Meaning teachers still expect their rules to be followed, and some teachers are even sterner with their rules during study hall.

Study hall has only been at PVHS for a little over two years now. With the class being so new, I decided to ask the principal, Desiree Veloz, if she feels study hall is beneficial to students. She stated, ” Study Hall is beneficial for some students, as they maximize their time with reading and completing work, credit recovery, or getting specific tutoring.” Reading has been a big change for the classrooms. As soon as the bell rings the students are expected to read on myON for 20 minutes. The goal of this is to improve students’ reading, accuracy, and grammar performance. I created a poll for all grade levels, with questions about study hall, and gathered information about their opinions. Grade levels 9, 10, and 12 agreed that study hall benefits them and helps them turn in more than half of their work. 11th-grade students had a different opinion: half of the students said study hall helps them, but the other half claimed it doesn’t help. 

Juniors also feel they should be able to leave for study hall, with some restrictions. Students agree that if they have no missing work, all of their credits and grades are above a B they should be able to leave. 

Unfortunately, the law requires 11th-grade students to attend study hall. This is mandated within the school and has nothing to do with a student’s academic performance. The only exception is for juniors enrolled in college classes and seniors who take college classes or have a half schedule. This period is also used for Juniors to prepare for the approaching ACT. Although it’s mandated for juniors to be in class during study hall, 57.1% of teachers wished that Juniors were allowed to leave during that period. A teacher stated, ” I think it would help the classrooms because it would create less commotion. The students who have good grades get too bored in study hall. If there were fewer students, it would help break up some of that and allow for us teachers to provide more support to those who are struggling.”

At the beginning of the year, teachers and administrators were facing problems with students transitioning to study hall and getting used to the expectations of the class. During study hall, students have the opportunity to go to another class for help. This was causing issues in the hall, students were taking too long getting to their class, hanging out with friends, ditching, etc. 

I also did polls for the teachers to gather information on how they felt about study hall. Most of the teachers agreed that study hall helps their students, but there was only a 2% difference among the teachers that feel like study hall doesn’t help. 40% of the teachers claim it’s hard to maintain their study hall class. A teacher stated that ” Study hall can be beneficial, but overall just creates chaos and allows students a chance to get crazy”. Staff agrees that students use study hall more as free time, instead of a period to get things done. Nearly half of the junior class agrees that study hall is hectic and makes it hard for them to concentrate. More than half of them agree it would be easier for them to get their work done if they were allowed to go home. 

I spoke with junior Cristian Aldecua and asked if he thinks study hall is beneficial. He stated, ” There is really no point in it, students goof off and mess around, and there is a small number of students who actually do their work. Also, after we read it’s hard to do work. We want to talk to our friends”. I spoke with another student and asked him how he thinks classrooms can be turned into more of a working environment. He said, ” I think that students should treat that period like it’s an actual class. Or, they could just get rid of it”. 

Although not every student believes in study hall, some students believe that study hall helps, along with teachers. In the future, the school administration hopes to make study hall better and do their best to accommodate everyone’s needs.