Hillsborough teachers now can sound off about this year's controversial requirement that they teach an extra class period each day.

Teachers are being asked to fill out a survey to give hard numbers on the impact of teaching six out of seven classes in high schools and magnet middle schools. The survey was sent out through district email accounts Tuesday night. Instructors have until midnight on April 16 to answer.

The survey is designed to take 10-minutes or less to fill out. Teachers can state how strongly they feel about statements asking whether the quality of their instruction is as good this year compared to last. Do they have enough time to plan lessons? Are they giving more multiple-choice tests, or assigning more seat work than last year?

The survey even seeks to assess whether the scheduling change has made teachers more likely to move to another grade level, or go into another profession.

"We tweaked and tweaked it to make it really valid. We want it to be credible," said Jean Clements, president of the Hillsborough teachers union. "We've been expressing great concern about this scheduling and teaching model for over a year now. The district wouldn't just take our word for it."

She said the release of the survey was carefully timed. It wasn't conducted first semester, because the results could have been skewed the adjustment period, or during FCAT testing earlier this spring.

Teachers can forward a link to the survey to their homes and reply over Spring Break next week. Many already have answered the call. By this morning, about 40 percent of the 4,105 instructors surveyed had sent in responses, Clements said.

So what happens to this information? It will probably take a few weeks to sift through and analyze. In today's budget environment, Clements acknowledged that no one is expecting the district immediately to back off a scheduling change that let Hillsborough hire fewer teachers. But she is hoping that teacher opinions, coupled with data at the end of the year on performance and attendance, will force discussion.

"They need to seriously be willing to consider some changes in the near future," Clements said. "Even if we are not able to change the scheduling model right away, there might be other changes that the district would be willing to make to enable teachers to do their jobs better."