Warsaw Considering 'Balanced Calendar,' 7 Periods Per Day
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
Scheduling at Warsaw Community High School and middle schools has been tinkered with in the past by the administration.
Superintendent Dr. Robert Haworth wants to change it again to seven periods per day and a balanced calendar. But before he presented the changes to the Warsaw School Board Monday, several students spoke out against the change.Balanced calendar would apply to all schools in the district.
WCHS sophomore Kristin Boyd said she and other students gathered 1,000 signatures of students, teachers and parents against the change. They had only about half with them Monday night as another student who had the rest of them was unable to make the meeting.
Boyd said if WCHS went to seven periods a day, teachers would have more homework to grade, and students would have more work to do. Students already have five exams, and moving to seven periods a day would mean seven exams and more stress to the students, she said.
Justina Radzeviciute, WCHS student, said teachers would have less time to give a lesson with seven periods a day instead of just five. She said it would be more difficult to get into honors courses because more students will want to get into them.
"I think this would be a bad idea for co-op students," said Boyd.
Radzeviciute said they would end up with one less credit period per semester, and the passing time between classes would be longer than a class period. Boyd said shorter classes in a seven-period day would make it difficult for art students to get their projects completed. Other classes like biology also would be adversely affected.
During the public comments section of the board meeting, sophomore Todd Eastes said students, teachers, administrators and board members need to form a committee and discuss what they want the scheduling to be. A decision should be put off for a year. Other schools' schedules should be examined, he said. Everyone should be a part of the decision so it doesn't seem "so one-sided as it does," he said.
Haworth said what matters is that the schedule serves the purpose of the work of the school.
Advocates of the current schedule claim it has the following attributes: better grades, fewer failures, less time lost between classes, fewer disruptions, few discipline problems, more time for labs, more time for teaching planning, more time for in-depth learning, teachers have fewer students per day and students have fewer classes per day.
Criticisms of the 67-minute class periods include: decrease in SAT/ACT and standardized test scores, problems with scheduling and sequencing, dealing with absences, transfer students, spacing effect and time between core classes.
Haworth said children learn most effectively when they are exposed to small increments of the material. Many studies have been conducted regarding block scheduling, and Haworth said a number of studies have found evidence of improved student learning, a number of studies have found significant improvement and other studies have found significant decline in student achievement.
The High School Journal reported on a study that showed that block scheduling, as WCHS has now, was not providing an advantage in science and may even show some small negative effects in science.
If the studies are taken out of context, Haworth said it would be easy to conclude that having one type of schedule over another would lead to greater achievement. However, that's not true as various factors involved in scheduling lead to success. Those factors include what happens in the beginning, what happens in the end, outstandingness and linking.
Haworth said the change in scheduling is not about "where we have been or where we are, but where we are going."
Schools today are "prisoners of finance." Ninety percent of Warsaw Community School's general fund is tied up in salary and benefits of school employees.
Forty percent of students now qualify for free or reduced lunch, and three of Warsaw's schools now have 50 percent of their student population on free or reduced lunch.
Warsaw Schools' population continues to grow, and Warsaw is working to meet Adequate Yearly Progress as required by the No Child Left Behind law.
Haworth asked if he could provide a program that would improve student attendance, achievement, student behavior, graduation rates, student dropout rate, and reduce the amount of time used for student review, improve student test scores, reduce discipline referrals and reduce teacher and student burnout, would the board implement it?
That's why he is advocating a seven-period day as well as a balanced calendar, he said.
The schedule would be seven periods a day or a modified three-on two-off schedule. There would be nine-week grading periods, and two semesters in the balanced schedule.
"If you thought I was advocating for year-round school, you would be incorrect," Haworth said.
A balanced calendar reorganizes the school year to provide more continuous learning. Instead of having the long summer break, breaks are divided more evenly throughout the school year. During the time off, students and staff can participate in intersession activities. An intersession is the period of time when school is not in session and tutoring and enrichment activities are scheduled. Intersessions occur during vacations from school.
Teachers still will teach only 180 days per contract year. However, after each nine weeks, students get two weeks off, unless they are requested to attend a week of intersession, then they get only one week off. After the last nine-week is summer vacation, but it would be about 30 days instead of 60 days.
The intersessions would not cost the school corporation any more money than summer school does now, Haworth said, so there would be no additional costs.
As for concerns about career and technical education, athletics, state fair, special education, child care and student job opportunities, they all would be addressed.
The seven-period balanced calendar would be a three-year pilot. At the end of the three years, the school board would determine whether to continue it or not. Three years is necessary to determine the effectiveness of the scheduling.
Haworth said he will present the scheduling change to the school board again in January. Then, he said he hoped they would make a decision on it then.
"I believe deeply in what I'm trying to move this community to," he said.
