Schedule Change Upsets Some Students

A couple of parents and students appeared to circle around Douglas County School System Superintendent Gordon Pritz in a spirited discussion after Monday night’s Board of Education meeting.

In another area,  junior Zachary Pittman and his parents were talking to Rob Brown, the district’s director of high school instruction.

The students and parents were concerned about the 5-0 vote by the school board to approve changing the 2011-12 high school class schedule to a hybrid form and scrap solely using a 4x4 block schedule the school system has used exclusively for 15 years.

With no additional cost, the hybrid will offer year-long instruction wherever possible through a combination of various schedules to be identified by the individual school. Schedules can be through 45-minute, eight-period days (split blocks), the current 90-minute 4x4 blocks, an A/B format (an alternate day block), or a combination of each of these approaches, Brown explained to the board.

The change hopes to stop students going months without taking a core class, such as math, science, English and social studies. It also would lessen the impact student absences and suspensions would have on grades.

“We need to reschedule because we signed up for a block schedule and not an eight-period day,” said Pittman, who personally gathered 250 signatures against implementing the schedule change. “Of the students I asked to sign (the petition), 90 percent were against the eight-period day.”

Pittman actually thought the hybrid schedule was a “good plan,” but believed that its problems and kinks needed to be worked out before it could be started in August.

Pittman said students taking prerequisite and Advance Placement courses at the same time are two of the biggest problems with the new schedule. However, Brown said that all the research the district's 31-person committee found indicated AP scores improved with year-long instruction.

“The higher level and dedicated students will be able to adjust, but the average to lower students, in my opinion, will struggle and it might be an overload,” Pittman said.

To alleviate some of his concerns, Brown took Pittman’s name and assured him that he would soon meet with him at Alexander High.

“I’ll come and see you and look at your schedule,” Brown said with a smile. “I’ve been doing (schedules for 10 years).”

Alexander High junior Knigyl Barnes said the schedule change “snuck up” on students.

“We didn’t know anything about it and teachers told us they weren’t supposed to say anything about it,” he said after the meeting. “I’m honestly furious because they didn’t give us a chance to vote on it. The survey was very bias and confusing. I’ll have so much work now.”

Brown said the school system ran a six-question survey that was announced in the schools and posted on the district's website. It ran from March 30 to April 29. However, only 2 percent of students and parents (497 out of 22,281) responded to the survey and 40 percent of teachers (186 of 464). Brown said 90 percent of the concerns about the scheduling change hail from one traditional high performing school.

The survey followed 31 teachers of all content areas, administrators and curriculum coaches meeting as a committee twice a month starting in February to look at other district’s schedules and investigating the issue. A teacher first suggested changing the district’s high school schedule in October when she had growing concerns about it, Brown said.

“The schedule won’t solve apathy, but it certainly will give our teachers a better opportunity to engage our students in shorter periods,” Brown said. “Anytime you do a survey there’s a risk the response rate will be poor.”

Brown said committee members then returned to their research to determine what schedule best served students.

“If we don’t come in here and make a recommendation after all the information we received that says something is better for ours students and not acted on it, then we have failed our students,” he said. “My plans are to meet with (our high school staffs) and let them know what our goals are and let them know how it will affect them directly and benefit them directly.”

Board member Janet Kelley, whose District 3 serves Lithia Springs High School, gave Brown and the committee who recommended the schedule change high praise.

“Kudos,” she said. “It’s a long time coming.”

Pritz added: “The year-long instruction puts our students on an even playing field with students across the country.”