I haven’t talked about my own school lately, so I thought an update was in order. To be blunt, we’re losing programs–not because of budget cuts or lower enrollment, but because my principal has fallen in love with blocks. Apparently, she believes the block structure is our school’s panacea for curing our freshman failure rate, and while I think blocks have their place, I don’t believe it’s the cure-all as expressed to the school.
What has happened is that 2/3 of our freshmen will be in blocks consisting of an English, a Science, and a Math class. The levels vary but the kids are locked into these classes. These are not true blocks where the same 30 kids travel together creating a small learning community (though we are told the blocks are small learning communities). The kids simply have the same three teachers for the three blocked classes. 30 kids may be in the same English class first period, but then 15 might be in a lower level Science and another 15 in a higher level Science. Finally, those 30 kids could be in up to three different Math classes. The key is that they all have the same three teachers.
In addition to this, the teachers have the same prep period to “collaborate.” Now this collaboration is not about curriculum since the teachers still teach the same skills and content they did previously; however, they meet once a week to go over counseling issues. They talk about individual kids. This is not a bad thing, but it duplicates a system we already have where the counselors lead these sessions instead of an extra person (in this case it’s a paraprofessional, not a counselor).
So, in short, the schedule is becoming petrified by the kids being forced into a block of three periods, and the teachers are blocked into a common prep period (thus, blocks of four periods).
Add to this the fact that now, even though the numbers do not support more blocks in the junior year, we are being forced to create these blocks for our juniors. We had fewer kids request a blocked set of two classes in the junior year (an American Literature and U.S. History block of two periods where the curriculum for each is integrated), but we were forced to add new sections. All this, despite being told “we’ll let the numbers guide us.”
This now means that even more periods are mandated for these blocks as well as during the freshman year. The schedule has become so rigid that scheduling has become nightmarish.
The solution: more blocks and fewer programs! Even though student achievement is almost identical in blocked and unblocked classes, somehow the blocks have become preferred even though they are more expensive and more work for the faculty.
All of this now has resulted in programs being cut to make the blocks work. We are losing our only two media literacy courses, have lost our vocabulary and speech classes, and have lost our half of our introductory journalism and debate programs while effectively eliminating our drama program to make the blocks fit the schedule. This may not seem too drastic to some, but our drama program is state recognized, and our debate team regularly sends kids to state and national tournaments while our journalism program has been hailed as one of the best in the nation (having won numerous Pacemaker Awards, the student equivalent of the Pulitzer).
The other difficulty in our department is that the department has been split in two, almost like factions. Those who teach the freshman blocks and those who don’t teach them have essentially been pitted against one another because the principal publicly compares the grades, GPAs, number of referrals, and so on between the two groups of teachers. It has created competition where we once had collaboration (which is why I also fear merit pay). My principal told me she doesn’t understand why there is competition, so I gave her a quick list stating those teaching the blocks:
- get extra training, for which they get extra pay,
- have smaller class sizes,
- have an extra layer of counseling assistance,
- have classes that are running the school (all else defers to these blocks including our programs),
- receive extra days (and extra pay) with their students before the school year begins,
- are praised continuously in front of the school and community,
- are hand-picked by the principal,
- only have new freshman in the school (no students repeating the courses, no ELL students, and fewer special ed. students).
This year I think this will be the major battle in my school. How are we going to assess fairly the effectiveness of the blocks when they have all of the advantages, and how am I going to bring the department back together? I don’t have solutions right now, but I am working on it.
Side note: We were asked for “two volunteers” to become a part of these freshman blocks, and I found two teachers to volunteer. However, the principal didn’t want one of them, so she picked a different (and our least experienced) teacher instead. The teacher selected did not want to be a part of the blocks either and had stated such on multiple occasions. This also created animosity in the department. It could be a tough year.
Other side notes: I don’t think the principal has bad intentions, but she gets an idea in her mind and nothing will sway her from that idea. This has occurred on multiple fronts, and it’s always the same: good intentions, but poor implementation without the staff’s support.
Sometimes I just think we are forced to do these things just to do something, to make it look like we’re solving a problem.
My biggest worry with the freshman blocks is that kids who would have not passed the Frosh English courses previously will now squeak by and get caught in the Sophomore year. And, instead of this being a commentary on the blocks, it will be a way for the principal to declare the need for blocks in the sophomore year.
We never talk about student learning and capacity when talking about the blocks; we only talk about passing grades, which are not necessarily the same things.
