Schedule debate
Ontario School District ponders discarding academic plan

JESSICA KELLER | ARGUS OBSERVER Nyssa High School math teacher Jessica Rodriguez speaks to her Algebra class prior to handing out an assignment Friday morning. The Nyssa School District switched from block scheduling to the traditional seven-period class day, now eight, in 2001 because high school students were not reaching student achievement goals under the block schedule.

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At the time, Grotting said, Nyssa High School was not meeting state standards and was “failing.” He said block scheduling is beneficial and conducive to greater learning in some content areas, such as science labs, vocational and art classes, where an extended amount of time for hands on activity is ideal. On the other hand, Grotting said he thinks it can be detrimental to student achievement in other core subjects, such as English, math, writing and some science classes, and in band and foreign language classes, where daily review is often needed.

“Students just did not have those core subjects every day, and some of them really needed that intensity of every day practice to become successful,” he said, adding it especially helps with English language learners who needed the daily repetition with their language acquisition.

In his opinion, the decision paid off.

“We saw some immediate gains, and I wouldn’t attribute that all to just going to a different schedule,” he said. “I still think the bottom line is the teacher and the support that the teachers are given in the classroom and to have a focus on your teachers and what you’re teaching on.”

The Weiser School District implemented the block scheduling model in the 1998 to 1999 school year as a four-year experiment, Weiser Director of Special Services Will Overgaard, who was the high school principal at the time, said.

He said the school district spent a year and a half studying the block scheduling model and then implemented it. After the four years was up, Overgaard said the school district opted not to continue with block scheduling for a couple of reasons. The main reason was student achievement. The school district, when implementing a block schedule, had hoped it would improve student achievement. That, however, did not happen among the middle- and lower-level students, Overgaard said. Instead, he said they found many of the students in the advanced courses did really well and loved the block schedule, but the younger freshmen and sophomores and the students who were not as advanced did not respond as well to the every-other-day schedule.

“The struggling kids struggled sooner and over a longer period of time,” Overgaard said, adding administrators and educators determined the “best and the brightest were going to be the best and the brightest regardless how the days were scheduled.”

In addition, absenteeism was a problem, Overgaard said, adding if a student missed class on Thursday, that student would have missed six days of class since he or she last went to class on Tuesday.

 Weiser High School Principal David Davies, who was a high school math teacher at the time, said, in his experience, the schedule worked really well for the students in his advanced math courses, who did not necessarily need the daily repetition of class time and who benefited from an extended time for discussion. The younger and lower-level students, however, needed that daily interaction in the class, Davies said. He, too, said absenteeism or any interruption in class times, such as assemblies, were a problem for the students and one of the teachers’ biggest complaints.

“It made it really difficult to get the consistency that we needed in our math classes,” Davies said.

Davies said, with more class time to discuss topics, teachers were able to cover topics more in depth, which they appreciated, but there seemed to be a trade-off.

“We did not get as far through the curriculum than with the traditional schedule,” Davies said.

Overgaard said administrators actually hoped teachers would teach to a “deeper level of understanding” with block scheduling.

“That was one of the tradeoffs that may have affected our student achievement the way it did,” he said.

Overgaard said, at the end of the four years, administrators decided it would be best if the district returned to a traditional schedule and did not pursue a modified block schedule like some other school districts have and work really well, such as Middleton High School’s.

With the significant costs of having to adjust to new graduation requirements, which was not viable at the time, to the fact the district did not achieve all it hoped, a move back to traditional was agreed upon.

Since that time, he said, federal and state requirements have changed, and Weiser administrators feel the traditional schedule better allows the school district to address the demands.

For Davies, having taught in both scheduling models, it is a toss-up as to which he liked better. The extra prep time was nice, he said, and the block schedule catered better to the advanced students. On the other hand, some other students struggled.

“I really did want to see those kids every day,” he said. “So for me, it was a toss-up. It really was.”