Cal High Schedule Change Delayed Until 2012

will not see any drastic changes to its class schedule next year.

Unlike on block schedule days in which students have three 100-minute classes a day, on the traditional schedule day students would go to all their classes, each 50 minutes long.

Despite initial attempts to enact the change for the 2011-12 school year, administration delayed the addition of the traditional day until fall 2012, according to an email sent to parents last week.

“Our administrative team decided that, based on the input we had received from staff, students and our parent forums, that it would be better for us to implement the traditional day the following year so that we could use next year as a preparation year,” Corti wrote.

But there will be a minor change to next year’s schedule.

Staff meetings will be moved from Monday morning to Wednesday morning, meaning that next year students will start school late on Wednesday rather than on Monday.

Corti said he hopes next year will provide an opportunity for students and teachers to adjust to late-start Wednesdays and to prepare for the weekly traditional day, which likely will be on Mondays.

Part of the preparation will involve providing teachers with instructional strategies for adjusting their lesson plans to a 50-minute period, he said.

Two of the major complaints from teachers regarding the proposed change are that yearlong lesson plans will have to be completely reformatted and that 50-minute periods are too short to be productive.

But government teacher Bob Donovan, who has been at Cal for 27 years, does not agree with the argument that it is too hard for teachers and students to make use of 50-minute periods.

“The reality is that there are schools on traditional schedules that do just as good, if not better, on test scores, if test scores are the standard we’re judging success by,” he said.

Donovan was present at the school 15 years ago when the block schedule was enacted. He said that there was resistance to the change back then as well, but that there has been less community and staff support for the proposal to add a traditional day.

But delaying the change has lessened the stress and anxiety of the staff, he said.

The staff is not the only group at school voicing opposition. Students are speaking out against the traditional day.

Freshman Marnie Lowe said the administration is trying to fix something that is not broken.

“The every-other-day pattern (of the block schedule) allows students to manage their schedules more easily,” she said. “Throwing a wrench into it would just be counterproductive.”

The primary reason for the change is so that students see their teachers three times every week, said Corti, which would benefit struggling students.

But some doubt whether the change will aid underperforming students.

“I don’t know if it’s really going to help because the kids who are struggling aren’t going to change their habits,” said junior Alex Petterson. “Otherwise they would go in (to see their teachers) at tutorial or take some other initiative to help themselves now.”

Tutorial — a daily 30-minute block of time for students to study, work on assignments or see teachers for help — will be examined next year by administration to increase its effectiveness, said Corti.

Students’ use of tutorial and the amount of time student athletes miss from class were two concerns brought up at parent forums in May, he said, and administration plans to address both issues next year.

During the 2011-12 school year, Corti said he intends to put together a scheduling focus group, made up of teachers, administrators and students, to determine specifics regarding the addition of a traditional day. Parent forums also likely will be held in spring 2012.

Those who oppose the change are happy to have a year of respite before the traditional day is added, especially juniors who will graduate before the change occurs.

Corti said he hopes the community’s confidence in the change will increase over the next year, but for now, skepticism remains.

“I don’t think its going to change our test scores — lower or higher,” said Donovan. “If it will help those students that struggle in school then it’s worth the try. But it needs to be researched to see if that is in fact the case.”