Parent group upset over new schedule

A group of parents concerned about how the new class schedule will negatively affect students next year met with the Wenatchee High School Principal Eric Anderson today at WHS.

According to parent Jen Jorgensen, parents felt that the schedule committee had not received sufficient parent and student input before deciding on a schedule.

“These are the conversations you need to have before you you determine whether this schedule is feasible for our system,” Jorgensen said. “It was a real mistake to not include parents and students in the process because it clearly serves the teachers, but we’re not sure it serves parents and students.”

With the planned 4 x 4 schedule, students would be taking classes over a semester that would typically be year-long courses. Students would take four classes a semester and meet every day for 90 minutes. This would extend the potential credits a student could earn in a four-year high school to 32 credits, excluding zero-period and other options.

There are options to take two classes in the same block, cutting the period in half, and to establish an A-B schedule where students would take a full block of one class one day, and then a full block of another the next.

“One of the biggest misconceptions about the schedule is that you have to take a full semester class in every block,” social studies teacher Brandon Harle said. “There’s other options there.”

The parents were also upset that they had been told privately that the class schedule was already set in stone, according to parent Judith Lurie, but in reality the schedule could still be changed.

“There was no approval by the school board and Mr. (Brian) Flones,” Lurie said. Flones is the superintendent of the Wenatchee School District. “Other schools in the state of Washington still haven’t decided… there is still room for discussion.”

Anderson responded by saying that the committee needed to make the decision so that the school could adapt to a new schedule.

“We’re moving in that direction,” Anderson said. “Our staff needs that year for professional development.”

A concern that parents presented were how students would perform on tests under the new schedule.

“[The 4×4 block schedule] lowers scores on all the standardized tests,” Lurie said.

A study conducted by the Department of Education showed that students on block schedules score, on average, 8-15 points less on the reading and verbal portions of the SAT over the course of five years, and 13-22 points less on the math segment.

“We can graduate more students, but they won’t be as smart or as prepared for college,” Lurie said.

According to a study conducted by Scholar Commons, students scored higher on average in a traditional schedule than on a block schedule on the High School Assessment Program test. On the writing portion, the mean scores were similar but “students on the free and reduced lunch program had a lower passing rate on the block schedule.”

Wenatchee High School had an economically disadvantaged population of 53 percent last year, according to the Office of Public Instruction.

“We don’t want to do anything that would make [test scores] worse,” science teacher Mark Haugan. “As teachers, we wouldn’t suggest a system that would detract from the results that we’re working towards every day.”

Anderson said that the block schedule would help students who struggle to graduate in the current high school system. More credit opportunities would allow those students a “safety net” to retake and make up classes to meet the new Core 24 state requirements.

“We’ve left absolutely no room for failure [in our current schedule],” Anderson said. “”[The 4×4 block schedule] allows for more flexibility.”

Parents countered by saying that the current schedule allows for 28 credits, including zero period classes, and that students could make up the credits through summer school and online courses.

Parent Michelle Jobe argued that student who are at risk to not graduate would perform worse under the new schedule.

“I have to question if 37 hours less instruction time [per class] will benefit high-risk students,” Jobe said. “Common sense says it doesn’t.”

A study conducted by Danny McPherson and William Lawrence for the Journal of Instructional Psychology showed that “mean scores for the end-of-the-year tests in Algebra 1, Biology, English 1, and U.S. History were significantly higher for students taught on a traditional schedule than students on a block schedule.”

Haugan felt as though the committee’s process has adequately researched all the questions that the parents presented.

“These are the exact same questions and concerns we had last year,” Haugan said.

Another concern that parents had is that teachers would not be able to adequately teach a class for 90 minutes and keep students engaged. Lurie said that many teachers who instruct 85-minute blocks fail to teach for the whole period effectively, as many students spend the latter half of the period working on their homework.

“I think that teachers saying they weren’t adequately trained [for the current schedule] is a fair criticism,” WHS counselor Will White said. “That was under a different administration, I have full confidence that our staff will be trained well.”

Teachers received seven and a half hours of instruction time on Aug. 29 to learn how to better teach the extended periods. They will receive an additional seven and a half hours on Dec. 2.  

Editor’s Note: This article is part of a series that will go in-depth on the proposed 4×4 schedule and parents’ concerns.