Suddenly, there’s extra pressure to do well in that math class.
Sultan High School next fall will switch back to the traditional six-period day after several years of experimenting with the so-called block schedule.
The major difference is that core classes will be spread out across the entire academic year, rather than condensed into a semester.
For students such as Brennen Williams, 16, that means he has to get a “B” or better in his integrated math course this year if he hopes next year to take the math class he needs to get into a four-year university.
“It really heavily affects my future,” the junior said.
School leaders appreciate those concerns, but the time had come to get off the block, Superintendent Al Robinson said. The switch will help many struggling students stay on track, reduce class size and put the school more in line with surrounding districts.
“It’s been an issue that the board and staff have wrestled with for a number of years now. The board just felt there was enough compelling reasons to change it,” Robinson said.
The school’s principal will form a transition committee to address the myriad details and hurdles in making the switch – including students’ scheduling needs.
“One of the things that is good is that the school board made a decision early enough so that those juniors who may be affected with scheduling can make the changes if they need to,” counselor Kris Hatfield said.
Graduation requirements also will change, since more courses are offered under a block schedule than the six-period day – one of the reasons some students struggled to stay on track.
For several years, the school had tried different forms of the block schedule, which has students spend more time in individual courses by staggering them on different days.
The school eventually settled on the “4-by-4” block, which has students take eight classes per semester in blocks of four classes per day.
Mixed opinions followed a similar shift at Jackson High School in Everett, which decided in the spring to switch from a block schedule back to the six-period day.
There, bringing the school in line with the district’s two other comprehensive high schools was the main reason for the switch, said Lynn Evans, a district administrator. “It’s much easier to provide support when they’re all on the same schedule.”
The transition has gone smoothly, though it required a lot of work – as well as some costs. “We had to buy more textbooks, and we provided for extra planning time and course development time for teachers (as part of the switch),” Evans said.
Sultan leaders hope to have a preliminary schedule for 2005-06 set by mid-January so they can begin to “plug kids in and see how it’s going to fly,” Robinson said.
Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@heraldnet.com.
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