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News
Teachers, students back block schedule : News : Oswego Ledger-Sentinel : Hometown Newspaper for Oswego and Montgomery, IllinoisTeachers, students back block schedule
| Board to take up issue at workshop session Monday
| by Lyle R. Rolfe
| 6/10/2010
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The block schedule system in Oswego School District's two high schools is on the agenda for discussion during the school board's next workshop meeting set for Monday, June 14 at 7 p.m. at Oswego East High School.
The meeting is open to the public, but because audience members cannot comment at the workshop sessions, three concerned teachers and one student made their thoughts known at last Monday's board meeting.
The block schedule arrangements for high school classes was put into effect nine years ago at Oswego High School and included at Oswego East High School when it opened.
Dr. Carla Johnson, director of secondary teaching and learning, said the High School Block Scheduling Task Force was created during the fall of the 2009-10 school year to examine the current modified 4 x 4 block schedule, along with other alternative schedules.
During Monday evening's board meeting, Arlene Smolich, a 35-year veteran career and technology teacher at Oswego High School, was first to defend the block schedule. She also spoke about graduation requirements at the district's high schools.
Smolich said she has taught under various types of schedules and said the block schedule allows students to earn 32 credits over four years or eight credits per year, while the traditional schedule allowed only up to a maximum of 28 credits over four years.
When block scheduling was implemented, the number of elective courses in every discipline were increased, adding to the opportunities for student learning, she said.
Those additional courses included advance placement classes, global studies, ancient history, military topics, and the American presidency, she said.
In science, AP biology and physics, forensics, meteorology, astronomy, and environmental science were added, she noted. Fine arts and language classes also were expanded along with more in the math, kinetic wellness, literature, English, and other disciplines, she said.
These courses were not available before block scheduling and with the additional credits, she said some students have found their niche and others have found their direction in life.
Smolich said college-bound and students in specialized areas have taken advantage of the full 32 credits. Returning to a schedule with less credits "will result in a loss of significant life changing opportunities" for these students, she said.
"Instead of taking away elective opportunities from all students, let's focus on helping those students who choose to take only the minimum requirement for graduation--24 credits. In any schedule these students will continue to take only 24 credits unless we increase graduation requirements which according to Dr. Carla Johnson, (director of secondary teaching and learning), has been considered in the past and was supposed to be an integral part of the block.
"Let's work to help these student take advantage of the additional credit opportunities available within our current schedule," she said.
Susan Stangland, a 36-year veteran career and tech teacher at OHS, also favored the block schedule
She said the block schedule allows students, who are struggling, the opportunity to take classes they need and still graduate with their class.
It also allows students taking college prep and AP classes an opportunity to take other elected classes to expand their horizons. Students interested in specific area such as law enforcement, can take all their core curriculum classes plus classes such as Business Law I and II and be involved in the criminal justice program as a dual credit through Waubonsee Community College and the Oswego Police Department, she said.
Stangland said one of her daughters went all four years through the traditional schedule and another daughter all four years through block schedule. The daughter who took the traditional schedule was allowed only one elective each year while the other daughter had all her college prep classes, plus yearbook and other electives she could not have been able to take in a traditional schedule.
The daughter on the block said it felt like being on a college schedule.
"As an educator who has taught under both and as a parent who had children in both, I really believe block scheduling is the best," Stangland said.
Lucy Li, who said she will be a junior at OHS next fall, said a change from the block schedule in two years (her senior), concerns her and many of her classmates. She said the block allows them to get their core classes as well as other electives she likes.
"With the block scheduling I am able to take Honors Calculus and the next semester take AP Statistics and not have to wait until the next year," she said.
Cutting down the number of credits they can earn will reduce opportunities to take classes they are interested in, Li added.
Frank Tieri, a 13-year teaching veteran, and fine arts teacher at OHS, also supported the block schedule. He said the district was in the process of changing to the block when he came to OHS and said he was told they had been working on it for ten years.
"The one thing people are asking for is time. I think we need to take the same amount of time studying this before we go back. If we took 12 years to go into block scheduling, we need more than a month and a vote to go back," he said.
Tieri added that he believes the board would be well advised to talk to the professionals in the buildings before making a decision.
"When you vote on a schedule change, please make sure that it's what's best for kids," he said.
The board's workshop session will be held at 7 p.m. Monday in the second floor Community Room of Oswego East High School, 1525 Harvey Road, Oswego.
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