Upcoming Site Visits

As part of our ongoing effort to conduct a thorough and thoughtful investigation into schedule options, last week I confirmed site visits to two high-performing schools within our region that currently implement the 3x5 (five-period trimester) schedule.  On February 10 and 11, a team of faculty members and administrators will be visiting North Farmington and Seaholm High Schools in the suburban Detroit/Pontiac area.  Both of these schools are of a similar size and make-up to Homestead, and both could be considered regional academic benchmarks to our school.  If you are interested in learning more about either site, please visit their websites, which I posted in a previous entry.

The team representing Homestead and MTSD is as follows: 

• Eric Dimmitt, Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment *
• Brett Bowers, Principal *
• Suzette Urbashich, School Board President *
• Jill McElroy, Director of Counseling *
• Kristi Ribar, Math Teacher *
• Fritz Rauch, English Teacher
• Tony Navarre, Special Education Teacher
• Chris Schultz, Science Teacher *
• Susan Lueders, Social Studies Teacher *
• Ryan Volke, Applied Technology/Project Lead the Way Teacher
• Todd Spindler, Band Teacher *
• Helen Caldwell, World Language (Spanish) Teacher *

*  HSST member

During each day-long site visit, our team will have the opportunity to observe classes, talk with job-alike peers about questions surrounding 3x5 planning and implementation, learn about the scope of curricula delivered in the 3x5 schedule within specific disciplines, investigate student achievement data (AP, ACT, etc.) before and after implementation of the 3x5, and talk with students about their perceptions of the schedule.  The principals at both North Farmington and Seaholm have been extremely generous with their time and effort in planning the upcoming visits, and I have high hopes for the professional learning that we will do while on these school campuses.

As background, like many other high schools in and outside of Michigan, North Farmington and Seaholm have faced significant budgetary challenges in the past several years.  Each of the schools, which are located in separate districts, moved to the 3x5 schedule four years ago for cost savings purposes.  As it was described to me by their principals, the trimester schedule was chosen because it allowed school and district officials to control staffing costs while maintaining a commitment to student choice and high academic achievement. 

Again, I look forward to learning more about the 3x5 schedule firsthand in the coming weeks and to sharing that information with members of our school community.

What is the 3x5 Schedule?

Since working with schedule consultant Mike Rettig in late November, the HSST has been investigating a five-period trimester (otherwise known as a 3x5) schedule.  Again, this is a schedule of high interest, not the only schedule up for consideration.

Key elements of the 3x5 schedule include the following:

• On the trimester schedule, the academic year of 180 days is separated into three 60-day grading periods called trimesters; currently, the school year is divided into two 90-day semesters.  
• On the trimester schedule, students receive official grades that are recorded on their transcript three times a year; currently, transcripted grades are earned twice in a school year (January and June).  
• On the trimester schedule, students can enroll in up to five classes in a term; currently, students can take up to seven classes at one time.
• On the trimester schedule, Homestead teachers would teach four classes and have one 70-minute preparation period daily; currently, they teach six classes and have one 50-minute preparation period each day.  
• On the trimester schedule, class periods are approximately 70 minutes long; currently, each period lasts 50 minutes.  
• On the trimester schedule, students can earn up to 7.5 credits per year; currently, students can earn up to 7.0 credits in an academic year.
• On the trimester schedule, current year-long classes would run for two or three trimesters.  Current semester-long classes would run for one or two trimesters.

As is the case with any schedule, the 3x5 schedule presents both benefits and challenges to students, teachers, and the school.  As such, the HSST is investigating it carefully.

Since December, I have conducted phone interviews of principals working at schools in and outside of Wisconsin that teach on the 3x5 schedule.  Site visits to some of those schools will be happening in February, with results of those visits being shared with the HSST, parents, students, and the Homestead faculty in February and March.

For your information, the following schools in Wisconsin and Michigan currently teach on the trimester schedule (note that this list is not comprehensive):

• Neenah High School (Neenah, WI):  www.neenah.k12.wi.us/nhs/
• West DePere High School (West DePere, WI):  www.wdpsd.com/high/
• Seaholm High School (Birmingham, MI):  www.seaholm.birmingham.schoolfusion.us
• Groves High School (Birmingham, MI):  www.groves.birmingham.schoolfusion.us
• North Farmington High School (Farmington Hills, MI):  www.farmington.k12.mi.us/nfhs
• Saline High School (Saline, MI):  hs.salineschools.com
• Spring Lake High School (Spring Lake, MI):  www.springlakeschools.org/high

So long as the 3x5 remains a schedule of interest for the HSST, I will continue to provide information about this approach to organizing the school day and year.

Schedules of Interest

The HSST met again on Friday afternoon, January 14 to discuss ongoing schedule research and to finalize a course of action for the next one to two months.  Based on Friday's work, the group is committed to the following course of action:

• Continue to investigate the five-period trimester schedule as a viable option for Homestead.
• Continue to table other schedule options like an eight-period day (in which teachers teach six classes) until more research into the trimester schedule can be done.
• When research into the trimester schedule is complete, compare its pros and cons with the current schedule and other possible schedules that have been put aside for the time being.

Some people who have heard about the school's investigation into the trimester schedule are under the false impression that this schedule is the only one being considered.  That is not the case.  Nonetheless, because the trimester schedule is so different from our current one, it requires more extensive research to be best understood.

Parents, students, and faculty may have heard that the team was investigating the hybrid 4x4 block schedule (four grading terms [each nine weeks long], with students taking up to four classes per term [classes being approximately 90 minutes long]) as an option to be considered.  As of Friday, the 4x4 block schedule is no longer being considered.  Primarily, it was eliminated for financial reasons; based on recent inquiries to schools in the Upper Midwest that teach on the 4x4, team members determined that the 4x4 is not a schedule that the District could likely sustain given our current financial constraints.

Determining Viable Schedule Options

After the HSST began its work earlier this fall, team members unanimously agreed that thoroughly investigating cost-neutral alternatives to our current schedule would be difficult if not impossible without the assistance of an expert.  After coming to that determination, the school district retained the services of scheduling consultant Dr. Michael Rettig.

Dr. Rettig is the founder of School Scheduling Associates, LLC (www.schoolschedulingassociates.com).  He spent 15 years as a professor in the College of Education and Director of the Center for School Leadership at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia.  He retired from JMU as Professor Emeritus in June 2006 to work full-time with schools across the country.  Dr. Rettig has served as a consultant on school scheduling issues in 41 states with over 750 school districts nationally and internationally.  He also has conducted hundreds of workshops and has authored or co-authored numerous articles and books on school scheduling and related topics.

After Thanksgiving Dr. Rettig spent a full day with the HSST, outlining alternatives to our current schedule as he saw them and discussing any options that might be implementable here at Homestead without hiring additional faculty.  Based on his feedback and the group's processing of the information that he provided, the HSST has narrowed its investigation to two preferred schedules at this time.  In future blog postings I will outline these options and the research/study process that the HSST developed to investigate these schedules.  

Factors Driving Reconsideration of the Current Schedule

The current schedule at Homestead allows students to take up to seven half-credit classes in a given semester.  Teachers teach six periods per day, up from the five that they taught three years ago, a change implemented as a cost savings measure.  While the current schedule is familiar to all of us—in fact, we adults may have attended high schools that employed a similar or identical schedule—many at Homestead have raised questions about the manner in which we currently organize our time.  Does an arrangement in which teachers carry a load of six classes per day (coupled with increasing class sizes) allow them to be their best for students on an everyday basis?  Does the current seven-period day structure afford students sufficient opportunities to enroll in classes of interest to them?  Does the current schedule best allow students to balance their increasingly full schedules, which include academics, co-curricular activities and sports, community service, jobs, and the like?  The list goes on.

Considering these questions and many others, the HSST identified three primary features of any possible schedule:  (1) it facilitates collaboration among teachers during the school day, (2 ) it alleviates the professional challenges associated with teaching six classes per day, and (3) it addresses students’ needs as learners, allowing the maintenance or improvement of school-wide student achievement.  These considerations--along with the question of cost neutrality--are the filters through which all schedule ideas or suggestions must pass.  The three criteria help to keep us focused on our most pressing needs as we continue to investigate the options available to us.

Time Line for Possible Schedule Change

Whenever the topic of a possible schedule change comes up, one of the first questions asked of me is,
"If we have a new schedule, when will it go into effect?"  If a new schedule is recommended, the intention is for it to be implemented in the 2012-2013 school year.  Current juniors and seniors will have graduated by that time, meaning that this year's sophomores would live and learn in the new schedule during their Senior Year.

The HSST is scheduled to complete its study by May of this school year.  If the study process results in a recommendation to change the schedule, that recommendation will be made to the School Board and the Negotiating Team for the teachers' association.  Assuming that those groups can come to terms on contract language that would be necessary to implement the schedule, school officials and faculty/staff would have the 2011-2012 school year to plan for the new schedule, which would go into effect in September of 2012.

Blog Kick-off

Welcome to my blog, a line of communication created to update interested stakeholders on the work of the Homestead Schedule Study Team (HSST), a group of administrators, School Board members, faculty, students and parents charged with investigating cost-neutral alternatives to the current bell schedule here at Homestead.

As time is one of the greatest commodities in education, decisions about how we organize it are of high interest to nearly everyone connected with a school.  With that thought in mind, I created this blog, a tool that will allow individuals throughout the Homestead community to remain updated on our schedule study and recommendation process.  While parents, students, and faculty/staff members will have plenty of opportunities for face-to-face conversation about this topic, the blog is just one more tool that can allow people to remain informed about this work.

Thanks in advance for checking this blog regularly.  Please consider marking it as a favorite--without a doubt, it will be a spot of interest for many of you in the coming months.