Alpha Chi is a chapter of Beta Sigma Phi, Austin, Tx.
12/04/2021
Austin ISD’s Proposed Schedule Change
3-minute listen🎧
https://anchor.fm/aisdxp/episodes/BlogCast1-4-Austin-ISDs-Proposed-Schedule-Change-e1b75p8
Austin ISD’s Proposed Schedule Change
December 3, 2021
by Candace Hunter
Change is hard. There is no easy way to do it; therefore I rarely change. But sometimes if the reason is compelling enough I make the change willingly. For the majority of my 50 years I lived an unorganized life. I was always looking for and replacing things at home. At school, I wasted a lot of instructional time looking for stacks of paper, but then I mentored a new teacher at Pearce Middle School, Kathren Hill. She showed me how I could avoid all that misery by getting and staying organized. Fast forward 4 years I started Teacher Boot Camp to teach systems to educators that increase their instructional time which then lead to increased time on task for students. I now own a P-touch labeler and I'm hoping Santa brings me a Cricut Joy.
The Austin Independent School District is also wanting to make a change. They’ve run it up the flagpole to see who will salute. I’ve been processing this change all week. Honestly, my first reaction was,” what is all the hullabaloo about. Hell, I did 6/8 subbed for pay on one of my planning periods, sometimes both of my planning periods and the school day were shorter and I got the job done–In 1998 when students had a handful of electives. Home Ec (now Family Consumer Science), LOTE (Languages other than English), really just French and Spanish, Yearbook, and sports. Our students have a lot more choices and opportunities; some of these electives, enrichment, extracurricular, co-curricular, whatever you want to call them, classes lead to career certifications.
Let’s start at the beginning. House Bill (HB) 2610, passed by the 84th Texas Legislature, amends Section 25.081, Texas Education Code, by striking language requiring 180 days of instruction and replacing this language with a requirement that districts provide at least 75,600 minutes of instruction. There are many ways to break up that time; the three most common ways are Block scheduling, Period scheduling, and a hybrid of Block and Period scheduling.
Block scheduling breaks the 75,600 minutes into 8-90 minute classes using an A/B day rotation. Students attend periods 1-4 on “A” day and periods 5-8 on “B” day. Period Scheduling or traditional scheduling is the schedule that most of us used in Junior and Senior High School. Students attend all 7 periods every day, classes can last anywhere from 45-60 mins. Block/Period hybrid scheduling divides the time into 8-90 minute periods, using that A/B-day rotation, but only four days of the week, students attend all 7 periods for a shorter length of time on a C-day.
Other terms that are being bandied about are 6/7 and 5/7 (meaning 6 or 5 of the 7 periods). This means a teacher will teach 6 or 5 of the 7 periods and have 1or 2 period(s) for planning. The model that I’m most familiar with has core teachers teaching 5/7 and non-academic teachers teaching 6/7
The schedule change proposal has our community asking lots of questions. I’m cataloging them because I want answers too. I have a kiddo in 7th grade, and we’re planning for high school. Where’s the data that discusses the risks and rewards of Period scheduling? Have other similar size districts done this? What was the result? Will all the programming the district has now still be available for SY22-23 and beyond? What does “requiring fewer teachers actually mean? Will class size increase? What happens to student sharing, Early College High School, and other programs where students travel from one site to another? How does this change specifically save 21 million dollars? Let’s see an itemized breakdown of the savings. I’m talking about Randall's receipt details.
During Thursday’s Board Meeting, Dr. Elizalde said a few things. One, no decision is being made right now. Two, the earliest a decision will be made is around the second week in January, no later than February, and finally, there will be time for family and community engagement. As of the recording of this BlogCast, there will be a listening session for Teachers Only with Trustee Singh and Lugo as well as Dr. Elizalde on Monday, December 6 (link included below).
What do you think about switching to Period Scheduling? What question do you have about programming?
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