The quarter system proposal is officially off the table. Thanks for staying loud until they pulled it.
August 30, 2020
Final supporters
THANKS TO YOUR OVERWHELMING SUPPORT, THE QUARTER SYSTEM PROPOSAL WAS WITHDRAWN FROM THE RECOMMENDATION!
Dear Dr. Skelly, Dr. Black, and SMUHSD Board of Trustees,
We are strongly opposed to the District’s recommended Quarter System Schedule to be presented to the School Board on June 11, 2020. We urge you to consider other options.
Reasons that the quarter system is BAD for our students and teachers:
- No precedent - no school has ever used this method before. It’s unproven and is significantly different than existing 4x4 systems that allow students to take classes from start to finish with no breaks. Quarter system has 3 breaks
- Expects students to cover twice the amount of material in half the amount of instruction time.
- Teachers will have to completely change their curriculum and lesson plans on top of the burden of re-developing their programs for DL and blended learning.
- Due to the breaks, teachers will have to spend time bringing students up to speed, while still having to cram material into half the time (an issue at the beginning of ALL four quarters)
- Subjects taught during Q3 - students will go almost the equivalent of 2 summer breaks before returning to that subject the following fall
- Q3 AP students will be prepping for their AP test with no class time.
- Q4 AP students will be learning a semester’s worth of material in 6 weeks (vs. 9 for Q3 students since AP tests are given in early May)
- Students will be prepping for ALL their AP tests in Q4 while trying to cram in all the Q4 course material for their other classes
- College Board reported students on 4x4 systems have scored lower on some AP tests than students who took yearlong courses (https://www.aasa.org/schooladministratorarticle.aspx?id=14852
- Student schedules are not guaranteed to be load balanced (they may have all difficult classes in odd quarters and easier ones in the even quarters)
- Already overburdened counselors and master schedulers will be overwhelmed by course change requests
- ELD students and those who learn with stated modifications being forced to learn at an accelerated rate is troublesome.
- Year-long classes (such as Leadership / Band / Orchestra / Yearbook / Choir) as well as PE and some AP classes will be moved to the 7th “skinny period”. If students wish to take more than one of these, they will most likely not be able to.
- A LARGE portion of the student body will be taking 7th period skinny classes (due to all the classes being put in that category). All these students will need to eat lunch at school (de-masking is dangerous)
- Does NOT allow for a transition into full time at school learning if this occurs in the middle of a quarter.
- Does NOT allow for a smooth transition to full time/full schedule learning at the end of Q2 either. Teachers will have to completely change their curriculum to adjust.
- This model encourages and assumes students will take alternative coursework NOT at their high school (community colleges/online schools)
- Transportation to/from 7th skinny period for students not in school that morning may be challenging if not impossible for some
- If a student or teacher falls ill, making up lost time will be challenging due to the accelerated rate.
- Substitute teachers will be forced to teach at the accelerated rate as well.
Updates
June 12, 2020
We just hit 500 signatures. The momentum is real and the board can no longer ignore this.
Reached 500 supporters
June 10, 2020
Reached 100 supporters
June 9, 2020
223 Comments
This is wholly inappropriate for any student with a learning disability as well. The lack of a plan for meeting mental health needs (except referral) given the extra stress and lack of social interaction is problematic as well.
I have a rising Junior at SMHS. The proposed change to quarter system midway through his 4 year high school career will be extremely disruptive to his overall academics, extra-curricular and AP exams prep timing. We strongly oppose this switch
I am concerned about having an accelerated learning program without teacher's full support. This puts the kids' education at high risk. If the program fails, the teachers would blame the Board, and the Board would the teachers. Either way, the people who suffer would be the kids.
Please do not offer classes for kids have to cram to learn material in nine weeks. I am on the quarter system in college and it is fast paced and challenging. This is not a quick fix environment Option for high school students.
The quarter system that is being proposed disrupts learning and reduces instructional time to a level that is unacceptable. How can we reduce instructional time when there is an expectation to finish a semester's worth of work in 9 weeks? It is beyond comprehension.
As a teacher at SMUHSD I am 100% opposed to a quarter system and only feel comfortable with distance learning.
I don't think that this will accomplish goals of reducing covid spreading. I'd be more in favor of alternate days for alternate classes (3 classes per day, every other day), but this model will not really end up in meaningful limitations in student interaction/teacher interaction and reduce covid transmission. This is a dangerous experiment on our children.
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The quarter system proposal is officially off the table. Thanks for staying loud until they pulled it.
August 30, 2020
Final supporters
THANKS TO YOUR OVERWHELMING SUPPORT, THE QUARTER SYSTEM PROPOSAL WAS WITHDRAWN FROM THE RECOMMENDATION!
Dear Dr. Skelly, Dr. Black, and SMUHSD Board of Trustees,
We are strongly opposed to the District’s recommended Quarter System Schedule to be presented to the School Board on June 11, 2020. We urge you to consider other options.
Reasons that the quarter system is BAD for our students and teachers:
- No precedent - no school has ever used this method before. It’s unproven and is significantly different than existing 4x4 systems that allow students to take classes from start to finish with no breaks. Quarter system has 3 breaks
- Expects students to cover twice the amount of material in half the amount of instruction time.
- Teachers will have to completely change their curriculum and lesson plans on top of the burden of re-developing their programs for DL and blended learning.
- Due to the breaks, teachers will have to spend time bringing students up to speed, while still having to cram material into half the time (an issue at the beginning of ALL four quarters)
- Subjects taught during Q3 - students will go almost the equivalent of 2 summer breaks before returning to that subject the following fall
- Q3 AP students will be prepping for their AP test with no class time.
- Q4 AP students will be learning a semester’s worth of material in 6 weeks (vs. 9 for Q3 students since AP tests are given in early May)
- Students will be prepping for ALL their AP tests in Q4 while trying to cram in all the Q4 course material for their other classes
- College Board reported students on 4x4 systems have scored lower on some AP tests than students who took yearlong courses (https://www.aasa.org/schooladministratorarticle.aspx?id=14852
- Student schedules are not guaranteed to be load balanced (they may have all difficult classes in odd quarters and easier ones in the even quarters)
- Already overburdened counselors and master schedulers will be overwhelmed by course change requests
- ELD students and those who learn with stated modifications being forced to learn at an accelerated rate is troublesome.
- Year-long classes (such as Leadership / Band / Orchestra / Yearbook / Choir) as well as PE and some AP classes will be moved to the 7th “skinny period”. If students wish to take more than one of these, they will most likely not be able to.
- A LARGE portion of the student body will be taking 7th period skinny classes (due to all the classes being put in that category). All these students will need to eat lunch at school (de-masking is dangerous)
- Does NOT allow for a transition into full time at school learning if this occurs in the middle of a quarter.
- Does NOT allow for a smooth transition to full time/full schedule learning at the end of Q2 either. Teachers will have to completely change their curriculum to adjust.
- This model encourages and assumes students will take alternative coursework NOT at their high school (community colleges/online schools)
- Transportation to/from 7th skinny period for students not in school that morning may be challenging if not impossible for some
- If a student or teacher falls ill, making up lost time will be challenging due to the accelerated rate.
- Substitute teachers will be forced to teach at the accelerated rate as well.
Updates
June 12, 2020
We just hit 500 signatures. The momentum is real and the board can no longer ignore this.
Reached 500 supporters
June 10, 2020
Reached 100 supporters
June 9, 2020
223 Comments
I have two students in BHS -- one a rising Senior. This will be so disruptive to my senior taking AP classes. I don't think the quarter system is viable. It's so unproven. Why not spend more time trying to figure out how to make synchronous DL work.
This is wholly inappropriate for any student with a learning disability as well. The lack of a plan for meeting mental health needs (except referral) given the extra stress and lack of social interaction is problematic as well.
I have a rising Junior at SMHS. The proposed change to quarter system midway through his 4 year high school career will be extremely disruptive to his overall academics, extra-curricular and AP exams prep timing. We strongly oppose this switch
I am concerned about having an accelerated learning program without teacher's full support. This puts the kids' education at high risk. If the program fails, the teachers would blame the Board, and the Board would the teachers. Either way, the people who suffer would be the kids.
Please do not offer classes for kids have to cram to learn material in nine weeks. I am on the quarter system in college and it is fast paced and challenging. This is not a quick fix environment Option for high school students.
The quarter system that is being proposed disrupts learning and reduces instructional time to a level that is unacceptable. How can we reduce instructional time when there is an expectation to finish a semester's worth of work in 9 weeks? It is beyond comprehension.
As a teacher at SMUHSD I am 100% opposed to a quarter system and only feel comfortable with distance learning.
I don't think that this will accomplish goals of reducing covid spreading. I'd be more in favor of alternate days for alternate classes (3 classes per day, every other day), but this model will not really end up in meaningful limitations in student interaction/teacher interaction and reduce covid transmission. This is a dangerous experiment on our children.
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I have two students in BHS -- one a rising Senior. This will be so disruptive to my senior taking AP classes. I don't think the quarter system is viable. It's so unproven. Why not spend more time trying to figure out how to make synchronous DL work.