Officials at Montezuma-Cortez High School are working to adjust the schools master schedule in an effort to boost student achievement. The change will have freshman and sophomore students attending language arts and math classes every day throughout the school year.
This will be the third schedule change in as many years at the school, which currently operates on a 4-by-4 block schedule.
In 2009, former Principal Dale Parker moved the school to an alternating block schedule. The schedule had students attending four 97-minute classes on Mondays and Wednesdays and four different classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. As a result, students were enrolled in eight classes for the entire school year.
Principal Gordon Shepherd switched the school back to the standard 4-by-4 block schedule in 2010. In the standard 4-by-4 schedule, students attend the same four classes every day for a semester then take four different classes the next semester. Shepherd said the schools schedule under Parker was experimental and did not benefit student learning.
If a kid missed a class on Thursday they didnt get that class again until the next Tuesday, Shepherd said. There was no data to support the notion of an alternating block, and I cant find another school in the country that has an alternating block on a four-day week.
In the new schedule, called the fluid block, some classes offered by the school will be 50-minute classes taken every day for a year. All freshman- and sophomore-level math and language arts classes will be shorter, daily classes.
Shepherd believes the new schedule will have a direct impact on standardized test scores and student achievement.
It is an effort to produce better results and retention of knowledge, he said. The 4-by-4 block is just so limited in what you can do and kids take a math class maybe first semester of freshman year and then dont take another math class until spring semester of sophomore year. We are trying to create a yearly, daily connection with math and language arts.
The change will also impact learning in science and social studies classes, Shepherd said.
If (math and language arts) are being addressed every day then social studies and science assessments will be improving, too, he said.
Though the schedule change is directly targeted at freshmen and sophomores enrolled in math and language arts courses, older students and other classes also might benefit.
It could bleed into a lot of areas, Shepherd said. Weve had a lot of teachers interested in the idea of their classes being all year. It could really benefit our advanced placement kids who may take the class in the fall and then not be tested until May.
An additional benefit of the schedule change might be the possibility to provide common planning times for departments. The common time would allow for more collaboration among teachers, Shepherd said.
Staff and administration are excited about the schedule change, according to Shepherd, and anticipate the alteration will bring results for the school.
We have to get this addressed because of our status with the state, Shepherd said. We have to show interventions with definite benefits, and to me this is a very direct way we can make that happen. I am anticipating this will help kids in a huge way and it really is a common sense solution.
Reach Kimberly Benedict at kimberlyb@cortezjournal.com.