10 - Implementing High School Redesign

When I speak with people about anything new in education, I know very quickly whether they are angry or open to change.  There are many things in my school that frustrate me daily, so when I’m given the option to examine what works and what doesn’t, I brainstorm.

While curriculum redesign and the breadth of inspiring education has many aspects that need more thought by the province and its stakeholders, the high school flexibility program is simply offering a blank canvas to work on.

High School “Redesign”, as it is more widely known, rethinks the constraints of high school. In this post, I will look at some options that are more likely to be implemented in my high school, as well as some options I am hopeful of.

First, I think it’s UNLIKELY that scheduled FLEX BLOCKS  will be used since they have garnered a bit of negative feedback from pilot schools. The idea of shortening each class and then allowing students to choose where they need extra help is dangerous. Being realistic about what students will or won’t do (vs. should do) with an optional hour might save some headaches.

Okay, so what options do I think are possible?

1. The 25 hours per credit limit

We have a student at my school that taught himself Physics 30 over the summer, just for fun. He still needed to spend 125 hours in a Physics class to earn credits, so we could earn funds. Overall, I could make an argument that we wasted some of his time.

The 25 hours per credit rule is becoming more of a game-changer than I expected. Students that are able to master concepts in less time than peers, may not need the 125 hours that we force them to take. This opens the door to more options than just the high-flyer, though. Perhaps courses are taught together:

•           teach Science  14/24 together in one semester.
•           Phys. Ed 10/CALM 20  together in one semester.
•           Teach Math 30-1/31 in a full morning (Copernican-style). Why not finish early because of overlap in concepts?  The diplomas will be offered early anyway.

It is well known that courses like Chem 30 and Science 14 may not require the same amount of time to master. If teachers are capable of completing two similar courses at once, why not?

2. ADLC

Our students must follow a strict attendance policy. Sometimes these students that don’t function well in a classroom environment become chronic behavior concerns. When these students are realized, the last resort is for them to go to an outreach school.

Perhaps a new department is created where we offer distance learning to students, but in our building. These students would have the flexibility of working in a common-area designated for this setting and completing modules as they normally would at the outreach school. Since we don’t care about how many (or what) courses students take (funding is based on a head-count), what matters most is that we can provide students the opportunity to learn in a way that is best for them. We can, and should offer this flexibility to our students. 

3. A Five or Six block day (needs more thought)

The current 4-block day could switch to an (up-to) six day block – add a block before school and one after. Not all student function well at 8:30 am. Also, some students/teachers might want to get their courses done early and end the day by 1:45! Re-imagining the blocks could change  post-work lives.

4. Calendar change

There are a few options here. Imagine aligning the calendar with post-secondary simply by shifting everything by a month. Diplomas make more sense and the farming-reason for not starting in August is becoming less common.

More radically (my thoughts), imagine a trimester system.  4-month compressed semesters not only allow teachers to work part-time, or choose any 2 to work, but could also allow students to finish high-school early.