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Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
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There is another budget workshop meeting at 3 pm today at the school board complex in DeFuniak, followed by a regular meeting at 5 pm.:wave:
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
From Tuesday's school board workshop and meeting~

I was told that nothing much happened at the budget workshop- I was told that they are still waiting from some figures from the state.

At the regular meeting, there were 2 big topics- Emerald Coast Middle School (I started another thread on this) and the "education delivery model" change (4x4 block back to traditional). By a 3-2 vote, the Walton County high schools are going back to a traditional 7 period day- wonderful news! It was time.

Kids off the block | block, kids - Local News - WaltonSun.com

From the article:
Although the estimate was made that the block scheduling plan could save the district up to $116,000 per year, research and arguments favoring the traditional model were cited by several parents, board member Mildred Wilkerson and by district supervisor of instruction and curriculum, Marsha Pugh.
"Block scheduling is costing our children. It is not doing them any favors when they get to college," two South Walton High School parents told the board.
Other speakers cited difficulties with teaching quality and student attention span over the course of class periods ranging from 80 to 87 minutes in the block plan. Small school sizes were also mentioned as problematic to this scheme, affording students fewer opportunities to take a desired class.
 
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GoodWitch58

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Oct 10, 2005
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thanks for the info jdarg...about the block scheduling: some people have said the block schedule is preferable for the students who are in the AP program; without it, their college classes are difficult to fit in.....do you have any insight into this?
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
thanks for the info jdarg...about the block scheduling: some people have said the block schedule is preferable for the students who are in the AP program; without it, their college classes are difficult to fit in.....do you have any insight into this?

We have seen that block is not good for AP (Advanced Placement) classes, since the AP tests are given in early May, there is not enough time to cover the material if the course is taken in the spring, or the AP class was taken several semesters earlier, and the retention goes down. Traditional schedule allows for 17% more instructional time. Our AP scores aren't great- we hope going back to the traditional schedule will help that. The students in the AP classes make good grades for those classes, but a disappointing number score a 4 or 5, which is required to get the college credit for that course. The AP calculus class is already taught fall to spring because that teacher recognizes that there is no way to cram it into one semester ( and this class has a good number getting the AP credit).

I think you are calling "advanced Program" AP, and the college classes I think you are referring to would be dual enrollment. I am not sure how it all will work out, but OW has said they will work with our schools in coordinating the dual enrollment kids.

We have Florida DOE stats of FCAT, SAT, and ACT, comparing FL schools on traditional vs. block, and the block schools perform dismally in comparison to traditional. Niceville, the school everyone loves to use for comparison, dropped the block a few years ago.

It is a myth that block prepares our kids for college. You don't take 4 classes that last 90 minutes everyday- on block the kids take 4 classes per semester, each class meets 90 minutes every day. In college, you take a 90 minute class 2 x a week, juggling 5 or 6 subjects at once. I think this idea was promoted to "sell" the block schedule.

Making this change is challenging for admin, teachers, and students, but we really don't need to reinvent the wheel. Many many schools have managed to make this change, and I am confident we can too. Or school is too small to make block work- there aren't enough sections of each class for the kids to make a good schedule, and they are often left with "filler" classes that they don't want or need, but could not fit anything else in that "slot".
 
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momof2kids

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May 17, 2007
797
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Santa Rosa Beach
jdarg - I've been getting asked if there has been any word on layoffs. Have you, or anyone else, heard about this yet? Has anything been posted as to the # of teachers & school staff that will or possibly be laid off? Thanks!
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
jdarg - I've been getting asked if there has been any word on layoffs. Have you, or anyone else, heard about this yet? Has anything been posted as to the # of teachers & school staff that will or possibly be laid off? Thanks!


There is lots of speculation, but I think the district is waiting on some figures from the state and feds- maybe Mark Davis can provide more information on exactly what they need to get a budget, but it is my understanding that until they have those figures, the number of layoffs and program cuts will be unknown. There will be some jobs eliminated, but how many, nobody knows right now.:sosad:
 

GoodWitch58

Beach Fanatic
Oct 10, 2005
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thanks Jdarg--I was under the impression that these people's students were both in the AP and dual enrolled...but, I could have misunderstood. What you say makes sense to me.
 

Jdarg

SoWal Expert
Feb 15, 2005
18,068
1,973
thanks Jdarg--I was under the impression that these people's students were both in the AP and dual enrolled...but, I could have misunderstood. What you say makes sense to me.


We discussed this a bit today at SWHS- our guidance counselor was telling us that it very difficult to take both high school and OW classes at the same time due to travel time to and fro, even with block. So most kids do all OW classes during a semester, or take OW classes later in the day. For example, an 8 am OW class that last 50 minutes would knock out the first 2 periods of the high school block schedule, which is workable only if you could schedule your necessary high school classes in 3rd and 4th block, which is virtually impossible to be that lucky to have that work out. More likely, the 2 classes you needed that sememster would be 1st and 3rd, or some combo that wouldn't fit with a run over to Niceville.

It's complicated to dual enroll where you are going to the high school and OW every day. We may have to look at an afternoon/eveing math class for Will's senior year, because thanks to block, he will be taking AP calculus junior year, and then will be finished with math. We don't want him going an entire year without math before he starts college.

Another option is Florida virtual- he will finishing his language requirement this way next year. One class period will be set aside for him to go to the media center and work on his FL virtual class, instead of taking 7 classes at school and adding an 8th.
 
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