Wednesday, May 12, 2010

Direct Action Gets the Goods

ProJo:

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Students at Hope High School plan to walk out of class Thursday at 10 a.m. to protest changes to the school's schedule that they say will undermine five years of reforms at the once-troubled East Side school.

The walkout, organized by a student group called Hope United, is an attempt to draw attention to the school department's plan to eliminate the school's block schedule (four 90-minute classes a day) and the benefits that go with it, including longer classes, more electives and more teacher common planning time.

2 comments:

K.Andrews said...

I applaud these students for organizing a peaceful protest the express their disapproval for the change in scheduling. I am an advocate of block scheduling myself. I find that it allows students more time to focus on achieving the desired concept rather than being rushed through a short class and a quick assignment. Did the school specify reasons for this change? Was this voted on by just admin or teachers and parents as well?

Katherine

Tom Hoffman said...

This is being imposed by the district, whose goal is to get all the schools on the same schedule, same curriculum, etc. This comes after a decade of creating specialized small schools throughout the district with a big Gates grant.