Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
Stumble
Monday, Dec. 1, 2008 | 2:01 a.m.
If there was a silver lining to the budget crisis, I had hoped it would be the death of the A/B block schedule. That does not seem to be the case, so I will step up for the silent majority of math teachers I have spoken with and appeal to the leaders of our state. Please end the eight-period block schedule.
I have taught at three high schools in Las Vegas (plus one in New York and one in Arizona) and trained math teachers across Southern Nevada.
Block schedules refer to classes that meet for longer periods of time. The A/B block schedule alternates four classes every other day.
The advantage of this schedule is supposed to be “credit retrieval,” which is another way of saying it is OK to fail 30 percent of classes instead of 10 percent. It also sends the message to our more academic students that they “have all their credits” and that they can look forward to “an easy senior year.”
Adding two classes reduces the time students spend with each teacher. This reduces the amount of time for instruction and reduces the homework in each class. It means teachers see their students less and they have more of them, reducing the bonding that teachers often rely on to motivate.
College students take four or five classes at a time and we are asking younger kids to take eight. Brain research tells us that people process information better in shorter chunks and yet we have 85-minute classes instead of 55 minutes.
We are double blocking some math classes because we feel the students would benefit from math every day and yet we deny that advantage to most of our students.
When students are absent from class, they often miss two lessons and go almost a week between classes.
And, finally, switching back to the six-period day would save millions of dollars.
The scenario for budget reductions in the forthcoming fiscal year of 2009 poses serious dangers for education in Nevada. How much longer can we afford to have our entire education system teeter on the brink of financial collapse? If education of our youth is indeed as important to our culture and future welfare as most of us believe then we, through our elected officials, must establish education as an absolute financial priority.
Our governor has insisted on his hard nosed policy of refusing to raise taxes on the gaming industry. While gaming revenues in this state may be down the majority of these establishments are not experiencing losses that will force closure or bankruptcy. They are still making plenty of profit but at a reduced level; the only real consequence is that some have had to cancel or postpone expanding their elaborate empires in other states or foreign states.
It is now time for the governor and legislature to pony up to the fact that these fat cat establishments have been given a generous tax ride in this state. They have reaped tremendous profits in the past allowing them to invest in other states and to build lavish, grandiose establishments in foreign countries; they have continually cried poor mouth here in Nevada while our schools have drifted to near the bottom of all states in terms of financial support for education.
While eliminating waste in education is imperative it is of greater importance to raise the overall level of state financial support for all levels of education in Nevada.