Oregon to Baltimore? High school Schedules, Unions, and Governance.

As a native Oregonian living on the East Coast, I try to stay up with what's going on in the Portland education scene as well as those in Baltimore and around the nation. Two recent headlines from The Oregonian piqued my interest, and I found myself asking whether the happenings there can be linked or translated to happenings here. Both headlines also coincide will with the discussion of unions and school governance that we had in class yesterday.

Firstly, there is a big dispute right now between Portland Public Schools, Oregon's largest urban district, and the Portland Association of Teachers (the city's union) regarding teaching schedules in high schools. Historically, PPS high schools have operated on a 7-period-per-day schedule, in which teachers teach five, 50-minute classes per day (I am unclear whether one of those free periods is lunch or is taken by other responsibilities, but the article makes it clear that teachers have one, 50-minute prep period per day). To save money for the 2011-12 school year by cutting teachers, PPS mandated that all high schools move to an 8-period rotating block schedule, in which teachers would teach 6 classes--3-per day, with one 90 prep per day. This is the most common model in Portland-metro high schools--it was the model of mine. The dispute is over school autonomy in setting schedules. From what I know, BCPS seems to give schools autonomy over the schedule to which schedule they adhere: I taught four, 70-minute periods this year, will teach five, 55-minute periods next, and have colleagues at other schools with an array of different models. I am surprised that our union doesn't demand more continuity. A teacher who teaches an 8-peroid block schedule has a 90-minute prep period everyday. Next year, I'll only have 55 minutes of planning everyday. Arguably, a block-schedule teacher might be asked to teach more preps (teacher/budget reduction IS why Portland is trying to move towards this model), but, per our contract, 2 preps is the supposed maximum.

Should BCPS try to move to a more standardized schedule to even out the planning times given in each school? Or should each school be allowed to create a schedule of their own? Which model--rotating 90-minute blocks or daily 55ish-minute periods--is better for schools? Which is better for students? Teachers? District budgets seem to favor the former. Personally, I would love to see a 90-minute block schedule implemented at my school. I like the idea of longer periods and more prep time each day. Yet I've heard the extremely valid point that in Baltimore, poor attendance poses huge obstacles for rotating schedules. If a kid misses one day, he might only have that class once in a given week. Any thoughts about this from secondary teachers who teach on a block schedule? Maybe the attendance issue is why Baltimore has not embraced this potentially-budget-reducing district-wide shift.

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Very briefly, the second article deals with governance. Last week, Oregon became the first state ever to declare the governor "statewide schools superintendent." This won't take effect until the term of the current state schools superintended is up in 2014, but it's an extremely interesting shift. Will it streamline things? Will it politicize things? Both? We'll see in 2014...