Anoka-Hennepin school district to debate new class timetable

Which is better: a math class that's longer but lasts only one semester, or a shorter one that stretches out over the entire school year?

The Anoka-Hennepin school board will mull over that issue this spring.

At stake is the district's current four-period day and semester schedule, which has been in place since the mid-1990s. Such a schedule, called a block plan, involves students taking fewer classes a day with more time accorded to each class. Once the first semester is over, students generally switch to a different set of four classes for the rest of the school year. Each class under the block plan lasts about an hour-and-a-half.

But a district task force looking at high school schedules has been studying two other plans that split the school year into three different parts and could allow courses to have shorter classes that run longer into the school year.

Both of the new plans would divide the school year into trimesters. One would divide the school day into five periods; the other would divide it into six. Each would shorten the current class time under the block plan of 84 to 88 minutes. Both plans would also stretch out courses further into the year.

Which is best for students? It's a tossup, according to Bruce Borchers, Anoka-Hennepin associate superintendent for secondary schools.

"What we've shared with the board is that good instruction is good instruction," he said. "None of the models is going to answer every question or meet every single need."

"You have that extended learning time and more options for kids, not only for enrichment, but for remediation," Borchers said. "As soon as you restrict that, you lose some of those options."

But that makes it more expensive. Requiring more courses and more teachers to teach them, the current four-period day costs between $1.2 million and $1.9 million a year more than the five-and six-period day proposals, Borchers said.

Plus, educators are concerned that the block plan results in too much of a learning gap because courses only last a semester, instead of the entire school year. That's a special concern among students faced with state-required tests or college entrance tests in subjects they haven't taken for an entire semester, or more.

"That gap in learning was one thing that was a concern too many," Borchers said.

In a six-period day divided into trimesters, he said, many of those classes would last the entire school year, theoretically eliminating the learning gap.

Borchers said the task force -- which consists of about 40 teachers and administrators -- first began meeting in September. The board is expected to make its choice May 26.

The task force found there to be a mix of plans in use by high schools throughout the Twin Cities area. For instance, Borchers said, high schools in districts such as Bloomington, East Carver County, White Bear Lake, Eden Prairie and Wayzata are on the four-period block schedule. The Lakeville, Edina, Mounds View, Stillwater and Richfield district high schools are among those using a six-period day schedule. Several -- including Shakopee, St. Louis Park and Burnsville -- had adopted the more conventional seven-period day.

If either of the new schedules is selected, the changes would not go into effect until the 2010-2011 school year. Such a change would involve an initial cost of up to $4 million to buy new textbooks and change the course curricula.