Parents Protest Hybrid H.S. Schedule in York

By Amber Lester Kennedy Saturday, January 21, 2012

York County parents are calling for the removal of the hybrid 4X4 schedule that was implemented at the start of the school year in three of the division’s five high schools.

In the past week, parents have circulated an online petition and started a Facebook group against the schedule, which they say should not be extended to Grafton and Tabb High Schools, where students still take seven classes a year, alternating classes every other day.

Under the new schedule, students take four classes each semester. Some classes, called the 4X4 classes, meet every day. But other classes, such as Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate or music classes, meet every other day for the entire school year.

The school administration initially proposed implementing the new schedule into all of the division’s five high schools, but parents and teachers at Grafton and Tabb requested to be left out. The school board and administration agreed to start the schedule at York, Bruton and York River Academy as a pilot program, and reevaluate before bringing it to the remaining schools.

The administration thought the schedule would give students more options. The schedule increased the amount of courses students can take over four years, giving students more opportunities to take electives or repeat failed classes. In December, York High science teacher Lisa Field said she enjoyed seeing her students every day, and felt she had more time for review and remediation (read more here).

But with the first semester nearing conclusion next week, many parents are calling the switch a failure. As of Friday afternoon, 360 parents had signed the online petition. Issues raised include: the implementation despite protest from parents; little research shared to support the program’s success; long gaps between successive classes; too few elective options; classes are too fast-paced; inequity between the county’s schools and inequity between the workloads of teachers in the hybrid schedule and teachers on the former schedule.

Samantha Abbott, who started a Facebook group and is helping circulate the petition, has a son in his sophomore year at York High School. The implementation of the schedule was riddled with problems, she said. She has heard of French II and French III classes meeting in the same period; formerly A-students struggling to keep up in Geometry; students having one semester packed with challenging courses and one with easier electives; and teachers having less time to help students after class.

Abbott served on the implementation team tasked with making the transition smooth at York High School. “I can tell you, we did a lot of stuff in there that had nothing to do with 4X4,” she said. “We had to make so many exceptions to the schedule.”

For example, Advanced Placement courses are year-long, because the AP tests are given in May. Parents and administrators feared AP students would not retain information learned in the fall semester if they didn’t take the test until four months later. “You would think those students could handle it, so what does that tell you? If it’s not kept fresh in their mind, they can’t pass the test,” she said.

Abbott said many students, including her daughter in eighth grade, will arrive at York High School from Yorktown Middle School with several high school credits already on their transcripts. “Advanced diplomas went to 26 credits. My daughter will get 36 total in high school,” Abbott said.

She also worries that the students at the affected high schools will see some negative impact on their grade point averages. That could give students at the lower county high schools an advantage. “All of the kids in York County are competing for the same scholarships,” she said.

In comments posted on the petition, parents worried about students balancing difficult course loads with athletics and other after-school commitments. Others said the school board should have communicated plans to change the schedule earlier; the schedule change was first proposed in a September 2010 meeting, and was approved in late October 2010. A committee had investigated the schedule for one year prior to making a proposal to the board.

With other parents, Abbott is advocating for a return to the seven-period A/B schedule for fall 2012. She said parents plan to appear at school board meetings to share their opinions.

In December, York Principal Antonia Fox and Bruton Principal Vicky Corlett both told WY Daily they believed many of the challenges of the first semester would be resolved by the end of the year. Both admitted there had been some difficulties in the transition, including making enough time for teacher planning, but tried to address the problems in the first semester.

But Abbott doesn’t believe time will solve all of the schedule’s problems. “The schools where this schedule has worked are triple our size,” she said. “I really don’t think it will work here.”