Middle School Schedules Revamped In San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO, CA — San Francisco Unified School District leaders hope a planned revamp of class scheduling will result in "deeper learning" for students of the district's middle schools.

The idea, said Brent Stephens, the school district's chief academic officer, is to enact a "block" schedule that affords both more class choices and longer class sessions, which he said promote "deeper learning" in any subject. The first two middle schools are scheduled to have new schedules by the start of the 2019-2020 school year.

"There are two main issues," Stephens said. "One is that it's an access issue. An English language learner who must take a language class right now can't always fit everything in, can't take that computer science class.

"The second issue is increasing the time students spend in individual classes," Stephens said. "Longer classes mean more time to focus on each subject, more chances for inquiry and experiences."

The longer classes wouldn't necessarily meet as many times per week, Stephens added.

Revising the overall scheduling system, he added, will give more middle school students access to computer science, performing arts/creativity, world languages and accelerated math and reading classes.

The schedule changes are also expected to give teachers more "professional learning time" to collaborate or otherwise enrich their craft. Students would get out of classes early one day a week, the same day for all schools, allowing time for the teachers to meet with each other.

These changes, first proposed and studied in 2015, are scheduled to begin first at the Francisco and Theodore Roosevelt middle schools. Stephens said the plan is for similar schedule revamping to be adopted at two or three middle schools each year until schedules have changed at all of the
district's 13 middle schools.

Several middle and K-8 schools have already rolled out some elements of the "deeper learning," according to a news release from the school district, which are most notably "project-based learning opportunities" that go beyond standard classroom instruction.

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— Bay City News; Image via Shutterstock