Senator Portantino’s Late Start Bill and the 2022–23 SMHS Bell Schedule
If called upon to decide, what bell schedule would you put before the Titans?
Nearly three and a half years ago, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed Senate Bill 328, a law requiring all public middle and high schools in California, by the fall of 2022, to ring the first-period bell no earlier than 8:30 a.m.
This bill was authored by state Senator Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge) for reasons expressed in the 1:48 video appearing below.
The Governor’s signing of Senate Bill 328 made California the first state in the country to mandate later start times for middle and high school students.
“Generations of children will come to appreciate this historic day and our governor for taking bold action,” said Portantino shortly after the Governor’s signing and as reported in a Los Angeles Times story entitled Disappointment, appreciation expressed after bill for later start times for schools is signed into law.
That said, many high schools throughout the state are now finding themselves struggling to decide, in the midst of a pandemic, what bell schedule to utilize for 2022–23.
I teach at one such school, San Marino High. It’s a small, high-performing southern California public school that from its founding in 1952 has continuously placed before its students and teachers an 8:00–3:00, relatively traditional, 6 fifty-four minute, class period bell schedule, with the school’s 2021–2022 bell schedule appearing below.
But what bell schedule should SMHS adopt for 2022–2023?
Some will no doubt answer that question by saying, “just push everything back a half-hour”, with the school, were it to go that route, probably ending up with a bell schedule that looks something like this
How About a Modified Block Schedule?
SMSH could also consider adopting some form of Modified Block Schedule, with this schedule best described, according to the Reimagine Time in Schools website, as a bell schedule that “offers daily or weekly exposure to some (less than fifty-five minute) classes while also providing longer periods for other classes to engage in deeper learning.”
Below, a very good Modified Block Schedule recently brought forward by a colleague.
And now, one more Modified Block Schedule.
How About a Fully Rotating (A/B) Block Schedule?
SMHS could also consider adopting a “Fully Rotating Block Schedule.” A fully rotating block (also known as an A/B Block), allows students to take up to eight courses at a time where every class meets during a block period that typically lasts 80–110 minutes. In other words, says the Reimagine Time in Schools website, with a fully rotating block, school days “are divided into two different sets of block periods (“A” days and “B” days) that meet on alternating days.”
In this regard, I recently received an email from Chris Norgaard, a former SMUSD Board Member, with this email containing the words of Diane Burbank, “one of the best high school principals in California, along with SMSH principal Jason Kurtenbach.”
“A fully rotating block is the only form of block that will result in a significant change in the way teachers teach and test,” says Ms. Burbank.
Below, the contents of Ms. Burbank’s entire email (shared per Mr. Norgaard’s request):
As principal at three different schools (Aptos with modified block, Prospect and Woodside with rotating blocks), I know that the only version that makes a difference for instruction and for learning is going full rotating block. A modified block with 90-min or longer periods just two or four days a week just keeps the grind in place.
A rotating block means that teachers never see all their students in a single day, except for the first day of a semester or a day needed to even out days called even/odd or A/B or green/ gold or whatever. Teachers see all their students the same number of minutes over a two-week time frame, sometimes three times/week and the next week two times/week. This rotating block is beneficial because it:
- most closely resembles a college schedule.
- reduces # of student contacts for teachers daily reducing stress (helps if master schedule gives teachers two courses and groups them on a single day if possible)
- reduces # of periods students are completing homework reducing stress
- reduces teachers assigning grinding drill and kill exercises
- increased minutes mean that group activities don’t run out of time, science labs get completed in a single sitting, students often have time to begin homework before leaving so can get assistance, timed essays get more time, social studies simulations get plenty of time, PE circuits or a round-robin tournament get completed in a single block period.
- reduces the # of minutes teens are mingling and much of high school rock and roll happens during passing periods and breaks.
The general “temperature” of a campus lowers because there’s less movement and learning is more concentrated, focused, intentional. Rather than wasting time on passing periods, breaks between blocks are brunch and lunch.
At WHS, the only period that met daily was the first period and that was only 50-min from 8–8:50 am. Only about 50% of students took a first period and everyone else started at 9 am, so an 8 am start was a choice for those frosh who wanted to take both a world lang and band or an ELL student doubling up on English or a high-level student taking double science or more electives or AVID. We loaded the first period with support classes such as AVID, PE (if a student has to arrive early, at least they’re moving in PE), and study skills class for IEP students as a good base for their day. We also put singletons during that period like French 4 or Video because those stu were likely taking seven periods anyway. There were a few first-period courses where teachers had that prep as a 50-min daily course and a block period course, too, and they just had to work it out, but those were rare occurrences.
The modified block where two or four days a week are blocks, won’t change instruction because teachers will likely put two lessons together and the focus isn’t on radically altering instruction which you have to do to survive rotating block and get to the positive outcomes. For students, only having block on two days a week means that every teacher is putting their heavy-duty assignments (lab, timed writing, presentations) all fall on block days. Blocks on four days a week is better but the single-day where a stu sees every teacher for 45 or 50 minutes is a killer because teachers load up on quizzes, tests, and due dates on that day. Or it turns into a catch-up or workday and isn’t moving learning, it’s just a valve.
Another benefit of rotating block is that an athlete leaving campus early for competition isn’t always missing the same course.
Below, how a Fully Rotating (A/B) Bell Schedule looks at Presentation High in San Jose.
The Percentage of Schools That Have Gone Block
As you contemplate the question of whether SMHS or any other high school should “go block”, here are some important facts to consider.
- More than 80% of the 100 best high schools in America currently utilize some form of block.
- More than 80% of the 20 best high schools in California currently utilize some form of block.
- Of the 100 best high schools in America that have at some point experimented with block, not one has reverted to a traditional bell schedule.
- Approximately 60% of all high schools in America currently do not utilize some form of block.
Want to Create a Schedule of your Own?
If none of the schedules appearing in this post appeal to you, try building a schedule of your own with the help of the free Unlocking Time Bell Schedule Building Tool.
For “inspiration (aka some other scheduling alternatives), be sure to look at the exhaustive Unlocking Time Bell Schedule Library. This library shows all of the bell schedules types used by most schools across the nation.
Another good resource found on the site is the Unlocking Time Report, which shows aggregate analysis of bell schedules across the nation.
How Some of California’s Best Do Block
If it’s a Block Schedule you plan to build, be sure to check out what appears below — the Block Schedules utilized by some of the best high schools in the state.
Arguments in Favor of the Call for Block
- Any form of block should prove a wonderful stress buster for all. With block, the mental pace, if not the physical pace, should seem a little different, a little slower, a little gentler. A saner, less hectic school day, that’s what many say you will definitely get with block.
- Block provides a far better environment for teachers wanting to utilize more varied or innovative instructional and testing techniques (aka pedagogy), cover more content with fewer interruptions, provide their students with more attention and one-on-one support, and engage their students in more sustained, in-depth learning activities, including more sophisticated projects, teamwork-based exercises, or other activities.
- Block will result in a reduction in the time that students spend in the hallways moving between classes, thus increasing the number of minutes available for learning while decreasing the hallway and bathroom-related issues the school has at times experienced.
- Block should result in at least some reduction in the time that teachers spend on routine administrative or classroom-management tasks — such as taking attendance, handing out and collecting materials, or preparing for and wrapping up activities.
- With block, student-athletes would not have to miss the same class over and over again in order to participate in the sport of their choosing
- The move to block is a great way to respond to those who criticize a traditionally scheduled school for being twenty years behind the times and working hard to stay that way.
- Block would result in a significant reduction in the number of students who would ever again have to take three or more tests on any given day.
- Block is how it’s done in college. So if a school wants to be viewed as college prep . . .
Arguments Opposed to the Call for Block
- Block, to prove most effective, requires significant changes in the way teachers teach and test, and if most teachers at a school contemplating a move to block are reluctant to make that change, the move to block is doomed to failure.
- If the teachers haven’t had the face-to-face and consistent access to quality training that shows them how to bring about the needed significant change in pedagogy, any call for block should be put off until after the teachers have received this kind of training.
- The move to block should be all about pedagogy and since the pedagogical purpose for this change typically isn’t made clear, there should be no adoption of any form of block until it is made clear.
- Given all the other changes that the teachers have been called upon to make the past two years, even if any group of teachers wanted to adopt some form of block, they probably don’t have the gas in the tank to make it happen. The past two years have proven so stressful, so exhausting.
- There’s only so much change that a school community can absorb, with the teachers, admins, and students having maxed out the change-absorption meter the past two years.
- The fact that over 80% of the 100 best high schools in America will start the 2022–23 school year with some form of block, is irrelevant. So too is the fact that more than 80% of the 20 best high schools in California will start 2022–23 with some form of block. Each school is vastly different from all other schools.
- The fact that only 40% of all high schools in the nation have adopted some form of block suggests that schools that do not adopt block are not falling behind the times.
- A block schedule should be viewed as suited best to English, Social Studies, and some CTE- project-based learning courses, while not as useful in Math, Science, World Languages, PE, and Health, yet a schedule that consists of some classes being taught via a block schedule and others via a traditional schedule can not be found. Absent a template, it’s way too risky to go down that path.
- The average maturity level of most freshmen and sophomores doesn’t support the call for any form of block.
- The adoption of any form of block would result in the students who are involved in certain activities like athletics and speech and debate finding themselves falling far behind in their classes due to regular absences related to these activities.
- The call for block might not be in the best interest of many SPED students. It’s doubtful that they can remain focused for more than 54 minutes and/or handle a schedule that doesn’t consist of the same classes meeting at the same time every day.
- If school and district leadership won’t express support for the call for block, getting behind the call for block is a waste of time. Without administrative support, the call for the adoption of any form of block will go nowhere.
- Block is geared towards group projects and away from individual effort, accountability, and mastery. The stars in the class — sharp and extroverted kids who happen to thrive in that setting — are liable to take over, while other kids are liable to ride lazily on their coattails. Meanwhile, needed skills are sacrificed, especially in more cumulative subjects such as math and science.
