By Andra Bryan Stefanoni
news@joplinglobe.com
PITTSBURG, Kan. — In the five years Principal Donna Zerr has been at Pittsburg High School, there has been much talk of moving from the block schedule to a seven-period day.
Tonight, Zerr will ask the Board of Education to approve the change, to be effective next school year.
For about 15 years, the school has maintained a block schedule in which each student has fewer classes per day for a longer period of time. The goal is more time for teaching with less class switching and preparation.
PHS students now alternate a set of 90-minute classes every other day, rather than taking the same set of 50-minute classes every day.
“I feel that teachers have the most impact on student learning, and the most effective thing with kids learning is if they’re learning every day,” Zerr said.
“We don’t practice football every other day, we don’t practice musical instruments every other day in order to get better. We need to do it every day, and I feel that’s the same thing with academics.”
A seven-period day also would mean teachers would get two planning periods per day, one of which would be used for collaboration with other teachers.
The move to a seven-period day was not endorsed unanimously by the high-school faculty.
“We reached a consensus at our school that it was the direction our school needed to go to see student achievement improvement,” Zerr said. “Does that mean that 100 percent of the teachers agree? No.”
