By Elizabeth Lande, Reporter
At the beginning of the 2013 school year, the high school completed its transition from trimesters to semesters. The change resulted in a reduced number of classes for students to take each year, but a longer time span for each course to be studied.
Now, in 2017, a policy in the early stages of development proposes a step in the previous direction: a school year with more classes but less time in each semester.
The new suggestion for a modified schedule format is called a “J-Term,” and offers a school year with two fewer weeks in each semester, and a 20-day block of separate classes, to be placed in January or late May/early June.
A typical J-Term day would likely consist of a four-hour class in the morning worth 0.5 credits over the month and a two-hour class in the afternoon worth 0.25 credits.
The proposed format would offer students affordable opportunities to study abroad and take classes not currently offered at the school.
Spanish teacher Sarah Powell and a few other faculty and staff members, including Principal Danny Rock, are in favor of pursuing the option of a J-Term, primarily because of its success in other schools.
“The J-Terms exist in other places. For example, the Tacoma School of the Arts has a J-Term,” Powell said. “It’s quite common at the college level.”
Powell is good friends with Harris Levinson, who taught Spanish at VHS for many years before being hired last summer by the Tacoma School of the Arts.
Rock spoke from personal experience on the potential success a J-Term could have.
“I happened to go [to] a college that had a J-Term, and I really enjoyed it,” Rock said. “I traveled to Europe during one J-Term. I really enjoyed the classes I took … [and] the rhythm of learning where I just had one main class for four or five hours a day.”
Due to the month-long period a J-Term would occupy, travel experiences similar to Rock’s would be a potential option for VHS students, and are one of the driving factors for the idea.
The idea is driven by a faculty goal of establishing a travel program that is equitable and easily accessible. Trips currently available tend to be crammed into week-long breaks.
“Usually our travel programs are loosely connected to a class, often a language class, and so they end up being about culture, which is totally appropriate and fine, but there are many more rich reasons to travel and things to learn that extend beyond just simply the culture of the country you visit,” Rock said.
In addition to travel opportunities, a J-Term would allow students to add required courses into their schedules.
“There might be a chance to experience things that we don’t normally offer because of our tight scheduling,” Powell said. “There might also be the chance to take … core courses that are required that currently make it so that you can’t take a chosen elective.”
“An example of this would be if you do both music and language, then the year that you need to take Health, you [would] have to choose which one of those things you’re going to give up for that semester.”
A J-Term could also offer students the opportunity to retrieve credits from a failed class.
“If you don’t pass a class, you very quickly start to jeopardize your ability to graduate on time,” Powell said. “A J-Term would allow us to build a few more credits into our year.”
However, the drawbacks of a J-Term are also significant, such as the two-week shortening of semesters. This could add pressure on classes that already struggle to fit their curriculum into 90 days, and on students who have difficulty moving quickly through course material.
Classes at VHS are not constrained by requirements dictating the number of minutes that a class must be taught. Rather, it measures success in terms of student comprehension.
However, ten fewer days in each semester could lower the number of students able to achieve mastery in each subject.
“That’s one of the questions we’re talking about right now,” Powell said. “If we are trying to do the same amount of scope and same amount of sequence in a shorter time period, we might need to look at where those minutes come from.”
Administration costs could also be stretched, with teachers needing more time, and thus more paid hours, in order to organize multiple curricula and class plans. For the four-hour J-Term block, planning could be particularly hard, as teachers would be required to create 20 days of class outlines for periods twice as long as a normal block day class.
Planning for the J-Term would require significant effort by the administration in order minimize the schedule drawbacks. However, organization for the potential school year format is still in beginning stages, and no formal plans regarding implementation currently exist.
“We’re nowhere near this right now,” Rock said. “We’re certainly not doing it this year, and we don’t have any agreements or formal decisions to implement it next year.”
Teachers expressed their opinions and suggestions for new electives in an email survey sent out by Powell last week. A student and parent survey may follow within the next few weeks.
Powell aims to involve the community in the process in order to accurately gauge opinions, and encourages anyone with questions or comments to contact her.
“A survey went out to teachers, and so they have that opportunity right now. I think that’s our first step,” Powell said. “I’ll send one out to students and to parents, like, ‘Here’s this thought that we’re having. Are you in, are you out; do you want to participate; what concerns do you have; what courses would you like to see offered?’”
Anyone with questions, concerns or comments can email Powell at spowell@vashonsd.org.
