SLC Scheduling - New Insights!

From our research into SLC Best Practices, we have come to understand that one of the biggest challenges schools face when implementing Smaller Learning Communities is scheduling. Traditionally schedules tend to be built more around teacher preferences for courses and prep periods rather than around principles related to quality programming. Recently, key members of the Academy Design Team and the Administration team spent the day with Mike Neubig, widely regarded as smartest SLC scheduling guy around. Mike helped us understand that there are three principles we should prioritize as we move forward in our planning.

COMMON TEACHERS

COMMON STUDENTS

COMMON PLANNING TIME

We were glad to learn that we are on the right track with our design thinking! Focusing on the above three principles will help us ensure that teachers work together to INTEGRATE curriculum and to SUPPORT groups of students. We spent time planning out course sequencing for potential SLC's and discussing optimal scheduling and staffing models. As we went through the day, we had some other KEY insights and recommendations from Mike.

1. A 7 period schedule is key. Mike recommended a 5 on 7 schedule with first period meeting daily, all classes meeting on Monday and three periods (2,4,6 and 3,5,7) meeting on alternating days Tuesday - Friday.
2. For our school size, we should have two umbrella academies with 4 or 5 SLC course sequencing options in each. The 10th graders should be in the academies.
3. We should think of courses in one of three groupings. They are tagged as either a. SLC Pure (only for SLC students) b. SLC recommended (recommended for SLC but others can take) or c. Global Classes (anyone can take).
4. Teachers should be dedicated to the 9th grade teaching teams or to one of the umbrella academies. This will make it easier to schedule both students and teachers.
5. We should avoid halfway implementation - no piloting or having half of our students in academies and the other half not in academies.

Mike will be back to work with us on August 24th and to present these ideas to our entire staff. Before he returns, our Academy Design Team will be reviewing and refining the work we completed on June 21st with Mike with specific focus on course sequencing for each SLC.

Probably the most important thing we learned is that we need to stick to our vision and avoid caving in to special interests that go against the priorities mentioned above. We need to focus on: COMMON TEACHERS, COMMON STUDENTS, COMMON PLANNING and ALWAYS think about what is best for ALL kids as first priority.