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Students and teachers across numerous school districts in Southern California were abruptly thrown off of their normal class schedule as a result of ongoing wildfires throughout the region.
Through the announcement of a return to a regular schedule on Sunday, Jan. 12, it was assumed that teachers would resume instruction in an attempt to make up for lost time. They were instead, however, met with a last minute announcement regarding i-Ready testing– all classes, besides physical education, would be required to proctor either the Math or English portion of the exam both Jan. 15 and 16 through a new block schedule designed for testing.
On Jan. 15, students will be attending their period one, three and five for two hour periods. This will alternate on Jan. 16, being replaced by period two, four and six.
This seemingly random modification, being announced mid-morning January 13, heavily differs from the usual i-Ready testing schedule. Normally, students would attend all six of their classes as usual and spend a week during their English or Math class taking the exam. Despite this random change, the issue that students and teachers have with the schedule change isn’t the change itself, but rather a lack of prior notice.
As a result of such late notice, classes and programs throughout campus were deeply affected.
Theatre teacher Mr. Justin Baldrige’s advanced theatre production of “Almost, Maine” was just one of the events postponed as a result.
“Teachers had no idea what was happening until Monday. I found out through their email, which is why advanced theater had to postpone our performance to next week. We lost out on three days last week because of the fires and now we’re losing out on two days this week. I really think the testing dates should have been changed due to the number of days we’ve already missed.”
Regardless of the unfavorable circumstances, Mr. Baldridge explained his gravitation towards the new testing schedule over the old one.
“I prefer it,” Mr. Baldridge continued. “I think this is much better than normal. If you don’t finish the test in your English or Math class, they pull you out of class to finish it, so what ends up happening is they usually pull you from the elective course. As an elective teacher, I get very upset because I then have kids missing my class three or four additional times.”
As the testing coordinator, Ms. Michelle Park takes a different stance regarding the priority of this exam and discussed her desire to take a new approach.
“I think it’s important for everyone to take the i-Ready so we can see the progress of the entire school– and since the program is district driven, it gives us a bigger picture,” Ms. Park said. “The thought process behind this schedule change is that most English and Math teachers lose about a week of instruction while monitoring the i-Ready. We wanted to try something new, so this is a trial run.”
Through this, Ms. Park’s vision remains clear– hopefully students will lose less class time and finish the exam quicker between the two days.
“Yes, it is a loss of two hours of instructional times per class, which is two full days,” Ms. Park said. “But hopefully overall, there’s less loss in their classes. Hopefully it balances out.”
