Reply to Earthquake rumblings of change at Takoma Park Middle School Magnet Program-grand design?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]

I think the loss of the block program negatively affected the academics of the EMS program.  There is no longer in depth work periods.  There is still a double-block for the WS/Eng classes, but if your student takes the block in the morning, it is interrupted by a 20 min. "PBIS" period (which is basically homeroom with some "social" lessons occasionally delivered), which means that really only half the program has a "block".   
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I think character education is time well spent to help maintain a positive school community. Middle school students have so much interpersonal drama, having some explicit instruction on how to be a decent human being could go a long way to helping that

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I wasn't complaining about PBIS itself.  I agree that "social" education is important.  Although, frankly, PBIS "lessons" at this school are pretty weak and do not address main problem issues.  Plus, school turned PBIS into DEAR time to increase reading so as to increase test scores, but that hasn't really helped.

The problem is that the AM humanities "block" is disrupted by PBIS and as a result the AM kids don't get the same quality as PM block kids.  Not to mention that the school consistently refuses to balance class sizes.  This year the AM block had many more students that PM block.  Many of them could (and should) have been scheduled for PM so that the block sizes were balanced, but school is too disorganized to deal with class size issues prior to giving out registration/schedules to students. [/quote]

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