" Tell me who went to Harvard? Tell me who went to Princeton? Tell me who went to Yale? In order to get into these schools you need to have a competitive curriculum available at your high school. West Seattle has only fives AP courses. No AP courses are available in the science discipline.

The students who went to Johns Hopkins required OUTSIDE classes in order to compete on a national level. Is that right? Why should I have to haul butt around the city in order to compete with private high school graduates. I want to have more AP classes, more honors choices and more opportunities to take classes. The 4-period day leaves behind the college bound, making it impossible to take all the advanced classes necessary in attending an upper level university.

The length of the period under the 4-period schedule is great if you have an amazing teacher. However, in most instances, this is not the case. I challenge you to sit through a 90-minute period with a teacher who can barely fill 30 minutes of teaching time. There are some truly amazing West Seattle HS faculty members who dedicate the entire class period to teaching meaningful lessons. Unfortunately, this is not the norm. As for the argument that the 4-period day allows "teachers KNOWING their students, students KNOWING each other," this could be created under a 6-period day. A rolling 6 schedule like Garfield HS would allow for 110 minute periods broken up throughout the week. This would ensure that teachers would have not only longer periods with students for more involved activities, but be able to be with students for an entire year.

As for the "One Size Fits All" argument, I think it’s ludicrous to believe that the 4 period day is all that defines West Seattle HS. I have to believe we can offer something better than just a schedule. Why not give our students a fighting chance to actually be competitive on a national level? Why not make it possible to attend the Ivies without attending a community college or paying for outside university instruction? If not, you are pigeon-holing a future generation of West Seattle attendees.

In short, the 4-period day leaves behind high achieving students.
"

" "One size fits all" education doesn't work, and didn't work for West Seattle High before the institution of the 4 Period Day in 1994. Students, parents and staff fighting for the 4 Period Day (the majority at West Seattle) are doing so because they are aware of what is at stake: the very essence of the quality of education at West Seattle, which will be destroyed by the 6 Period Day. The present school building was designed to fit the 4 Period Day curriculum, the highly qualified staff has built tremendous momentum over the past 14 years of teacing within the 4 Period Day (this means they have over a decade of curriculae written for 85 minute periods... this will be lost in transferring to a 55 minute period) and have been able to create some truly incredible programs that are going to be obliterated by the 6 Period Day (not enough time, too many kids/day). Student learning, instruction, a sense of community and personalization (teachers KNOWING their students, students KNOWING each other, key factors in education) has blossomed and flourished at West Seattle under the 4 Period Day, and continues to improve yearly (check SPS website for steadily rising scores since 1994). West Seattle had a 6 Period Day up until 1994, and test scores were low, achievement was low, attendance was abysmal, and the school was the first choice of only half of its students. Today, WSHS is one of the "top pick" schools, and kids graduate from West Seattle to go on to the nation's top ranked universities (Johns Hopkins, Yale, Princeton, Harvard)... not bad for a school, which before the 4 Period Day in 1994 was gang-ridden and unsafe.
Responsible educators were GIVEN THE RESPONSIBILITY through site-based management to design a solution to West Seattle's dismal problems, and they did... after years of research, and almost a million dollars of funding for this research... and the school has flourished ever since.
Responsible educators who believe in keeping the 4 Period Day are not "whining", they are doing exactly what they have received graduate degrees for, what they worked years to create for the service of kids, what they are MANDATED to do by the U.S. government and the local school district through their contact ... continuously work to find ways to improve education for the students they serve.
The parents, students and educators who believe in keeping the 4 Period Day at West Seattle are doing so because it has a proven track record of 14 years of steady uphill success rates... WSHS is no longer a gang-ridden, underattended school, but the first choice of many students.
It is simply a crime that the strong educational programming, the sense of community, the personalization, the time for students and staff to FOCUS at West Seattle is being destroyed by people who don't understand what is going on at WSHS, or why it has become so successful. Dedicated educators poured their blood, sweat and tears into WSHS to get it to where it is today, and IT DOES MATTER what the schedule of a school is like in terms of the amount of attention students receive on a daily basis... on the quality of education they will receive. Just check out the dropout rates at the other 6 Period Day high schools... why do you think that WSHS has the lowest dropout rates? Why do you think that WSHS has the lowest achievement gap? There is absolutely no sound reason to change this school's schedule, and the students know that, and the parents know that (the majority of them) and the teachers know that. This move will go down as one of the worst travesties in the history of the Seattle Public Schools, when the whole climate at WSHS starts to go into retrograde... and dropouts rise, and students of color start to fail at higher rates... Parents who need and want a 6 Period Day high school in West Seattle are free to enroll their children in nearby Sealth High School. There is no reason to destroy West Seattle High School for sake of convenience of commuting. Many kids presently travel far distances to get to WSHS simply BECAUSE of the 4 Period Day. Ask the students. They will tell you. The 4 Period Day works, and it works for all students.
To the writer who asked readers to "sit down and really decide if this matters that much"... You bet it does, and to a whole lot of people, no kidding. It matters because WSHS is a great school and it deserves to be protected and celebrated and not slowly destroyed, which will be the effect of the 6 Period Day's arrival (good programs will leave, good staff will leave, ambitious students will leave). "

" Its not that big of a deal. The fact of the matter is, the Seattle Public School District is having problems providing equal education across the city. Now that busing is coming to an end for high school students, it is even more important that programs be equally provided for across the district. In order to do this, the district must have each high school practice the same schedule, provide the same programs, and offer the same classes. Students are going to be fine.

Sure, it will take adjusting but thats a fact of life. I think some teachers forget that they are working for a company. When a company wants to streamline their industry, it doesn't matter how inconvenient this is for the workers. I have a challenge for those within West Seattle High School who continue to whine about an issue that is already settled. Instead of complaining, suck it up, and think about how you can deal with this change. I understand you are upset, but the fat lady has sung.

As for the students who have exercised their right to assemble, this will look great on your college resume. But it feels like this is just another instance of young people getting riled-up just to get riled-up. They watch their teen movies, and love the opportunity to fight for anything. I ask you to sit down, and really decide if this matters all that much. Why not put that energy to better use and raise money for cancer research or feed the hungry instead of whining to people who don't care?

With that said, I'll end my little rant...

I hope there is no more talk about this stupid 4-period day nonsense. "