4 October 2023
DULUTH In order to comply with new Minnesota arts standards, the city’s public school district is considering changing its middle school model. A committee made up of middle school teachers, principals, and other school staff has been working on developing a model since March. The committee presented the Duluth School Board with its model, emphasizing that it is still a work-in-progress.
“We are here today with an unfinished product,” said Jen Larva, the district’s director of secondary teaching, learning and equity. “We need to go back and do some refinement because we did cost ourselves out of our parameters. So we know this is going to have some cost, but we wanted to share with you where we are at.”
The district has to implement more fine arts offerings for seventh and eighth grade students to keep up with state standards. The district had initially planned to implement a new middle school schedule this school year to meet the requirements, but asked for a pause from the state to allow staff to be involved with the creation of the new model.
“It wasn’t just about the schedule, it’s about the student experience,” Larva said. “Focusing on our students at the center of the work we’re doing and making sure that we’re aligning desired daily experiences and while coming in compliance with those standards.”
The committee is tentatively proposing a four-by-four block A/B schedule. Instead of six 49-minute periods per day, students would attend four 70-minute periods a day on an A/B schedule. On an A day, students would attend periods 1, 2, 3 and 4 then on a B day, periods 5, 6, 7 and 8. This schedule would also include a 20-minute advisory period between blocks one and two and stagger lunches over block three.
One of the highlights of the model Larva presented was that it allowed for more “teaming” between teachers.
“It would mean that students would be assigned to a group of teachers, so that a small group of students would always have the same teachers,” Larva said. “And that would allow time for those teachers to meet as a team and discuss student concerns. It allows for more students to be seen. Right now, the model we’re currently in, teachers couldn’t meet as a team to talk about a common group of students.”
Another benefit of the new model is that it would allow for more course offerings including exploratory courses for students in grades six and seven.
“For example, we could offer a world languages course, which would give students a chance to explore Spanish and German within one course, so they could maybe make a more informed decision when it came time later to pick it up,” Larva said.
The shifted schedule would also allow the fine arts offerings to be slotted into the schedule more easily, though Larva said any change to the schedule would result in losses in core class time.
“It does reduce some of the time they have in different classes,” Larva said. “It’s a balancing act. So if we’re putting in more elective options for our kids, some core content minutes might have to go down. But that’s where the advisory, teaming, and intervention and enrichment opportunities come in to help out.”
Larva noted that the model will increase costs, but noted that the block schedule would “create a more positive school climate and increase offerings.” Superintendent John Magas noted the middle school model change was part of the district’s referendum ask.
The committee is not ready to take the tentative model to the community quite yet, but said that families can expect to see more information in the coming months.
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