The Learning Curve: San Diego Unified Kicks 4×4 Can Down the Road

At last night’s board meeting, San Diego Unified trustees pumped the brakes on a vote to roll out 4×4 schedules at the eight district high schools that don’t already use them.  

Historically, most students in San Diego Unified have taken six classes a day during each of a school’s two semesters. But under a 4×4 schedule, sometimes referred to as a block schedule, the academic calendar is split into two halves, during which students take four classes at a time.  

That shift changes school schedules in a couple of big ways. First, it allows schools to offer more classes – eight each school year instead of six. It also both increases the length of each individual class – from, say, 45 minutes to 80 minutes – while also reducing the number of hours over the course of the year a student takes each class. 

San Diego Unified district officials, like many across the country, have begun to set their sights on switching to the new schedule. They say it will offer students the opportunity to take more classes and help the district reach its ambitious academic goals.  

In the weeks leading up to the vote I received emails from parents and teachers stressing out about the change. For them, the block schedule is a veritable minefield of drawbacks. The fact that district officials presented the change as a fait accompli only added insult to injury.  

That frustration was on full display at a meeting at Point Loma High a couple of weeks ago. About 100 staff, parents and students sat scattered throughout the district’s theatre.  

Jen Roberson, the director of the district’s office of graduation, walked through the plan. It called for each of the eight schools not already running on a 4×4 schedule to transition to it over the next three school years. The district planned to put Point Loma on the 4×4 schedule next school year. 

It did not go over well. At times, it felt almost like a revolt. 

“The district has a vested interest in trying to push this,” one teacher said. “So, we can believe everything that the district says, or we can push back.”  

“They won’t listen to us,” he said motioning to the other teachers near him. “But they will listen to you,” he said pointing to the parents, “if there’s a chance. Maybe there’s no chance.” 

All of this was set to culminate at Tuesday’s board meeting, when trustees were to vote on whether to adopt that implementation timeline.  

But even before the meeting, the full-court press against the 4×4 was obvious. The night before, district staff updated the plan and ditched the preplanned timeline. They also pushed back the deadline for all schools to transition by a year. 

The discussion stretched for more than two hours and included nearly two dozen public comments, mostly in opposition to the change. While parents and teachers attacked the schedule itself, many also derided the district for not allowing stakeholder input or following the process laid out in union contracts. Trustees ultimately voted to postpone any move on the schedule change. 

The board’s case: To understand the push for the 4×4 schedule, we need to pull back a bit. San Diego Unified has set a whole series of achievement goals – increasing the number of students taking dual enrollment courses and the number who complete career and technical education pathways, offering students more electives, allowing them to take part in more extracurriculars all while increasing graduation rates.  

That’s a lot of stuff, and the district set out to do all of this while having a limited number of classes at many high schools.  

“What I’ve heard from teachers and counselors over and over again is that we do not have enough courses to meet the needs of our students,” Trustee Cody Petterson said. 

Were they to switch to a 4×4 schedule, though, it would allow educators to offer what amounts to one more full year of school over four years. That may allow them to accomplish those goals. It also may allow students to enter college with a lot more boxes checked than they might have otherwise.  

This was also a decision grounded in research, Petterson and other trustees said. Some research suggests the scheduling format offers students academic benefits, and even that having to take fewer classes at one time may help reduce stress.  

The opposition’s case: For those vocally opposed to the plan, many of whom came from Point Loma High, the change represents an attempt to fix something that isn’t broken. Both parents and teachers said students at the school are already high-performing, and the 4×4 schedule could actually jeopardize that performance.  

They ran through a list of concerns: 

• The shortened time periods of classes on a 4×4 schedule means students could spend up to 40 fewer hours in each class.  

• The schedule increases workloads on teachers, who now have more classes and more students each year. 

• Drastically increased class lengths could cause even more attention span issues in students. 

• Given already high levels of chronic absenteeism, each absence could be that much more detrimental to students’ academic progress. 

Then there were more technical scheduling questions.  

How would programs that benefit from yearlong scheduling, like ASB or yearbook, fare on a shorter timescale? And if students take an advanced placement class in their first quarter, how will teachers ensure they’re still prepared for the test when it finally rolls around months later? 

Mixed in all of those frustrations was a recurring theme: this process left stakeholder input out. 

“I’m neither for nor against this 4×4 schedule change,” one commenter said. “I’m against unilateral decisions that will impact over 20,000 students regardless of what the staff, students, school admin or parents say is best.” 

Here’s the deal with the process: The district’s contract with the teachers union actually lays out a process for changing school schedules. Per that roadmap, two thirds of site staff must vote in favor of shifting a school to a 4×4 schedule. 

But there’s a catch. 

The teachers’ vote isn’t actually binding. It’s sort of like the vote of San Diego Unified’s student board members – just an advisory one. Ultimately, regardless of how a site’s staff votes, the district’s board has the final say.  

Kyle Weinberg, the president of the district’s teachers union told me, that doing that would go against the spirit of the contract.  

“Why would we bargain to have this process that requires a supermajority support of certificated educators at the school if we wanted the board to be able to ignore the will of the educators?” 

That’s why the union in March submitted a proposal that would close that loophole and require staff approval for a shift to 4×4 scheduling. He said thus far they haven’t heard anything back from district officials. 

Weinberg said plenty of schools have successfully implemented the 4×4 schedule during public comment at Tuesday’s board meeting. His big beef was that it shouldn’t be done via a unilateral decision, which he said would sow “animosity and division.”  

“Instead of imposing blocks schedules from above, the board has the opportunity to support us in having these conversations and determine our own path instead of holding a sword over our heads,” he continued. 

There do seem to be a couple of schools interested in transitioning, district staff said, but even teachers at those schools hadn’t taken the advisory votes. All of these process concerns are a big part of why the board ultimately postponed a vote on the implementation of the 4×4 schedule. Staff will bring an updated plan to the board’s Oct. 14 meeting. 

Petterson agrees that the way the change was rolled out was botched, something he said he doesn’t blame district staff for. He thinks the board should reserve the right to make this decision, with or without teachers’ approval, but he wants there to be a genuine process. 

“We still need to have a process that is genuinely consultative to bring in outside partners and could result in multiple outcomes and doesn’t presuppose one outcome,” Petterson said. 

The North Star for all of this, though, is the goals the board has set for student achievement. If schools can prove they can reach the goals the district has set for them without moving to a 4×4 schedule, “Then okay. Get us there,” he said. 

“What we can’t do is say ‘No, we’re not going to do what we set out to do after years of meetings and goal setting with communities.’” 

What We’re Writing 

After we reported San Diego Unified’s plan to cut middle school grades at four of its K-8 schools, district leaders have decided to keep one open. Still, three others are slated for closure. 

Since 2022, district officials increased the number of schools that offer PrimeTime by more than two dozen. They also more than doubled the number of students enrolled. You can thank big injections of state funding for the big moves. 

San Diego Unified temporarily closed a joint-use field at Pacific Beach’s Crown Point Elementary because of rampant dog poop and holes. It wasn’t the first time. It likely won’t be the last. 

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