Reimagining School Parameters

As we move forward on our path toward Vision 2031, we will activate bold change to what school should be for all Hopkins scholars.

At Hopkins Public Schools, we have a long history of innovation, excellence and above all, doing what is right for our students. This past year, COVID-19 and the global pandemic of racial injustice put all education systems in the United States to the test, but at Hopkins we turned our challenges into opportunities to make things better for our students.

Under the guidance of a diverse steering committee, we have reviewed key aspects of our district delivery model. The steering committee conducted research, identified potential change options and collected our community’s input on systemwide issues. Our goal was to substantially increase student learning through a set of fiscally responsible, strategic adjustments to how we organize our schools.

Listed below is how we will move forward on four topics: School Start Time, Year Round School, Non-Traditional Spaces and Places, Grade Configuration.

High school orchestra students performing outdoors.

Recommendations Approved by School Board

Starting in the 2022-23 school year, Hopkins will adjust school start times such that elementary schools start earlier and secondary schools start later. There are operational details that need to be determined with this recommendation. More information will be available soon.
Starting in the 2023-24 school year, we will transition 6th graders to the middle school buildings, and 9th graders to our high school.
We will continue to explore and visit year-round school (45/15 day) models across the U.S. We may pilot one year-round elementary school concept in the school year 2023-24. While we are interested in the idea of year-round school, more research needs to be done before we are confident in recommending a pilot site.
Explore creation of whole-school elementary outdoor immersion program for possible pilot in school year 2023-24.
Continue offering an online academy (VirtualEDU) to interested students, both resident and out-of-district.
Identify high school courses that should be permanently offered in hybrid or online format.

Additional Research and Information

Under the guidance of a diverse steering committee, we reviewed key aspects of our district delivery model. The steering committee conducted the necessary research, identified potential change options and collected our community’s input on these systemwide issues. Our hope is that we can substantially increase student learning through a set of low cost, strategic adjustments to how we organize our schools.

Learning Redesign Feasibility Analysis

Qualitative Data Report

Learning Redesign Survey Results

Four Areas of Exploration

School Start Times

Research

Research shows that a later start time for secondary students can help them to get more sleep and better engage in school. There is scant research on how earlier start times impact younger children, but based on what we know about the sleep patterns of adolescents versus younger kids, it does make sense to start the school day earlier for younger scholars.

More Research

Internal data

A later start time for secondary students may also lead to fewer tardies during the first block. In looking at tardiness data, we found that 21-34% of all HHS tardies occurred during First Block over the last three years. For context, there are four blocks total and one advisory period, suggesting that First Block tardies account for a disproportionate number of secondary tardies most years.

More Internal Data

Child waving hand in front of the school bus

Year-Round School

Research

While academic research shows that non-traditional school calendars, like year-round school, do not necessarily result in increased academic achievement for students overall (as measured by test scores), they may promote opportunities for more consistent and deeper engagement. They may also mitigate high stress levels in teachers due to the ability to embed more days off into a calendar that is not packed into a nine-month model. Non-traditional calendars may also provide opportunities for students in immersion programs to experience year-round access to language acquisition, while solving for the summer loss of language that often occurs in students. Finally, there may be academic benefits to students who experience homelessness because year-round school helps remove barriers to services, similar to the benefits found from a summer school model. Yet conservative estimates indicate that almost 30% of Hopkins scholars who were experiencing homelessness are not enrolling in Summer School. This is a missed opportunity to provide critical resources to these scholars.

More Research

Context

Districts that choose non-traditional calendars do so based on both operational needs and/or academic considerations.

Options

Potential year-round models include 45/15, 60/20, 90/30, with a single track or multi-tracks.

Group of elementary students and teacher outdoors

Non-Traditional Spaces and Places

Research

Research shows that personalized learning increases student engagement and performance. In considering changes to space and place, one piece of data that may or may not be helpful is where behavioral incidents are occuring in the schools. Though student behavior is indirectly affected by space and place, referral data is one data point we do have. Over the last two years, the majority (54%) of behavioral referrals occurred in the classroom while 20% occurred in parking lots; the remaining 26% occurred in hallways, other outdoor/indoor areas, schoolbuses, etc.

Internal work

In Spring 2021, a steering committee on this topic convened and recommended “pathfinders,” or leveled options to engage in low- to medium-cost ways to transform transition and common spaces into learning and instructional spaces.

Community Feedback

There is some internal research on the learning that occurs in non-traditional spaces and places. In the spring survey, our community heavily favored implementing more outdoor immersion opportunities and the community was generally open to more asynchronous learning opportunities for our scholars.

Four girls in outdoor learning

Grade Configurations

Research

Research is mixed on whether schools are able to deliver more developmentally appropriate instruction in a model with grades 6-8 middle and 9-12. There is some internal research on our community’s input for reconfiguring grades. In Spring 2021, HPS asked scholars, caregivers, and staff about their feelings about moving 6th and 9th graders to the middle schools and high school, respectively. Staff, parents, and students showed a favorable (or neutral) perspective around both changes. Roughly 90% of staff who responded were in favor or neutral. Roughly 60% of caregivers were in favor or neutral, and 70% of scholars were in favor or neutral.

Context

Over the past several years, Hopkins has considered moving 6th graders to the junior high/middle schools and 9th graders to Hopkins High School. Almost all other Minnesota districts have moved their 6th graders to middle school and their 9th graders to be freshmen at senior high.

HHS students in culinary class