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South Bay Accent - Feb/Mar 2015

February/March 2015 65 shutterstock difference between a stressor and a challenge. Stress is when you feel so much that you can’t use the resources around you to deal with it.” Pope is leading the charge against escalating academic anxiety and helping schools do their part in the battle. More than a decade ago, she began the SOS project, short for Stressed-out Students. That morphed into Challenge Success, which has worked with more than 100 schools to develop site-specific curriculums. The nonprofit’s overlay group of suggested practices is dubbed “SPACE.” In a nutshell: S equals student’s use of time (how long and often classes, homework and exams are scheduled); P stands for project and problem-based learning (boosting interdisciplinary and interactive teaching); A represents alternative and authentic assessments (how students are graded); C is for climate of care (such as offering advisory groups and wellness training); and E is educate parents, students and faculty. Participating schools have seen stress and cheating levels drop and sleep levels and student school engagement rise, according to Pope’s research. “We’ve definitely seen the trajectory go the way we want it to,” she says. According to Pope, “Schedules can be a huge stress buster. You never want to have Spanish first period every day, since you know that’s when kids are sleepy, or last period, since kids on sports teams miss that class a lot. Instead, rotate three to five classes on a given day so there’s only homework for those. That in itself creates relief.” That was the goal at Notre Dame High School in Belmont, which has worked with Challenge Success. According to Director of Admissions Cathy Lewis, the Catholic all-female school “now has four blocks per day with a collaboration— often an open period—in what is the eighth block position. Occasionally, we switch the collaboration to be at the beginning of the day to give the girls a late start in order to get extra sleep.” Operating under a different model is Fusion. In a sign that families seek alternatives, Fusion opened its first Bay Area location in 2011 and now has six local sites. At Fusion, each class is one student and one teacher, and students may enroll any time of the year. Students set and commit to a multiweek schedule. The school stays open up to 12 hours a day. “We understand that not everybody works well at 7:30 a.m.,” says Martinez. Another school onboard since SOS’s early days is Saint Francis. Here courses meet for 85 minutes every other day to allow in-depth and collaborative activities. Saint Francis schedules finals before the holidays and limits summer reading requirements so families can enjoy the breaks. It also surveys students about the amount of homework and test prep required in each class, and shares the results. “One of the interesting things is we’re trying to get kids and families to understand what it means in terms of time to take five AP classes,” says Tennant. Kehillah works open blocks into its schedule so that students have time to meet with teachers and do homework. “Today, three ninth-graders stopped by for tea with me, and I had lunch with a couple of other students,” remarks Greenberg. “The best thing you can do for kids is to know them and talk with them.” Relationship building is key, agrees Middle School Principal Amanda Afshar of German-American International School in Menlo Park. Her students start the week by meeting with their advisory group first thing Monday morning, and groups gather for 10 minutes at each day’s end. GAIS is an International Baccalaureate pre-K through eighth grade school but in August welcomes its first high school class. GAIS does not assign homework on Friday that is due Monday, and Dominic Liechti, GAIS managing director, says the school is investigating adding study hall to its schedule. “We’d like a period where the student can talk with teachers, reflect, pause—that is healthy for kids,” says Liechti. “You need to give kids time to think.” Another area of change is report cards. “Assessment is a stressful fact,” Liechti remarks. “If you (continued on pg 104) The best thing you can do for kids is to know them and talk with them.


South Bay Accent - Feb/Mar 2015
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