Everyone’s heard of the many changes at LP this year: the Yondr pouches; homerooms; the new middle school building. But have you heard about the removal of LI blocks?
Since its first year of existence, Lincoln Park has offered LI blocks throughout the school day, which were supervised by an academic teacher, and allowed students to work on their respective LI courses during school hours.
Aaron Johnson, a junior theatre major from New Brighton who had an LI block during school, said that his experience “was peaceful, until it was abruptly taken.” He said that the removal of LI blocks “will create a lot more stress for people taking an LI currently.”
What is an LI?
LI stands for Lincoln Interactive and is a series of online courses developed by a company called Lincoln Learning Solutions. This company has provided an online curriculum to Lincoln Park since the school’s founding in 2006. It also provides curriculum to other schools, such as PA Cyber.
In the past, LI blocks were often used to fill in holes in students’ schedules. For example, if a student had an arts class on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, they might be able to take an LI block on Tuesdays and Thursdays to complete their schedule with an academic class.
Since there was no specified number of days that a student needed to take an LI block, these blocks were useful in solving scheduling problems.
Why did Lincoln Park decide to do away with LI blocks? Principal Tonya Milsom explained the reasoning.
“We took two data points,” she said. “The first data point is that the vast majority of students who were taking LI blocks were missing their arts [classes]. When we went through the data, we were concerned that a lot of opportunities in the arts were being missed, which maybe at the time didn’t look like a big deal, but it then prevented that student from then taking other [arts] courses later.”
The second data point, Mrs. Milsom, said, was particularly telling.
“Lincoln Interactive, they provide us with minute-by-minute data. So when you log into your online courses, we can see minute-by-minute, second-by-second. Sometimes it will show me that a student logged in for 17 seconds–that’s how detailed it is.”
And what the data showed, she said, was that “the vast majority [of students] were not spending that time productively. Not to say they weren’t doing them–they were just doing it on their own time. That’s where we sat down and decided to have that time to make sure students are having their arts education.”
Some students claim that the removal of LI blocks has meant losing valuable time to manage their workload–including work in arts classes. Soleil Giles, a senior writing and publishing major from Ambridge, said, “It was useful time to spend working on other classes and ensured I had time for extracurricular activities like my job. It was necessary decompression time.”
While students mostly expressed disappointment about the removal of LI blocks, teachers had varied opinions. Melissa Holman, the director of the Music Department, noted, “From a teacher standpoint, I don’t know how many students were using that time to work on their LI. I’m sure some students were, but I feel like a lot weren’t using that time specifically for their LI.”
Señora Lynn Knowles, a teacher in the Spanish department, shared a different experience, stating, “I had a generally good experience proctoring LI blocks. Some students used it to get work for other classes done, or as a rest period. But with dedicated LI blocks gone, more people will be taking in-person classes.”
On the other hand, Desirea Hairston, an English teacher, recounted her experiences with LI blocks as chaotic at times.
“I had a lot of kids who would just sleep. It depended on the age group. Some were more motivated than others,” she explained. “Sometimes, I had to cover other classes during my LI block, which could create chaos.
“My LI kids would get frustrated with these covered classes because they’d be trying to work in a normally quiet space that suddenly became loud.”
However, junior Mark Veon, a pre-law major from Beaver Falls, contended that the disappearance of LI blocks might have unexpected negative effects on students.
Veon took Health and P.E. using LI last school year. He admitted that it was a free block but said that it helped him not only get his LI done, but his other schoolwork as well.
He pointed out that without LI blocks, students may be trying to get their LI and other schoolwork done during other academic or arts classes–especially if they have sports or other activities after school.
Not having an LI block is “stressful,” Veon said.
“The students are not focused on their other classes,” said Veon, “because they are trying to get their LI done.”
SIREN reporters Hailey Ake, Elena Cable, Ambyr Clay, Mia Clemons, Adrien Emler, Lily Fortier, Samatha Jones, Evie Lindgren, Naomi Menzer, Felicity Portoulas, and Aydden Yope also contributed to this story.
