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Benson High students in 2011 work on geometry homework during 90-minute morning study hall. Parents in Portland Public Schools are alleging the district is failing to provide enough instructional time for students.

(Brent Wojahn/The Oregonian)

A coalition of parents wants the state to force Portland Public Schools to increase high school instructional time and has filed a complaint alleging the district fails to meet minimum requirements for class hours.

State law requires high schools to offer 990 hours of instruction to students. The law states that individual classes must include 130 hours of class time to count for high school credits.

In a complaint filed last week with the Oregon Department of Education, a dozen parents said their own analysis shows Portland Public Schools students have access to neither requirement because of the district's "continued understaffing of high schools."

The parents who filed the complaint say the district's current practice shortchanges students who will leave high school being less prepared than their peers in other districts.

“They haven’t invested where they need to in order to give kids the full class hours,” said Caroline Fenn, the parent of two Lincoln High graduates. “You’ve got to add days, lengthen the school day, or you’ve got to change the bell schedule.”

PPS high school hours

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The Oregon Department of Education is currently investigating the complaint, which was first reported by Willamette Week. State spokeswoman Crystal Greene said there is no timetable for a resolution.

District spokesman Robb Cowie admits that PPS offers fewer than 130 hours of instructional time per class but says the district still meets the legal requirements.

Though the state standard requires 130 hours per class to grant high school credit, district leaders point to an Oregon administrative rule that says students can still earn credits, “if the student demonstrates defined levels of proficiency or mastery of recognized standards.” Cowie said district leaders believes the rule gives PPS an exemption, because it means high schools do not necessarily need to provide the 130 hours in order to grant students credit for a class.

Cowie also said the district follows state law mandating access to 990 hours of instructional time. Every student is offered the chance to take eight classes, but the district cannot guarantee it can offer all the classes an individual student might want to take, he said.

“It doesn’t require that every single student in the school attend for 990 hours,” he said.

The district moved to an eight-period block schedule – in which students do not take every class every day -- as a budget-saving measure in 2011 after cutting teaching positions. Because of a contractual limitation on workload, schools had to implement mandatory study halls and offer more free periods for many students.

While Superintendent Carole Smith this spring said she would add more high school teaching positions in response to public outcry, the coalition said the district still makes it difficult for students to attend a full day of classes.

Fenn said the district put obstacles in place that prevented many students from registering for a full schedule, such as requiring a student to take extra steps to add the classes or not adding courses for which most students can register.

“It actually isn’t a real offer,” she said. “To really make good on access to a full day, you’ve got to have classes kids can take and a process for getting them connected to those classes.”

Using calculations from each high school’s bell schedule, Grant High School parent John Richardson said the district offers an average of 123.57 hours per class, with Northeast Portland’s Madison High dipping as low as 117.5 hours.

With overall instructional hours for the year, the parent group claims the district fails to meet its obligation to students because staffing constraints mean most don’t have real access to full schedules.

If students take all eight classes in an eight-period schedule, Richardson argues, they meet the state requirement. But if students take only 7 periods of classes, which is more common, they receive only 882.25 hours of instruction a year.

Cowie said the district wants to add instructional hours. But, he said, the teachers' contract makes it difficult to add hours or days and includes a contractual limitation to workload that complicates the issue. The district and the Portland Association of Teachers recently entered state mediation for their new contract.

“The contract … is one of the main barriers that we face in expanding instructional time,” he said.

But Fenn insists the contract between PPS and the union is a separate issue. The district has options, such as adding more teachers, she said.

“They’re not doing their jobs for a very small amount of savings,” Fenn said.

-- Nicole Dungca

Follow @ndungca