Westside High School’s unique modular system schedule allows for plenty of interesting opportunities for both students and teachers, many of which can’t be found in other high schools across the country. One of those features includes tied and untied mods.

Tied mods allow classes to have the same roster of students every day of the week, used commonly in the core subject classes. On the other hand, untied mods allow for more flexibility with scheduling, with different rosters everyday to lift restrictions on schedules. These mods are commonly used in world language classes and electives, but can happen in other subjects as well. Westside has experimented with these two types of class structures for the past couple of years, notably with most core classes being tied in the first semester, but some classes like English and occasionally math and science being changed to untied in the second semester. While each structure offers their own benefits, some students have their preferences.

For this survey, I had two 10th grade homerooms and two 11th grade homerooms fill out a survey regarding the topic. This allows a small sample size to give an opinion about the topic, while getting feedback from two groups who have experience with these mods. These two grades typically take plenty of classes as well, which allows them to give better feedback.

Out of all the responses received, nearly 75% of students preferred untied mods. This support is backed by a few factors such as the variance in classmates being refreshing for students, higher chances of students having their friends in a mod and less cross sections occurring (especially with lunch mods). The 25% that backed tied mods said they enjoy the reliability of having the same classmates everyday and the fact that group projects can be worked on in class much more easily.

Students were also asked how many of their mods were currently untied, with three classes being the most common, four classes the second most common, and five or more classes being the third most common. All students also had at least one untied mod, as with it being common in the second semester. Nearly two thirds of students believed that untied classes prevent cross sections, with the other third being unsure.

While the general consensus is that untied mods are preferred by students, both tied and untied mods offer their own benefits.