<p>Stupid question-D's HS offers block classes, so she doesn't have the 5-9 classes at a time that seem to be the norm for most CC high school kids. Do high schools explain this on the official transcripts when they send them to colleges? Otherwise I'd think that colleges would believe the kids are taking a slacker level of courses.</p>
<p>I'm also curious-how do students fit 7, 8, 9 classes a day into a typical school day without them being pretty cursory? Are the school days longer or are they all just very short class periods? The most I've ever known a kid to take was 6, and in a six-hour day, that sounds about right to me.</p>
<p>The move to block allowed students in our high school to take 8 classes a year (4 on “A” days, 4 different ones on “B” days). Prior to block scheduling, the day had 7 class periods. Classes were about 50 minutes, 20 min each day for lunch. There’s nothing to explain on a transcript. </p>
<p>The school district across the river does block by semester. Those kids still take the same number of classes per year (8) as ours do on alternating block and more than they did on the standard school day schedule. What would there be for a school to explain on a transcript?</p>
<p>Counselors send a HS profile that accompanies each transcript when applying to college. A good profile will explain the schedule. I’ve seen block schedules how each of you describes it – eight a semester, four classes on A and B days and then four classes a day for one semester and then four different ones in the second semester. </p>
<p>That second system always has seemed odd to me – as you take AP tests when you haven’t have the material in months.</p>
<p>Similar to O’Lives, our kids are on a modified block schedule. Seven courses per year, one block each morning, and three blocks that alternate every other day. So one day you have 1,2,4 &6, the next 1,3,5 &7. It gets creative where a teacher is teaching the same class in both a 55 min block (1st block) and several 90min blocks. They have to break up lesson plans, hw assignments, etc. differently. Colleges are very familiar with all kinds of hs scheduling, really. They see more systems and schedules, all with exceptions, etc, then we can possibly think of.</p>
<p>Our district had block scheduling at six out of eight high schools, the exceptions being one with a so-called modular schedule and the magnet school for performing arts, where certain classes had to be offered year-round. They returned to a traditional eight-period day about three years ago, because they found kids were having problems with AP classes and graduation requirements. Also, membership in ECs like band suffered since not everyone could fit it into their schedule. Neither of my sons went to one of the block-schedule schools. As for me, I never could have stood being in the same class for 90 minutes!</p>
<p>Ok, so there’s a profile they send. That makes sense. The kids at her school are getting into good colleges so it must work. The way they do it at D’s school is that they have 4 classes each semester-one is a semester-long elective, the other three are science, humanities (both SS and LA in a double block) and math that run all year. In their jr and sr years they have a full year of language instead of electives. The school is a project-based learning school so often all the subjects get rolled into one project. It seems so different from pretty much every other school I’ve seen referenced. There are never 8 classes, even with blocks.</p>
<p>Sseamom- Block scheduling (4 classes a semester like your child’s) is a common schedule in our area high schools, so I think colleges are familiar with it. They can also see that one credit is issued per block, while in year long classes, a credit is per year. High schools also send a profile, and colleges that have regional representatives are usually familiar with many of the high schools.</p>
<p>As far as I know, the block schedule will not hinder how a college will consider an applicant.</p>
<p>Well, I’m happy to see that it’s common. My older kids went to completely different schools so I really had nothing to compare this to, and got to wondering. Thanks everyone.</p>
<p>footballmom, I hate it, too. The argument was that it’d be more like college on the block system. Really? Now, I haven’t seen the schedule for all the colleges in the US, but typical for here (and therefore where our hs students most often end up) is 3 days a week for 50 min or twice a week for 75 min. No 90 minute classes. </p>
<p>I think the key difference is in the amount of homework and independent learning expected between hs and college. Not sure why meeting every other day was supposed to better prepare them! On the bright side, the change is new this year, so d’14 only had one year of it.</p>
<p>Hmm. I think I had a lot of 90 minute courses in college, and a couple that met once a week for 3 hours.</p>
<p>Our HS sounded like they were considering block scheduling when I was in school, and the kids were begging for it, but they didnt try it. Trying to balance six courses at once with nightly homework and reading for each class wasn’t an easy thing to do. I just didn’t do a lot of things I was supposed to.</p>
<p>Our school district has a mostly block schedule - all classes meet on Monday, with Tues/Thurs being the same block classes, and Wed/Fri being the same. The teachers like having the longer, more concentrated times twice a week. It certainly keeps it interesting as a parent to try to remember which classes they are having that day!</p>
<p>We are on an A B block schedule. Four 90 minute blocks each day, alternating days, so 8 blocks in all. I think it’s way better than the 4 blocks per semester schedule.</p>
<p>What I don’t like is that the A B schedule constrains how the school offers electives. I wish they’d split one of the blocks so that kids could explore elective interests without making the 90 minute all-year commitment. That could easily be solved with semester-long electives or by subdividing some of the blocks into 42 minute periods, but it’s not happening at our school.</p>
<p>I’ve always been curious about block scheduling. We do not use it, but it has been discussed for years. We have a nine period day with each period being 42 minutes. Our previous principal described the students as hamsters on a wheel, not being about to get off. They move from class to class and some even opt out of lunch so they can actually take 9 classes. The idea of having class every other day is appealing, thereby giving the teacher a block of time for teaching and the students only need to prepare for half as many classes each day. I wish they would give it a try.</p>
<p>When my kids started high school, it was the A day/B day. The kids liked it because it gave them two nights to get the homework done! They modified the schedule for some AP classes. S1 took AP Bio. in his senior year. The AP Bio class was double blocked…met every day for 90 minutes throughout the whole school year. So that year they only earned 7 credits instead of 8 which was not really a prob. since they only needed 28 credits to graduate.</p>
<p>The next year the school system changed to having 4 classes each semester. I heard the reasoning behind it was that it would help struggling students and up the graduation rate in the school system… So if they failed Algebra or some other course required for graduation in the Fall semester, they could immediately retake it in the spring and still graduate on time.</p>
<p>Our school has 4 classes per day. My daughter just finished the AP Gov class in December, but she won’t take the exam until May. There is no way she will remember everything she needs to. My son had AP English and History combined so he took the classes all year long. They would go to English one day and then history the next. On Fridays, they divided the block in half and visited both classes.</p>
<p>Familyof5, that AP Gov example is what I mean by not getting why schools do that. I have a friend in California who was always complaining about that system.</p>
<p>@packmom, there is no reason to force everyone onto an undesireable 4 block semester system just to help seniors struggling to graduate. It’s always possible to double-block any class, offering it every day for one semester instead of every other day for the year. In fact, our school does offer a few classes like this. The standard or remedial-level classes which are required for graduation and enrolling students at risk could be offered in that format, while letting the rest of the students take classes on an overall much better schedule.</p>
<p>Our high school currently has an 8 period day. All periods are 50 minutes long. One period must be gym (state of Illinois requirement) and one period must be lunch. So most students take either 5 or 6 classes plus gym, and all classes are held every day. The top students tend to take 5 core classes and an elective (and kids who are taking AP science classes either give up half of a lunch period or start school half an hour early because those classes are a period and a half). Other students take 5 core classes or 4 core classes and an elective and have a study hall. I personally hate the phys ed requirement, as my D is in excellent physical shape and gets plenty of exercise without being forced to take gym at school. She is in orchestra, so that is her elective - the only one she has room for in the 6 available periods. She would like to take an art elective, but because of the gym requirement would have to drop either orchestra or a core class to do so. </p>
<p>All of that said, the HS is currently looking into block scheduling. I think the main reason is to allow kids to take more electives, although I’m not sure how that will work. No decisions have been made yet, and I haven’t h eard anything about what types of block schedules are being considered, when it would be implemented, etc. No matter what schedule there is, it will be reflected in the school profile so that colleges will know how the school day works. I’m hoping that the darned gym class will be greatly shortened as part of block scheduling, but I’ve never looked into what the state requirement for length of gym class is.</p>
<p>@beth’s mom. 50 minutes of gym sounds wonderful to me. Shortened? Our gym classes are 90 minutes long! In practice that’s 30 minutes of actual exercise (if that much) and an hour utterly and completely wasted.</p>
<p>Regarding lunch, we have scheduled lunch periods, about 22 minutes long. There are 4 lunch times. Some kids have to eat lunch at 10:30, that’s only about an hour and 40 minutes after they arrived at school, then it’s 5 long hours from the end of lunch to dismissal. A lot of kids just end up eating in class.</p>
<p>Our school has a 4 period, day 1/day 2 block schedule, and most of the kids love it. There was talk last year of doing away with it, but the kids pushed back and now with a new principal they have postponed it as an agenda item. Our AP classes meet every other day for the whole year, so no problem for the AP exams. Core subjects meet every day for half a year. Electives are every other day for half a year. This gives my D, for this semester, 6 classes in the 8 available blocks. She will have 4 new classes next semester, + the 2 AP classes that are continuing. So 10 classes total in her junior year. One of these may be a study hall (allowed one per year), which is really helpful for the AP students. </p>
<p>We are a small school and there is a lot of creative scheduling that goes on to fit everything in. Our guidance counselors are great with helping them. Sometimes kids can’t get everything they want, but more often than not it works out. Band and chorus are tougher to schedule, but again, with creativity, everyone that really wants them can find a way. I have no idea how kids with 8 periods get all their homework done each night! Both my kids love the ebb and flow of a class schedule that alternates days, and gives them 2 almost completely different semester schedules.</p>
<p>The downside to our block scheduling is having only a half year of math and languages; if you have them the first semester there is a big gap until you start back up the next year, when your foundation can be lost to some degree. This is particularly true if the next year you don’t have that course until 2nd semester. But teachers are prepared for this, and with 90 minute classes they can usually get kids back up to speed in a week or two at the beginning of the semester.</p>
<p>Our kids don’t mind the 90 minute classes and the teachers love having the extra time to enhance their lesson plans, often using it for small group discussions or in-class work (especially for math, and science labs); they can give longer tests with more essays, and they make good use of giving the students library time for their research projects. It’s really a win-win for everyone. And, our middle school has a modified block schedule, so these kids are so used to 90 minute classes that the length of time is not ever really a complaint.</p>