<p>Can some of you with past knowlege of the pros and cons of a BlOCK SCHEDULE tell me the difference. I read this on an older post and pondering it.</p>
<p>"Schools on block are always one semester away from the test for any fall APs - that's one reason they do badly on the the test."</p>
<p>We are condsidering a school that does a BS.</p>
<p>It depends on the block schedule used.</p>
<p>My kids attend a high school with a block schedule that is an "A,B" schedule. They have half of the classes on day for 90 period "blocks" then have the other half the next day. The switch was made after my daughter's freshman year and it took the teachers a bit of getting used to in terms of homework assignments, in-class time use, etc. But now it seems to be working well, especially for honors and AP classes. One negative, however, is that if your child misses a day due to illness, they actually miss the equivalent of two days of classroom time. If they miss two full school days, they miss four days of classroom time. This makes it VERY difficult for children to catch up if they have to be out for illness or other reasons.</p>
<p>Our local public high school, however, uses a different type of block system, where students take 3 classes one half of the year, then switch to different classes for the second half. While I have heard that this works well in other school districts, it has not been successful in our school district - due to some quirks in the district's finances, kids can and do end up with gaps of up to a year between subjects. (i.e., they take math in the fall of freshman year and then don't get scheduled to take the next math class until the spring of their sophomore year.). This has made subjects like math and languages dicey for many kids, and it has been reflected in the schools test scores and the kids SATs. I mean, kids have enough trouble getting going with a subject after three months off in the summer --- imagine a gap of a year or even six months before you have the subject again. </p>
<p>The absence issue is even more intense under this type of block schedule. The school has actually had to institute make up classes on Saturdays once a month for kids that are absent more than a day.</p>
<p>Another issue is that, the district originally sold the concept to the community by saying that kids would be able to take 8 classes a year, thus including more electives and giving kids a chance to accelerate. Unfortunately, again due to finances, kids are only generally scheduled for three classes a semester, but the school day is still set up for 4 periods. Thus, kids either get out at 12:30, come in at 9:30, or have empty periods that the school dubs "study halls" in the middle of the school day. Unfortunately, the schools says it can't afford to supervise kids during these study hall periods so there have been some issues surrounding what kids actually do with that time. </p>
<p>So, I would ask other parents how the day and schedule has been working for their children. I'd also want to double check test scores and also the gaps in between subjects, especially languages and math.</p>
<p>Carolyn is quite right about the difficulties of block scheduling. However, my daughter is the type that can handle it, and has been able to do well taking APs after a semester away by doing some intense studying. It is also nice to be able to take more classes, since she is very involved in choir. Foreign language can be problematic, due to blocks, but daughter was able to take it as a full-year half block paired with choir. This year, she took Spanish 3 in the fall and Spanish 4 in the spring. Fortunately for my son, who would not do well with block, a new high school is opening next year and it will not be on block, but they will try to offer 0-hour and 8-hour classes for additional credit. (Daughter will continue at block school - they want that class to be able to graduate together)</p>
<p>The interesting thing is that the block high school seems to be drifting to the 7-period schedule as they are starting to offer many more 45-minute full year half blocks.</p>
<p>Our HS is on a 4 by 4 block schedule. Works well for kids who want to take a lot of academics. My oldest managed to finish HS with seven years of science, including two APs. There are no study halls (yet, at least). AP's are one block, all year, so you wind up with twice the class time. They have talked about changing this a few times, but parents complain that the kids won't be ready for the test in May. Neither of my kids liked foreign langage, so they stopped after three years. I don't think it would have mattered if they took it all year and all summer. Math and English are taken three quarters a year for freshman and sophomore year, so there can't be a huge gap in math until junior and senior year. My youngest will take seven blocks of academics next year, including AP english. He has a few academic electives in addition to his core academics. I like the system, my oldest liked it, but a lot of people have problems with the gaps in math and language.</p>
<p>ok, as a recent hs graduate, here's my opinion:
my hs was on block my freshman and soph years w/four 90 min classes one semester and four others the next; we had 7 50-min classes my junior year and had a modified block my senior year (three 50-min year long classes, and 2 90-min ones for the first semester and two others for the next)...this is what i learned...
i found the year long classes to be more convenient for history b/c we didn't have to cover two decades in one week, for english b/c we had the span of a year to develop/improve our writing skills, for math b/c we had longer to build on the skills that we had learned at the beginnng of the year and b/c the last few weeks of my math class required that i remember stuff that we had learned at the beginning of the year, forcing us to remember them; i never had a foreign language class for an entire year, but i would imagine that it would be more helpful than block b/c students have an entire year to build on what they are learning/have learned; i had AP stats on block this year fall semester and found it highly inconvenient when the ap test had come and i couldn't remember anything i had learned</p>
<p>i was originally against the seven year-long classes and wrote an article in our local newspaper advocating the block schedule, but now i must say that i'm delighted to have experienced the year-long schedule</p>
<p>i think which school you choose will mostly depend on your daughter/son, but i personally would pick, if all other factors are the same, the school w/o the block schedule</p>
<p>Our public HS is on a modified block schedule. MTF are regular 7 single period days-6 classes + 1 period split between lunch and advisory. W they have double periods of 3 classes + lunch/adv. and Th they have double periods of the other 3 classes + lunch/adv. Teachers do labs and extended lessons on the double block days. It seems to work out fine and gives teachers some flexibility.</p>
<p>My school had a block schedule where we only meet one class 4 times a week. 3 classes 50 minutes long and 1 class 70 minutes long. Some teachers liked it because that 1-70 minute class can be dedicated to lab work and exams. And it's also nice to have a break when you realize one class does not meet on Wednesdays but the rest of your classes do. It reminded me of a college schedule somewhat.</p>
<p>How does this work? Are all sciences the 70 minute block? Or, is the first period of the day the long block, regardless of what the class is? Doesn't this make it awefully hard to organize a schedule for each student? I guess I just really don't understand the benefit of having some short classes and some long classes. Schools in my area typically schedule science labs as if they were a separate class, in a time slot adjacent to the academic portion of the class. But all time slots are of an equivalent length; therefore, any subject is available in many time slots throughout the day. (Sorry to be dense!)</p>
<p>My school had what I guess could be called a "Modified Block." We took 6 classes a year (7 if you took a class during zero period) and we would ahve all 6 classes on Monday, Tuesday and Friday for 50 minutes. On Wednesdays we had periods 1, 3, and 5 for 90 minutes and Thursdays we had periods 2, 4 and 6 (and 0) for 90 minutes. I thought it worked pretty well.</p>
<p>I have taught modified block (AB days) and regular claendar. I prefer modified block. Full block is a problem especially if something happens and the kids transfer somewhere else. Plus, they don't always do the next year's work the next semester, and have 6 months off between classes, so they forget a lot. Modified block like we had is terrific. The kids get to take 8 subjects instead of 6 or 7, giving them some flexibility with electives, and in the 1 1/2 hour block, I was able to finish a unit with good flow. There is the argument that the kids lose time from instruction, but I found that by not having to take attendance and keep reviewing every day (10 times in 2 weeks, instead of 5), I more than made up for any lost instructional time. Since the State of TX has increased requirements, and parents are upset their ch won't have enough hours for the electives (athletics, band, etc.,) our district has gone to 7 periods instead of six. The loss of 6 minutes per period has been dramatic! We haven't been able to cover everything we wanted, and they wonder why the TAKS scores aren't as high! There is more homework in all 7 periods now, because of this. We wanted modified block, but it costs more, so the district said no. 7 periods is a disservice to the kids. The nice thing about modified blcok is that the kids have homework in 4 subjects a night, not in 7, and because classes are longer, there is actually a little less homework. When you actually teach these systems, you see the advantages and disadvantages. I teach foreign language, and an issue was that seeing the kids only every other day would be a problem for immersion, but immersion ends every day when that ch leaves my class anyway, so...and with block I have longer to sustain immersion. Plus, with large class sizes, I can get to every student every class period for some oral work, which I cannot do now with shortened periods. This is a disservice to the teachers and the students.</p>
<p>At my son't school you take 4 classes the first semester & 4 classes the second semester. </p>
<p>Drawbacks - you can only take 8 classes per year, if you want to take band or choir you need to use 1 block the first semester & 1 block the 2nd. Needless to say you have to give up a lot if you want to take either of these classes. No study halls. Very hard to schedule classes. Cannot miss school at all. You have much less of a chance of bringing your grade up. Hard to schedule foreign language classes so you don't have to start all over because of a gap.</p>
<p>BIGGEST drawback - ACT/SAT tests. The students are not taking math or english class all year round. Big problem!</p>
<p>Advantages - If you have a bad teacher you are rid of them in one semester. If you are lucky enough that they scheduled your math & english class the second semester then the ACT/SAT is much easier.</p>
<p>Our high school is ditching the 4 x4 next year for a combination of 45 minute and 90 minute classes until they can get all the students off the 4 x 4. </p>
<p>Drawbacks: testing as mentioned above--AP, ACT/SAT and TAKs (state testing) issues for the advanced students and the remedial students. Also, it was costing the district more money to implement. Elective blocks for year round activities like band or cheerleading ate up too much time.</p>
<p>Advantages: students who fail classes the first semester can retake them. If you high school is deep in certain classes you can take more of them if you double up. (Span 1/Span 2 for example in one years' time)</p>
<p>I would have preferred a modified A/B block. My son was fortunate to get the "experimental" A/B US History AP and English III AP. He scored 5s in both, as opposed to my oldest who had fives in the spring classes and 4s in the fall classes. All the 5s for those classes came out of the A/B block.</p>
<p>Evitajar brought up a very good point about the problem of transferring. D. has a friend who had to chance schools in the middle of the school year when her dad was temporarily transferred. The new school district did not want to put her into English and math in the middle of the year but did with the understanding that she would have to go to summer school to finish the full year. Mucho problems.</p>
<p>I think our local public's block system would work OK if it really were a 4X4 block, but since the kids end up with only 3 classes and a 4th "free period" it causes all sorts of problems in terms of transportation, etc. </p>
<p>I do like the A/B block. Although the first year the teachers seemed to pile on the homework a bit too much, this year things have been much smoother and both of my kids seem to do well with scheduling assignments over the two day period.</p>
<p>Our HS has a block schedule like Carolyn's and it was wonderful. It was more like a college schedule would be-longer class periods on alternate days, It allowed them to participate in evening activities by planning homework ahead of time. And it allowed teachers to put together more creative lesson plans.</p>
<p>And because classes were on alternate days, they ended up in June to coincide with the May AP test dates.</p>
<p>I had no idea there were so many versions of block scheduling out there. At the HS my S attends they are on what's referred to by school staff as a rotating block schedule. They have 7 classes/subjects and a seminar (used by some to get an extra class, especially an AP online; get extra help; tutor others; etc.). The classes are assigned numbers 1-8. On Blue day you have classes 1-4 and on Red day you have classes 5-8. Seminar is class 8 for everybody. Blue and Red (the school colors) days alternate. Classes are a year or semester in length depending on what the class is. Kids are enrolled in their AP class when the tests roll around so that is a plus for the kids. Because the seminar period is the same for everyone and each teacher has a seminar supervision is not a problem. Kids at the HS are required to have classes for all eight periods unless they seek and are granted special permission. It is pretty unusual at S's HS to have kids that aren't enrolled full-time. </p>
<p>The draw back of our version of block scheduling is that we do have some kids get caught up in the system if they come from school's with different scheduling. Because we are a Department of Defense school overseas about a 1/3 of our kids turn over every year so it is something the HS works hard to take into account for the sake of the kids.</p>
<p>Can't stand our HS 4 x 4 block schedule. 4 90 minute classes first semester, 4 90 minute ones second semester. APs are for one semester, not two. So if you have Euro in the fall, you will see the AP test for it in May. Son took 8 AP exams this year (11th grade) and the review for the exams and the shortened time Jan-April for AP Calc BC, Chem just sucks (his words). I also have a son in resouce classes and the 4 x 4 block sucks for him as well. Daughter (senior this year), had a crazy scedule due to art, architecture, science, foreign language and band courses. We as a family saw absolutely no benefit to the schedule.</p>
<p>Every single one of my kiddo's teachers DEPLORES the 4x4 block schedule. For a multitude of reasons. And the teachers range for special education specialists, to honors and department chairs. Several adjunct professors from nearby universities also teach part-time and they dislike the 4x4 in a high school setting.</p>
<p>So yes, DD will graduate with 6 sciences, 5 maths, 4 years of 2 seperate foreign languages including latin and she hated her daily schedule. I mean detest. Younger son will have 7 more APs next year with some college courses thrown in....he is not looking forward to it at all.</p>
<p>UGH! I can't stand 4 x 4 block!!!!</p>
<p>Kat</p>
<p>I like the 4X4 block system a lot. It gives you far less homework because you only have 4 classes (as opposed to 7 or 8), so you can take a tougher course load, and you can actually fit in one more class per year than under a traditional schedule. APs can be a bit of a pain, but most teachers give fall kids catch-up study sessions and review guides in April, so it's not impossible by in means. Also, it allowed me to complete 5 years of Japanese in three years time and to go beyond the available courses with JVI next year. The long blocks allow teachers to give longer, AP-style tests and do more in depth activities (For example, we were about to watch, review, and summarize an hour long drama in one class perouid for Japanese. All and all, I think its probably the best scheduling option.</p>
<p>I was on the A, B or alternating block schedule on JHS and really didn't care for it. While it did give you an extra day for homework, it had a lot of problems. After a long break, it was often hard to remember what day it was, so you would bring all your books to avoid a problem. Math teachers had to cram two days' worth of lessons into one block, and thus students generally had more homework and understood the material less. You had homework, tests, and projects for eight classes, which could get tough. The teachers seemed to lose track of where each class was by the time they met again. It seemed like one huge mess with few benefits for either teachers or students.</p>
<p>
[quote]
My kids attend a high school with a block schedule that is an "A,B" schedule. They have half of the classes on day for 90 period "blocks" then have the other half the next day.
[/quote]
</p>
<p>My sons have the exact same thing. It's our first experience with a block schedule-school. I can't believe there are schools that do the blocks in semesters. I would think that would really suck!</p>
<p>The "A,B" day seems to work well here. The only problem (which we haven't personally encountered) is if a student wants to take a class only offered at another HS within the district. Example, if S were to take 4th year Latin, he'd have to go to another HS in our district for that particular class, but it really wouldn't work since we are the only school on a block schedule.</p>
<p>I am writing from a student's perspective, SMOMB is my mother.</p>
<p>I currently am a senior at a large public high school is California that has four periods in the fall and four periods in the spring. Block schedule is the best. It has allowed me to take two math courses in a year as well as two foreign language courses in a year. I also have friends that took regular chemistry in the fall and then ap chemistry in the spring. In addition, if you want to take courses at a local college, because most colleges are on the semester system as well, it makes the task much easier. Our city also has schools that are not on the block and every year I am contacted by a few parents of incoming freshman asking me if they should go to my school with block or one of the other schools without it. Of course I have a bit of a bias, but the block system makes classes a lot easier. Besides the aforementioned bonuses of the block, it makes it easier to concentrate on a few subjects at a time. With fewer classes, more of your day is devoted to a single class. Sports are also made easier because we start them earlier in the day and hence get more practice. Also, not as much time is wasted taking role or going over the homework. An entire lesson can be taught in a day, unlike in a 50 minute class. Science teachers love it because they can finish an entire lab in a single 90 minute class period. </p>
<p>The only drawback of block scheduling as far as I have noticed is AP tests in May. If you take the class in the fall, you forget the material. If you take the class in the spring, you don't finish the material. At my school, all AP teachers are required to hold review sessions for the tests during April and May and if you attend these, you are pretty well reminded of all the material before the test date. For those that take the class in the spring, we just go at a little bit of an accelerated pace. We still finish the material, we just work a little harder. No problem.</p>
<p>I think your child will grow to love the block system. It makes everything a lot easier. My family has been quite successful. Out of the three kids: one to Berkeley, one to Yale, and one to Harvard. The block has not hurt us or any of the other kids at school. We all love it.</p>
<p>Again, I think the 4X4 system can work if properly implemented. That's a big "if" however, and not all schools are successful at implementing it. So, as I said above, ask lots of questions: are ALL kids guaranteed 4 classes each term or does it work out to 3 per term for most kids, how are AP classes run, how does the school handle absences, etc. But then, I think you should ask lots of questions about ANY school, not just block schools. :)</p>