<p>My kids' hs has announced it's moving to block scheduling. I'm worried. The school has tremendously high AP scores and SAT II subject test scores, mostly due to a very rigorous thorough curriculum. I've heard block scheduling is much loved by teachers and students alike mostly because they simply don't work as hard, don't cover as much material, use the second half of the long periods for students to do homework and teachers to "prep."</p>
<p>Is this fair criticism?</p>
<p>I think it depends what kind of block
One school in our district had courses compressed into one semester- instead of 6 all year courses- they have 4 half year courses.
That would work fine for AP AMGOV which my daughters school offers as 1/2 year course anyway, but for something like physics or pre-calc, where students need more time to process and learn the material, I think it could be deterimental.</p>
<p>However both her current school and her sisters high school had modified block classes.
Each class has 5 hours a week, but depending on day, could have no class , one hour, or a two hour block.
Most classes except for electives are all year.
This gives more flexibilty to have class speakers- work on labs, have fleid trips, or do more indepth discussions and presentations.</p>
<p>I doubt that students and teachers who produce high test scores, are going to start slacking because of block periods.</p>
<p>I went to a middle school with “normal” scheduling and a high school with block scheduling.</p>
<p>Block scheduling can be a bad thing when teachers aren’t trained to use the time well. If a teacher is used to planning everything in 45-minute chunks and doesn’t adapt to a new 90-minute schedule, then yes, class time will be wasted. But I think most teachers adapt well; as far as I’ve seen my classes cover just as much material as the ones my peers are taking at different schools, and in four years of block scheduling I’ve never had a teacher who used the second half of the class for homework/prep time. (We’ve had the occasional work period, but only when we were doing big projects toward the end of the semester.)</p>
<p>I did find that block scheduling gave the teachers more freedom with their time - we were able to do labs, debates, AV presentations, battle re-enactments, creative projects, and other classroom activities without our time being cut in half. In the sciences and the arts, especially, it’s really valuable to have twice the amount of uninterrupted lab/studio/rehearsal time.</p>
<p>It also benefits students: it’s easier to concentrate and really get into the material when you don’t have to switch gears every 45 minutes. From a practical perspective, it means fewer textbooks and binders to carry around every day. And homework-wise, it gives students two nights to finish assignments instead of just one. If you want to draft something one evening and revise it the next night, you’ve got time. If you start a problem set and really don’t get it, you have an extra day to meet with the teacher and still get it done for the next class. And if you have a concert or a match one evening and don’t have time to do any work at all, it’s not the end of the world - you’ve got an extra night. More time means less stress and higher-quality work.</p>
<p>I have had both. With block scheduling I had much less homework, got 8 credits instead of 7 per year, and was able to get ahead by doubling up on certain classes (geometry first semester, Alg 2 second semester). Traditional is just much more stress, much more homework, and moves much slower. I don’t see how it should affect SATs, but may or may not affect standardized testing(state tests). We were an A school during block scheduling and have yet to see how we’ll do with traditional scheduling. </p>
<p>I want block scheduling back :)</p>
<p>Our school and last school have blocked, but in 2 different ways.</p>
<p>Last school had A/B schedule days for the whole yr. This school does semesters. Both have @1:45 hr in class. (4 classe per day)</p>
<p>In the A/B schedule it allowed the kids the night to get hw, (the next day they didn’t have the class so they could go to the teacher for help) and was more like a college class over a longer perid. College blocks are every other day typically</p>
<p>In our current school they have 1:45 per day every day and complete the course in @ 5 mo. It moves faster and as a parent you need to be on top of it. By the 1st progress report at 4 wks, the student can be so far behind that they feel overwhelmed. It is typical to have a quiz/test weekly. The positive is that they can allow a child who was never classified as gifted to concentrate on core courses back to back and excel. </p>
<p>I am a fan of the block system for hs. I feel that it gets our children ready for college, and makes it an easier transition into college.</p>
<p>I don’t like the kind of block scheduling for high school where you take half your subjects in the first semester and half in the second.</p>
<p>This makes life too difficult for AP classes. Students who take them in the first semester have to remember material for the exam several months after the course ended. Those who take them in the second semester may not have enough time to finish the material. Either way, they lose.</p>
<p>I do agree however, that some teachers just do not have the planning to utilize the whole class period. If you have spent 20 years developing curriculum in 40 min bites, that is a major shift if you have more than twice as long.</p>
<p>My daughter who in middle school was very serious, complained that one teacher spent most of the class time telling stories- Frankly there are some teachers like that. A classroom is a captive audience, and while rapport with students is good- you are not there to do stand-up or to be “liked” , if you are a teacher- you are there to teach.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to get off the subject, many college classes are more than one hour, currently i have one class that is two evenings a week for 3.25 hrs ea night & another class that is 4 hours. BUt.. particularly in my soils class, which has labs, but an awful lot of technical lecture- my brain shuts off at about two hours for overload. I think the instructors’ does as well- as he already taught a lenghty class earlier in the day and has to rush to take a ferry.
It’s probably compounded by the fact that over 50 year old brains just aren’t as elastic as say a 4 year olds ;)</p>
<p>But for the most part- I think it is used wisely.
Many classes- not only the students ahve a hard time getting settled but the teacher does too. Lengthening the class time, reduces that transition- & when you have the class engaged in a great discussion, it is a shame to have to cut it short for PE or lunch</p>
<p>I also feel that if part of the time is used for homework/ less structured- that is ok- the objective is to learn and understand the material & some students may be unlikely to ask questions, unless there is a less structured part of class- where they can ask questions in smaller groups.</p>
<p>One of my major problems in high school was - teachers don’t have office hours- no time to ask them questions unless you stayed after class.
I did often try and stay after class, but the desk was always crowded by more confident and “pushier” kids, I also had another class to rush to.</p>
<p>Actually I like the idea of office hours- teachers have planning time- but if they could have say 20 minutes of each days planning time to talk to students- I wonder if productivity would go up.
I know some teachers already make themselves very available, but some other teachers are impossible to find and get help from.</p>
<p>Agree Marian. 4 x 4 block scheduling is/was one of my kiddos’ biggest complaints of high school.</p>
<p>The AP issue was HUGE. I don’t think it is possible to prepare for AP BC CALC or AP Physics, AP Bio, AP Chem starting in the spring (here end of Jan) and be adequately prepared for AP exams in the beginning of May. Contrast that with students starting the class in August and working of problem sets and labs through May and the curve that is set will not be advantageous to those starting in Jan.</p>
<p>And of course those completing the class in the winter and taking the AP exams 6 months later is just as bad. College classes that meet for an hour and 45 minutes do NOT do so daily, 5 days a week which is what a 4 x 4 block schedule is.</p>
<p>So far had 4 kiddos use this system and they were ALL unhappy with it as were their AP/Honors teachers and the special programs teachers.</p>
<p>Kat</p>
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<p>I’m not quite so sure about that. Our high school has traditional block, which allows it work like a college schedule. They take four classes in the fall, and four in the spring; their final exams for the fall classes are before winter break, so they have a true break without having to return after break to pick up where they were in December, then have exams a week or two after that.</p>
<p>However, when my kids were in math classes, they still had problem sets every night, no matter what math class it was. Usually 25-30 problems per night. Both my daughters doubled up on math in their junior year, taking honors pre-calc in the fall, then AP Calc in the spring, so senior year they didn’t take any math, which they thoroughly enjoyed.</p>
<p>I will say where we’ve seen issues arise that are sometimes difficult to work around are the AP classes. Since AP exams are scheduled in the spring, our high school tries to schedule most of the AP classes in the spring semester so that the students are actually in the class during the term they’re taking the exam, as opposed to taking the AP class in the fall, but not being able to take the exam until spring. D1 decided not to take the AP Psych exam under these conditions because she just didn’t feel prepared after months of not being in the class, and she was studying for APUSH and AP Calc. Remember, they’re covering two days of material in one day.</p>
<p>I agree with teachers needing the proper training on how to teach within a block schedule. I don’t ever recall my kids saying they spent the second half of a class doing homework - their teachers utilized the time well. I also agree that it causes a much less disruptive day, less time wasted between classes changing classrooms, etc. </p>
<p>One more thing… one of our AP classes (I think APUSH) was scheduled over three quarters, meaning the class actually began at mid-term in the fall and continued for the two quarters in the spring. With block scheduling, many electives occur in a nine-week quarter (equivalent to a 18-week semester in traditional scheduling), so kids who were registered for APUSH (only junior and seniors were allowed to register for it) would either take a nine-week elective first term, or have that period free. I think they found that they really needed three full quarters to cover all the material for kids who were taking the exam. Interestingly, the one teacher at our school that teaches it (tenured and lots of seniority) spends too much time (in my opinion, and my kids) talking about the pope, the Catholic church and Ronald Reagan (way before they’d even get to that time period). We often wonder whether his course could be taught in two terms if he’d teach what needed to be covered; he also needed to stop referring to abortion clinics as baby-killing factories; I wanted to complain to the administration sooo bad, but both my kids begged me not to - he has a way of ‘sharing’ stories with his classes of previous parents and students who complained about him. Hopefully he’ll retire soon. (Sorry to hijack the thread on this last part!)</p>
<p>Okay, thanks for the input. I guess the scare stories I’ve been hearing aren’t that valid. I just sort of hate for the school to tamper with what seems to be working. I hear all the time about how well the students are prepared for college work when they graduate. But I’ll try to be open minded. D1 is graduating and she’s the more organized of my kids. D2 is more dreamy - maybe this will be good for her.</p>
<p>My son’s high school used a traditional 7-period day, essentially every class every day. He got to know all of his teachers very well, the classes moved along briskly, there was little time wasted during class. He was very well prepared for advanced college work as soon as he got to campus.</p>
<p>My 10th grade daughter’s high school (same town, different hs) uses an alternating A/B day 90-minute block. Each class is year long, every other day. Every other day there is an open 90 minute block, which students are free to use any way they want, wherever they want. (I’d have to start another thread to go into to my objections about how that is handled.)</p>
<p>The down sides, IMO, to the block schedule outweigh the advantages. The negatives include the fact that many teachers neither can–nor wish to–spend all 90 minutes productively. Many students get restless and bored long before the period is over. Too much time is spent on “group projects”. Students do not see teachers more than 2 or 3 times a week. The total time, over the course of the year, spent on any individual class is up to two weeks less under the block method–there are 8 class periods instead of 7. </p>
<p>There are a couple of advantages, mentioned by previous posters. If my daughter does not fully understand a homework assignment, she has time to seek out the teacher the next day, before the assignment is due. To her credit, my daughter has figured out that she needs to look at the homework the first night it is assigned for this advantage to be utilized. Also, it means teachers CAN, if they want to, make themselves available to students during the school day more than they could in the past. This has been most helpful to my daughter, because a biology teacher comes into her study hall and tutors any student who needs help, including those who are not in her section. Most other teachers, however, retreat to the lounge for their extra break and do class preparation.</p>
<p>All teachers I have spoken with who have taught under both systems say the block gives them more prep time during the school day, but they cover far less material during the course of the year.</p>
<p>No school I know of keeps good enough statistics to be able to compare which system works better. One problem may be that it works better for some types of students than others.</p>
<p>In our previous district, served by only one high school, they moved to block scheduling for certain subjects only (History, English, Sciences). The Math and Foreign Language teachers argued convincingly that their subjects by nature benefited by shorter, daily contacts rather than long time blocks in class. That school and district offered no AP’s. </p>
<p>To test block scheduling in a pilot, the district superintentdent chose the single most creative, innovative English teacher to try it out. Although at first she said she didn’t want to see it come in, after her year with it, she became a gentle spokesperson for it to the rest of the faculty. The issue of redoing lesson plans at the end of a long career loomed large in that school. I taught in the elementary grades there while my own kids were in the high school, so I had a safe ringside seat during the transition. </p>
<p>We moved before I could see it all play out, but I thought the compromise of some subjects unblocked (taught first thing each morning) followed by others blocked made sense.</p>
<p>When there were snow days, however, the block courses took a big hit.</p>
<p>^^^My SIL teaches bio under the alternating day block schedule, and one of her objections is that even a one-day absence can be a problem.</p>
<p>our HS has alternating block (classes every other day all year), and there is plenty of HW in the honors/AP courses - several hours each night. Since classes are all year, subject tests scores are fine.</p>
<p>OTOH, our CP classes seem to be a breeze, but that has nothing to do with the 90 minute class periods, just lighter academics, at our HS.</p>
<p>I sub in a district that has block scheduling. They take 6 classes per semester & have a Seminar class twice a week (kind of like study hall, but kids can go to other teachers to get help if needed). Classes meet 3 times per week (weird schedule, not every other day). All class periods & the Seminar periods are 90 minutes. My observation is that some teachers use the time well, others waste much of the period. I imagine those who waste the period probably wouldn’t be the strongest teachers even with a traditional schedule. </p>
<p>My son’s school went from 6 periods to 7 this year, and the teachers are not happy with the shorter class periods that resulted from the change. They are pushing for block next year. I guess I wouldn’t mind, as long as they don’t try a 4X4. I don’t like that schedule for many of the reasons others have already stated.</p>
<p>D’s school went to 4+4 block scheduling. My perceptions were that:</p>
<p>-they probably covered less, particularly in language classes
-teachers took a while to adjust
-most teachers know that they can’t lecture for 90 minutes, so there is more active learning (not all of it productive)
-more homework in some classes, less in others, but students had to learn to plan longer-term, which made it more similar to college.</p>
<p>On balance, I’d say it was a wash for the kids in college-prep/honors/AP type tracks.</p>
<p>Here’s a site that summarizes research on the advantages and disadvantages of block scheduling very succinctly. The site’s authors are proponents of block scheduling, but present a fairly balanced view. </p>
<p>[BLOCK</a> SCHEDULING: RESEARCH](<a href=“http://coe.winthrop.edu/vawterd/block/research/research.html]BLOCK”>http://coe.winthrop.edu/vawterd/block/research/research.html)</p>
<p>^ Thanks, I hadn’t seen that link.</p>
<p>My kid’s HS has block scheduling - full year’s worth of classes taken in a semester, daily 90 minute periods, with exceptions noted below. They’ve had this schedule now for many years. My overall impression is good. For a parent that has to keep tabs on a kid’s progress it’s great, because you only have to ask about 3-4 classes rather than 6-7. I think the kids and teachers have less time to get sick of each other and the classes seem to stay fresh.</p>
<p>It’s hard to say whether the course coverage is the same, but I suspect the coverage is comparable. The homework load can vary, and can be quite intense if each class assigns tough homework loads on the same night. This is in contrast to the odds of each of 7 classes assigning heavy homework loads on any given night in a regular schedule; the odds of 3 classes doing so are greater. I have seen rare occasions where a teacher gets behind for some reason (illness or weather) and they pile it on to catch up with a significant increase in homework load for that class. Thankfully my kid has been healthy, but I suspect long absences are hard to recover from. But honestly, these seem like quibbles.</p>
<p>There are slight problems. Math continuity - DD is just resuming math now, having had no math since last June. When ACT time comes she’ll only have completed half of this year’s math class. She took two science classes in the fall and will have none this spring; one can have harder/easier semesters with block scheduling.</p>
<p>PE and music classes (band, chorus, etc) run all year long for 45 minutes/day. AP classes are not scheduled in blocks at this school; they get 45 minute periods year long. Apparently they found that the kids weren’t able to absorb the AP material in one semester. The lab science AP classes run all year for 90 minutes/day. Scheduling these blocks and ‘skinnies’ can be tricky.</p>
<p>Overall, I get the sense that more is at stake on any given day in a block system - it’s two normal day’s worth of material - and I think there is less wasted time this way. The only teacher complaint I ever heard was the honors math teacher, who thought he needed the 45 min/day/year schedule, and I will admit that for a kid who gets behind, it’s going to be harder to catch up in a block schedule, but otherwise it’s been good for us and I’m glad they are on a block schedule. Hope it works out for you!</p>
<p>I am a parent in a district which has used block scheduling for many years and am an enthusiastic proponent. And yes, many teachers use the final 15 minutes of the block for assigned homeworks. But that was a good thing because students could ask questions about problems with the assignments and the teacher would have instant feedback and perhaps choose to review a portion of the work covered in the next class session.</p>
<p>HS is all about getting the basics down so that they can succeed in college afterwards. I am of the opinion that the block schedule promoted that. And yes, our AP scores are significantly above the national averages, SAT scores are also reasonably good and all of my son’s friends who are college seniors now are doing very well.</p>
<p>I’ve taught HS with both types. Block is fine if it is utilized correctly. To be honest, the teachers that didn’t use their block time effectively weren’t using their 45 minutes effectively, either. Non-productive projects were being done in both environments to the same extent. The bonus of block is the extended time to do cool stuff from which students learn an awful lot. The downside is adjusting to the pace (teachers, not students - the students had no trouble) and absences. Missing a block day - or a week - is really, really bad. Keep on top of that make-up work.</p>
<p>My graduates said the block helped them adjust to the college schedule better.</p>
<p>As far as AP. Our school only offers AP in spring. Even to take AP Eng or History, you must take honors prior to that, which it is typically your fall class. I.E. Engl IV followed by AP Eng.</p>
<p>IMHO that works great, b/c they have a full yr of English b4 the test</p>