<p>S1 is a senior, so this isn't an issue for him, but S2 is a freshman in a magnet IB school. For the past several years they have used A/B block scheduling. The kids have 4 classes MTWH, but Friday is a half day, also with 4 classes, just shorter. Friday afternoon is plan and meeting time for teachers, and a lot of kids use it for band, athletics practice, and other ECs. Out of their 8 class periods, they all have one "access hour" at the same time. This is used for test prep, participating in something that they can't fit into their schedule (band won't fit for IB diploma kids but they can participate during access hour as an EC), test make up, group projects, or study. It has worked very well. Also, for IB diploma kids, they did Theory of Knowledge(TOK) during access hour for one semester junior and senior year. For some reason, which hasn't been made clear, the school was told by the district to change the schedule. It was mentioned that with the new schedule, their will be 15 more "contact hours." They had a committee, with no kids or parents, that has chosen a schedule with M-W 7 classes per day and H-F with block for two days, but they have done away with access hour. Friday is still half a day. They had a meeting to discuss with parents and students and it got a big thumbs down from all parents and students who attended. Objections include not having the time to go in depth for classes, including labs. Athletes and IB students like having their classes split between two days because they don't have homework in all classes each day. Kids taking MWF college classes will have scheduling issues. With block, they had enough time to get back and forth and the college class schedule followed the every other day HS schedule. The committee has not decided when they would have TOK - they have mentioned before school, which would be a disaster, since school starts at 7:30, after school, which would mean the kids couldn't do their ECs, during their 30 minute lunch, or Friday afternoon. Have any of your kids had a similar schedule? How did it work? The parents and kids were all furious, but apparently, this is a done deal. We wanted them to modify the current schedule, but the committee said this was the best plan they could come up with. The answer that really made me angry was, "The kids of all of you here are achievers. They'll do well whatever schedule they have."</p>
<p>I can’t get over having Friday afternoons off!</p>
<p>Our sons attend school out of district. Our home district has no school AT ALL on Fridays as a cost cutting measure. Not crazy about that at all.</p>
<p>All of Friday afternoon plus the “access” hour seems like an awful lot of free time during the school day. Perhaps they found they weren’t meeting minimum “contact time” requirements? As far as not going in depth, there is an issue there, but you will still have weekly blocks for labs etc. I think sometimes the material simply expands to fill the available time and that 1.5 hours is often too long for most kids to maintain focus, and also often efficiency suffers because the kids really need need the break of doing homework problems or reading after a lesson before they are ready for the next lesson. My own high school had 50 minute periods and yet somehow they managed to teach calculus, very successfully, in less than half the contact time my kids’ school requires using a 1.5 hour block format. You are right about the college scheduling. We are on straight A/B and my daughter had to take 2 study halls to enroll in 1 college class because the high school classes shifted between MWF to TTh every week. You may be able to accomplish the same thing you used to do with 2 study halls.</p>
<p>My kids’ HS has a similar schedule with odd/even blocks on Wednesday and Thursday and all 8 class periods M, T, F. There are no half days in the schedule. It works well and the kids have liked it over the years. 2 of my kids attended a charter school for a couple of years that used the 4 block days / one singles day model. Although they liked the idea of homework due for only half of their classes on most days, I’m not sure that after experiencing both types of schedules they would say they prefer one over the other. </p>
<p>My DD did an IB Diploma and I know one of her classes had to meet during lunch once a week.</p>