Our school double blocks AP sciences & calculus, is this common?

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1

<p>Son's private high school double blocks all AP science classes and AP calculus classes, which limits the number of AP's a student can take a year and doesn't make it possible to take all the AP sciences because they only offer two a year on a rotating schedule and you have to have the prerequisite for each science, except AP Environmental Science (which is still double blocked)and prerequisites for AP calculus math, so depending on which ones you want to take and what's offered the year you start 9th grade, most students can only take one science, at the most two.</p>

<p>For example, all freshmen take biology 9th grade, either Pre-AP or what we call CP (college prep level) which I think is just the regular high school level class, it's supposed to prepare you to take the class at when you're in college w/no remedial class required. </p>

<p>So son took pre-AP biology in 9th. Then 10th grade rolled around, only AP Physics and AP Chemistry were offered. He couldn't take either because he didn't have the prereqs so son took Pre-AP Chemistry, the standard 10th grade AP prereq course. Come junior year he could have done AP Biology or AP Chemistry, but then he wouldn't have been able to do AP Physics the next year because he wouldn't have the prereq and physics was his primary interest. So he took Pre-AP physics in junior year. I thought he could do both AP Chemistry and AP Physics senior year since that's where they fell in the rotation, but due to the double blocking and the need to fit in AP Calculus and AP English, it couldn't work, so he's doing AP Physics. </p>

<p>Of course w/only about 200 students in high school, that does mean there is only one section of each science offered a year, which probably exacerbates the problem but I assumed double blocking was the way AP science and math classes were done, but it must not be, because I've reading of kids who are taking 5 or 6 AP's their senior year and that's not possible if they're double blocked. </p>

<p>I'm assuming that our school notes this in the profile, because if they don't it looks like my son is not taking a full course load his senior year when he really is. He's doing AP calculus, AP Physics, AP English, Theology (a required senior class) and a self study AP computer science class (we lost our computer science teacher and since only my son and one other senior had taken the 3 yrs of prior programming classes to qualify they couldn't justify hiring a teacher for one class for 2 students so they are paying for the self-study course. (the fact that our top school now offers no programming classes and the only computer class available is BCIS is a topic for another thread). This I know for a fact was mentioned in my son's guidance counselor recommendation letter. But on the surface if you didn't know about the double blocking you'd think he was only taking 5 out of the possible 8 period day. </p>

<p>Is this unusual? It wasn't always this way, I think it started fall 2007, the school felt that in order to teach the classes the way they should be taught in the depth that should be covered, they needed a double class period. It seems to be working, they're not struggling with placing out of the first year classes in college, AP & SAT 2 scores are on the high side, but I wonder if our kids are being penalized for number of classes. </p>

<p>Thoughts?</p>

2

<p>High school class periods at our large public high school are 47 minutes, 4 days a week; and 32 minutes on the early release day (to allow for teacher meetings/training). Only AP Biology and AP Chemistry are longer than the standard classes. They are blocked with a student’s lunch period. However, only 1/2 of the lunch period is officially being used for class. My son says he has time to eat every day and sometimes the students are not required to be in class during the 1/2 period time. There are math and previous science reqs to take these AP classes and the student has to be a junior or senior. The highest band, orchestra and chorus classes (all audition for admittance) are also required to be blocked with lunch. Since many of the academically talented kids are also involved with music, this does limit the number of AP classes that a student can take as well as the required 4 years of PE.</p>

3

<p>Our school district high schools have block schedules - this means they have four classes a day for 90 minutes each. AP Pysics and AP BC Calculus are offered and are considered 2 credits…that means students take each of these classes all year round for 90 minutes. This only allows 2 other classes per semester so you have to pretty much have all your district required classes completed and/or take now other electives to fit these classes in. S1 took both his senior year and received a 5 on the tests. However, his state school only accepted his Calculus BC credit (he started in Calculus 3) and made him do his Physics over since he is in the honors engineering program. If you have an idea of what college you might attend, I would maybe look at their AP policies to make sure they accept the credits before putting in the time and effort.</p>

4

<p>Only AP Sciences are blocked for us so AP Bio, AP Physics B and C, AP Chemistry. Only AP Environmental is a one period class. </p>

<p>Didn’t know schools did blocked schedules for AP math.</p>

5

<p>Back in ancient times when I was in high school, about 8% of the students were a grade level ahead in math, and took AP Calculus in senior year (at the time, maybe one student every few years was two grades ahead in math and took AP Calculus in junior year). Only BC was offered at that time (though some students probably dropped down to AB when signing up for the AP test). The course was taught within a standard period, the same as any other math course. And the good students got scores of 5 on the AP Calculus BC test.</p>

<p>The only AP science offered at the school at the time was Chemistry. That was a one semester course offered to students who had completed the regular high school chemistry course.</p>

<p>A school that made the AP courses double class time should be enriching them with extra theory or something like that to make the extra time worth something. But if they are doing that because they are pushing students who are not really ready for AP-level courses into AP courses, that is a disservice to those who really are ready for them. (The same goes for schools that force students who are two grades ahead in math to take AP Calculus AB one year and then AP Calculus BC the next, instead of having a one year AP Calculus BC course.)</p>

6

<p>In our school district, students takes either AB or BC Calc depending on the grade earned in Honors Pre-Calc. Neither class is blocked. Kids who successfully complete BC Calc junior year can take an on-line Calc III class supervised by one of our school’s teachers (but graded by the university professor) or take AP Stats to get the required 4th year of math in high school. Students are allowed to take AB one year and then BC the next, but next to none choose to do that. The district has just started allowing kids to skip even more math such that they would be in calc as sophomores, but I don’t know how being that far ahead is handled with the state high school math requirement.</p>

7

<p>A student who completes Calculus BC in junior year can take multivariable calculus, linear algebra, and differential equations at a community college to complete the freshman and sophomore math requirements for pretty much any major.</p>

<p>Completing calculus even earlier gives diminishing returns, as completing the college/university sophomore math at community college exhausts the math courses available. However, it may be worth it for the student to enroll in calculus-based statistics or physics for science and engineering at a community college, if s/he intends to do a major that could use those courses.</p>

<p>As far as high school math requirements go for high school graduation or university admissions, it would be better to specify them in terms of the level of math course completed. The same goes for foreign language.</p>

8

<p>It’s very interesting all the many ways there are to schedule classes. Our school double blocks AP sciences for enrichment purposes. A few years back, our science teachers made the case that the AP level classes needed more hands-on, lab work, research etc… (school property contains some kind of protected wetland that has to be monitored, construction projects limited and approved, etc… that kind of stuff that our biology, Environmental science does, probably chemistry… Physics, according to son they do all kinds of neat stuff. Then once they’ve mastered the concept, they adapt the activities or labs and buddy up with the lower school science enrichment and in effect teach the concept to the younger kids. The theory being, you can’t teach what you don’t understand yourself. Calculus, I’m not sure as the math is beyond me. </p>

<p>There’s only one period of AP calculus, has a few juniors, and the seniors, it’s the larger of his AP classes, about 17 students. They use a brand new 2010 multi-variable calculus book, don’t even like to think about what it cost (and I’ll be truthful and say I have no idea what that means)plus some older texts that the teacher has. The school is quite good about advancing those students who are ready and interested and resisting the parents who push their students into classes they can’t handle. They’ll let you sign an exception to the pre-reg grade & test score one time, but if the student can’t make the grade/score that time, the parent can’t request for them to continue in the AP track. This keeps a student from being pushed too hard into an area they’re not suited for and keeps the teacher from having to slow down the class for just one or two students. </p>

<p>I’ve asked son if it’s AB or BC and according to him and the form he brought home, they can test for both. Those doing it as juniors will have the statistics option as senior if they do choose. This is new, and the first year they’ve had juniors in the class. Because our kids are limited in the number of APs they can do, the ones in the calculus are according to son, not only good in math, but also enjoy it. No idea how they’ll do on the AP test, we haven’t offered the class but for a few years, before they brought in a dual/credit teacher from the local junior college, but weren’t completely pleased with that, so we’ve only got a few years of history.</p>

9

<p>Classes at our school are 50 minutes long, all five days of the week. This makes it really hard to make the most out of AP classes, and in classes like AP Bio (which was the case with me last year), the teachers often are unable to fit the entire curriculum into the time allotted in the school year. I remember my AP Bio teacher always telling us about how she was begging the school admins to let her have block AP Bio periods (meaning it would be two back-to- back periods instead of just one), and they never let her; the reason being that they want as many people taking AP classes as possible for increased funding and such. I guess they finally gave in and let her have it because I saw on the programming sheet that next year, it will be block. There was one or two other classes that are also going to be block, I think it was an AP Physics and something else.</p>

<p>In my opinion, it’s a more effective way to teach the material and students tend to succeed more in a block period. The problem is, when only SOME of the classes are double-blocked and others aren’t, it does indeed limit their class options.</p>

<p>The solution would be to have an ENTIRELY block-scheduled system. That is, have four 1.5-hour classes daily, per semester, with entirely new courses at the middle of the school year. This allows for a total of eight classes per year, which is one more than we currently have, and it’s also more effective.</p>

10

<p>Some schools have a hybrid system where, instead of (for example) a 50-minute class 5 days a week, they schedule it so that every course has 3 50-minute classes and 1 100-minute class per week. Same amount of time, but having a double class time one day and no class one of the other days allows for lab experiments, field study, etc. during the double class time day that would otherwise not be possible.</p>

<p>While a typical high school course has class time similar to the amount of class time in a typical university lecture and discussion course (e.g. English writing or math), lab courses are a different story. While a physics, chemistry, or biology course in university may have four to five hours of lecture and discussion per week, it will typically also have three hours of lab per week, for a total of seven or eight hours of class time per week. If a high school allots only four to five hours per week for the AP course in such a subject, that will be a tight squeeze if the teacher attempts to make it like a real university course in the subject.</p>

11

<p>Our school has “4th Early” and “4th Late”, and everybody has a class for one of those hours and lunch for the other. AP Sciences run over both fourth hours on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, because more time is necessary for labs. This doesn’t take away from the amount of classes we take, but it does take away people’s lunch periods (however, you can usually eat in the class if you’re not doing a lab).</p>

<p>Calculus AB doesn’t have anything special, it’s just a normal class. Calculus BC is only offered seventh hour, and our teacher reserves the right to go over by as much as half an hour on Mondays and Wednesdays, though he has done so rarely lately.</p>

<p>These sorts of things make it advantageous that my school is on the small side. Bigger schools wouldn’t be able to do this sort of thing.</p>

12

<p>Seven periods five days a week. </p>

<p>AP Bio does night labs where the come in every other Monday night to run a full lab from about 6-9</p>

<p>AP Chem (3rd) takes and extra period when needed, meaning that students can have a class after AP Chem but will miss it on lab days</p>

<p>AP Physics does a zero period when needed (it’s 1st period so essentially it’s a double block) </p>

<p>Math is just one period.</p>