Block Scheduling

[amylevan]

We have new administrators at our high school, and their first new business is to make a change to block scheduling starting with the 23/24 school year. I’m not sure switching to a scheduling format that generally requires more teachers and at a minimum training on teaching strategies for a 90 minute class is the best idea coming out of a pandemic in the worst teacher shortage in history.

We are a small school, graduating classes right around 100 and the schools around us that are block are all 2-3 times the size of us. Anyone successfully implement block in a small school with limited resources/teachers?

I have also heard all the negative impacts on AP classes. Anyone have insight?

 

[DisneyOma]

Actually, our school has gone in the opposite direction, and Block scheduling was so much better for AP classes! There's a lot that can be done in 90 minutes with a group of motivated students. The science AP courses had great blocks of time to do labs, etc. We're struggling to get all the content in with 58 minute classes.

For students with shorter attention spans, 90 minutes can seem to be torture but most of the teachers chunked the block so that it went pretty quickly. Right now we are seeing a drop in grades (could be COVID related though) and a drop in state testing scores since we've gone to a 6 block schedule. We used to have 4.

 

[slo]

The nice thing about block scheduling with longer class periods is kids get time in class to start their homework and have an opportunity to ask their teacher for help (at least this is how it was for both my girls in HS).

 

[martikus]

No ideas from teaching side, but my son loves block scheduling. That way if he gets stuck with a dud teacher it is only one term. Math is a bit hard having it a year apart. He had no issue with AP Geography last year. Yes the pace was fast but having last 3 weeks of term be easy breezy after test was really nice and he could focus on other classes.

 

[MamaMermaid]

I've taught both and prefer 50 min/normal day. Only benefit I found as an AP teacher of block, was a longer time for testing and the ability to simulate more of an AP test like experience.

 

[DisneyOma]

No ideas from teaching side, but my son loves block scheduling. That way if he gets stuck with a dud teacher it is only one term. Math is a bit hard having it a year apart. He had no issue with AP Geography last year. Yes the pace was fast but having last 3 weeks of term be easy breezy after test was really nice and he could focus on other classes.

We have 4 quarters - some math classes are all year, some are two quarters. Most of the "elective" classes, like art, gym, music, tech, were a quarter long for block scheduling. How long is a term?

 

[abdmom]

We have new administrators at our high school, and their first new business is to make a change to block scheduling starting with the 23/24 school year. I’m not sure switching to a scheduling format that generally requires more teachers and at a minimum training on teaching strategies for a 90 minute class is the best idea coming out of a pandemic in the worst teacher shortage in history.

We are a small school, graduating classes right around 100 and the schools around us that are block are all 2-3 times the size of us. Anyone successfully implement block in a small school with limited resources/teachers?

I have also heard all the negative impacts on AP classes. Anyone have insight?

I'm a long time teacher and have designed new school schedules in the past. Block scheduling does not require more teachers or require more training. It actually simplifies scheduling.

There's no teacher shortage. There's a teacher salary shortage.

 

[cvjw]

Both my boys had block scheduling. Worked for them. Only had to take a class for one semester and you were done with it. Totally new classes the next semester. With block scheduling, you only have a possibility of 4 classes with homework/projects at one time. With regular scheduling, you could have homework/projects in 8 classes per night. My nephew had regular scheduling and took all AP classes. It was a struggle juggling them all at one time.

Not sure why you would need more teachers for block scheduling.

 

[monsterkitty]

There are different ways to do block scheduling. Some schools do the same 4 classes every day for a semester and then switch. Others do an A/B block schedule, where they have 4 classes on M/W, 4 different classes T/TH, and a modified schedule of all classes on Friday (or a variation of this).

Test scores take a nosedive if a school does the 4 classes every day for a semester and then switch at semester. Can you imagine taking state math tests when you've only had that grade level math for a few months or if you haven't had math in a few months? If your principal is pushing for this model, push back.

A/B schedule is a better choice if you have to do block scheduling because at least you will see the students every other day. It does stink for planning because you then only get a planning period every other day. Yes, it's 90 minutes, but if you have to cover classes during your planning period due to lack of subs, it's hard to catch up on planning.

 

[monsterkitty]

I'm a long time teacher and have designed new school schedules in the past. Block scheduling does not require more teachers or require more training. It actually simplifies scheduling.

There's no teacher shortage. There's a teacher salary shortage.

There is a teacher shortage because fewer high school graduates are going into education as they enter college. This isn't just caused by a teacher salary shortage.

 

[mjkacmom]

Our school went with a waterfall block schedule, same classes all year, but longer/fewer classes every day. They also changed lunch to one hour all at once (they have open lunch). Before block scheduling my kids never took lunch and took a class instead. With block they were able to take more classes and have lunch (labs took place at lunch).

 

[mjkacmom]

There is a teacher shortage because fewer high school graduates are going into education as they enter college. This isn't just caused by a teacher salary shortage.

Maybe because they don’t want to spend $100,000 on a poor paying career.

 

[brockash]

We have new administrators at our high school, and their first new business is to make a change to block scheduling starting with the 23/24 school year. I’m not sure switching to a scheduling format that generally requires more teachers and at a minimum training on teaching strategies for a 90 minute class is the best idea coming out of a pandemic in the worst teacher shortage in history.

We are a small school, graduating classes right around 100 and the schools around us that are block are all 2-3 times the size of us. Anyone successfully implement block in a small school with limited resources/teachers?

I have also heard all the negative impacts on AP classes. Anyone have insight?

Hmmm...I'm a school counselor and have worked at a few different high schools throughout the country (military) and I think regular block scheduling like this is generally better for students in high school and preparation for college.

I will say, block scheduling where a student takes certain classes 1st semester and then others 2nd semester (taking math, but not English 1st semester) is more of an issue, as there's such a large gap for students in core classes for 1/2 the year.

The smallest school I've worked in that had block scheduling was around 170ish/class, so not as small as yours, but for the benefits of the students I definitely would say it's worth a shot.

 

[monsterkitty]

Maybe because they don’t want to spend $100,000 on a poor paying career.

It goes beyond the pay. High school students see how teachers are treated as a society and don't really want to deal with that. They also see how education has been devalued and don't want to fight the battles those of us who stayed in education for 30+ years battled.

I feel I was incredibly fortunate to not have to fight the battles I saw other teachers in my subject fight. I had the support of all but one administrator in all of my years, and I had the parents and students. However, those same parents made the lives of other teachers a living hell at times.

 

[Moliphino]

There are different ways to do block scheduling. Some schools do the same 4 classes every day for a semester and then switch. Others do an A/B block schedule, where they have 4 classes on M/W, 4 different classes T/TH, and a modified schedule of all classes on Friday (or a variation of this).

Test scores take a nosedive if a school does the 4 classes every day for a semester and then switch at semester. Can you imagine taking state math tests when you've only had that grade level math for a few months or if you haven't had math in a few months? If your principal is pushing for this model, push back.

A/B schedule is a better choice if you have to do block scheduling because at least you will see the students every other day. It does stink for planning because you then only get a planning period every other day. Yes, it's 90 minutes, but if you have to cover classes during your planning period due to lack of subs, it's hard to catch up on planning.

But the 4 classes per semester is better prep for a college schedule.

 

[Skippy918]

My son’s high school has A/B block scheduling. I hope it works well for him. They tested it when he was in middle school during the 20-21 school year with virtual learning and he didn’t like it. They went back to 8 periods a day at the middle school for his last year.
I know some of the high school classes are double blocked like band, some sports, and other classes. What stinks with that is you lose an elective slot.

there are 3 marking periods each semester. We’re on a 6 week grading cycle.

 

[monsterkitty]

But the 4 classes per semester is better prep for a college schedule.

But not every student goes to college while all students have to take the state tests.

 

[amylevan]

But the 4 classes per semester is better prep for a college schedule.

But you could technically have math the first half of 1 year and not have it again until the second half of the following year right? That doesn’t make sense to me. My college clases built on each other and I took them one after another with no breaks.

 

[Skippy918]

Back in my day, we had an 8 day rotating modular schedule. All days were different and classes were 40mins each except for AP and labs which were 80 mins.

 

[Moliphino]

But you could technically have math the first half of 1 year and not have it again until the second half of the following year right? That doesn’t make sense to me. My college classes built on each other and I took them one after another with no breaks.

You could. My high school only required 3 math classes to graduate, too, so you could go quite some time without one. I took 6, so I had math most semesters.