Does your High School have this schedule?

[castleview]

DH's school system is trying to get block scheduling. I didn't know anyone thought life could be better than that.

 

[Magpie]

Our district is proposing what they are calling a 4x4 schedule. High School kids will only take 4 classes each semester, meeting everyday and lasting about 90 minutes each day. So 1st semester they take 4 classes and 2nd semester they take 4 new classes. The material they now cover in one year will be compressed into one semester.

However some classes like AP, IB, ROTC and Band will continue to be year long and will meet on alternate days.

There are A LOT of very unhappy parents and from what I am hearing unhappy teachers too. I have a whole lot of concerns about it. Our kids have the potential to take a math or foreign language class in the first semester as a Freshman and then not take the next level until 2nd semester of their Sophomore year (or even beyond depending on scheduling). I find this ridiculous. And if a kid starts to fall behind, with the pace of the class only taking one semester they may not have time to catch up, there will be no time for review and the teacher will just have to keep moving. I would assume they will be teaching multiple concepts/lessons each day so there will be a whole lot to absorb at one time.

The district is holding parent meetings but for the most part it seems like the decision is made and they are not going to listen to any parent input.

I am interested to hear from anyone who's district does this and how it works and what you and/or your student think of this type of schedule.

*Currently we use a Block Schedule, where they take 7 total classes- three 90ish minute classes held every other day and one shorter class that meets every day.*

My daughter's school has this and we love it. Only having to focus on four classes at a time has meant that she's actually getting all her work done and turned in!

We appreciate not having to split focus between seven or eight different subjects. Plus it makes it easier for kids to schedule in work/study programs.

 

[MrsPete]

We are on a trimester system, classes are 57 minutes long, no homeroom each day and 4 minutes of passing time . We have 7 class periods/day.

180 class days divided equally between three trimesters. 57 minutes x 60 classes = 57 instructional hours per class. I still don't see how student complete a whole class in 57 hours; that's well under the minimum for a Carnegie Unit.

I'm not sure what "passing time" is, but we only have homeroom a few times a year.

I'm sure it means class change time. The time allotted to students to leave 1st period and get to 2nd period. Must be a small campus to have only 4 minutes.

 

[PrincessBelle09]

This makes perfect sense to me. It allows for concentrated focus and better prepares students for a college schedule.

 

[Minnie]

DS's high school has block or 4x4 scheduling. Depending on the course it could either be a semester or quarter course so it's possible to take more than 16 a year.

I am completely in favor of this schedule. It allows the teachers additional instruction time and students time to actually work in class.

 

[Abbie]

Our high school has this too and it has worked well for all three of my kids. Like others have said, it allows them to really focus on the subject at hand and get very in-depth.

Unlike some others, our AP classes are, for the most part, only a semester long, which initially was worrisome if you have a fall AP course since the exams are in the spring. But all of the AP teachers hold after school or Sat. study sessions to brush up for several weeks prior to the exam so it works out fine.

 

[MrsPete]

I am completely in favor of this schedule. It allows the teachers additional instruction time

A 4x4 schedule actually gives LESS instructional time. At my school, it's 15 hours less over the entire course; of course, your details may vary, but since you're not lengthening the school day or the school year and you're fitting in more classes, 4x4 will always provide fewer hours of instructional time.

 

[lovetoscrap]

I guess I am missing how this means being able to go more in depth with the subject. Right now on our current block schedule each class meets for 90 days at approximately 100 minutes each (there is one period that meets daily for 50 minutes so it is 100 minutes over 180 days, so they are equal).

With the proposed 4x4 schedule they will actually meet for 90 days at 90 minutes each (maybe 100 mins, there is also talk of extending the school day). So it is the exact same instructional time, just all compressed into one semester. I can see that they will be able to do the same amount of work, but not more or go more in depth. The material they have to cover doesn't change.

One of the biggest concerns is the fact that kids will have semesters between sequential classes like foreign language, math and science. They have said that will happen. And call me old fashioned but I think students (K-12 )should have Math and English for the entire school year.

The administration is claiming that from a financial standpoint this will be "budget neutral"-- no significant increase or decrease. Since all the research the parents have done seems to contradict this I am not sure where they are getting their numbers.

In our case it really sounds like they aren't going to hire any more teachers, and they claim they won't be getting rid of any either. Their plan for being able to add more advanced classes like in the languages, and for adding more electives is that they will be done online with a Virtual School. If I wanted my kid taking Advanced French online I would pull her out and homeschool her again. I want her in school with a teacher and a class full of her peers, not staring at a computer screen being taught by a machine and supervised by a faceless person that is only available through email. (none of the classes are real time, just computer programs and lessons)

I do see some of the benefits, the 4 classes a day does sound good and having more time for electives, but right now we have been presented a whole lot more negatives than positives. There are a whole lot of really angry parents, and apparently the teachers are not happy either. It does appear though that it doesn't matter how we feel, the admins and school board are just going to do it anyway. I wonder though how the whole process will be affected when the teachers and parents are resisting.

I feel the most sorry for the Guidance Counselors because they are the ones that will be getting an earful when the schedules don't work out right and parents are mad.

 

[MrsPete]

I guess I am missing how this means being able to go more in depth with the subject.

No, you're not missing anything -- I'm certain of it because I've taught under both traditional and block scheduling.

Here's where the disagreement comes in: 50 minutes vs. 90 minutes per class. Yes, the teacher will be able to do more on any one particular day. BUT with fewer class sessions, the class will cover less material over the course of the whole semester. You cannot take away seat time hours and expect to cover more material. It just doesn't make sense.

The administration is claiming that from a financial standpoint this will be "budget neutral"-- no significant increase or decrease. Since all the research the parents have done seems to contradict this I am not sure where they are getting their numbers.

I disagree. The financial savings is the one positive of block scheduling. The textbooks are obvious: If students only need English books for half the year, you only need half as many English books. It's one of those "duh" things.

As for teachers, the numbers just don't work out there either. By law I can teach 33 students at one time. Under traditional scheduling I taught 5 classes, so I could teach a maximum of 165 students each year. With block scheduling I can teach 3 classes in fall, 3 classes in spring -- a total of 6 classes. This means I can teach a total of 198 students per year. Your school may be planning to keep its current teaching staff right now, but if further budget crunches occur, they do have the option of giving each teacher more students (and, let me tell you, class size makes a huge difference in my quality in the classroom).

I feel the most sorry for the Guidance Counselors because they are the ones that will be getting an earful when the schedules don't work out right and parents are mad.

This may be true initially while you're making a change, but they get an earful already. Only the details will change.

 

[torinsmom]

I was not able to read the whole thread, but my son's HS has this schedule. I like that he only has 4 classes to concentrate on at once, but for some classes, it is not good, IMHO. For example, squeezing a HS math into one semester is really pushing it. For kids who are not math whizzes, there is not time to digest the information before the class moves on. My son had to retake algebra and I am concerned he will fail geometry as well. It may be the same number of hours, but it is overload when you already have a math disability.

Two of his classes this year are year long on alternate days. I think that is working better for him.

 

[Tinkerbelle'sMOM]

We do trimesters here too and the kids love it! My daughter is a freshie this year and she is doing so much better than in middle school just do to the fact that she has only 3 "real" classes this tri....honors geometry, french II (she took algebra and french I in middle school), and biology, her other two classes are marching band and gym. Next Tri, she will have band, science, geometry and language arts and french. Her third tri she will have band, science, language arts, gym and an elective of her choice, most likey a field biology or a journalism class, or driver's ed if there is room.

Their freshman and sophmore year are pretty full for the requirements to graduate and then their junior and senior year are more electives and classes to graduate on the college tract.

If the schools set up the block scheduling or trimesters right, the kids really do benefit. To the mom that her daughter is skipping a tri for geometry...they need to fix that, those type of classes are supposed to be consecutive...there is a bug in the scheduling they need to work out. My daughter will still be in geometry, but she will have a different teacher because band moves from the last period of the day to the 4th due to the fact that they don't have to be outside anymore for marching band, and then they move the gym to the last period so they can be outside. She isnt' thrilled as she loves her teacher she has now, but this is how life is going to be in the real world and she needs to learn to adapt. It is a lot of work to set up (several of my friends are teachers and principals and were in the initial planning of it), but it will eventually work out.

 

[golfgal]

We do trimesters here too and the kids love it! My daughter is a freshie this year and she is doing so much better than in middle school just do to the fact that she has only 3 "real" classes this tri....honors geometry, french II (she took algebra and french I in middle school), and biology, her other two classes are marching band and gym. Next Tri, she will have band, science, geometry and language arts and french. Her third tri she will have band, science, language arts, gym and an elective of her choice, most likey a field biology or a journalism class, or driver's ed if there is room.

Their freshman and sophmore year are pretty full for the requirements to graduate and then their junior and senior year are more electives and classes to graduate on the college tract.

If the schools set up the block scheduling or trimesters right, the kids really do benefit. To the mom that her daughter is skipping a tri for geometry...they need to fix that, those type of classes are supposed to be consecutive...there is a bug in the scheduling they need to work out. My daughter will still be in geometry, but she will have a different teacher because band moves from the last period of the day to the 4th due to the fact that they don't have to be outside anymore for marching band, and then they move the gym to the last period so they can be outside. She isnt' thrilled as she loves her teacher she has now, but this is how life is going to be in the real world and she needs to learn to adapt. It is a lot of work to set up (several of my friends are teachers and principals and were in the initial planning of it), but it will eventually work out.

No necessarily on a block schedule. Ideally they will be consecutive but more often then not they are not consecutive. That is the problem with block scheduling. Some friends of ours ran into a problem with their senior with the block scheduling. He did not get into Spanish II-two years of a foreign language are required to graduate and get into most colleges. They just could NOT work it into his schedule with the limited times for classes under a block schedule. He got the requirement waived from the school so he can graduate but only about 1/2 of the schools he was looking at for college would waive that requirement. There can be serious scheduling issues under a block schedule.

 

[marcyinPA]

Our district has had this schedule at the high school level for many years now. We call it Block Scheduling here.

I have mixed feelings about it. My personal experience with my own son has been mixed.

He had a hard time adjusting to it when he started last year. Because they run on semesters, and there are four quarters in each semester, each quarter is SHORT. This means that if you bomb a test, it is very difficult to bring your grade back up. The classes move quickly. If you are not good with a fast pace, you are in trouble. The classes are LONG. If you have trouble maintaining focus, you are in trouble. You may have math (or any other subject) first semester of one year, and then not have it again until second semester of your next year. This could be a problem if you don't retain information well.

The pros: you normally only have two academic classes and electives at a time. It's easier to focus on two academics at once, rather than four. It is also easier for kids who are in Honors classes, as they have less classes to deal with at one time.

I think that's the only pro I can think of. I'm not a huge fan of block scheduling, but it's in place here and doesn't look like it's going anywhere.