Block Schedule

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Block scheduling remodels the traditional school day with seven or eights periods to a school day that has four periods. This four period day might follow either an A/B model or a 4x4 model. The A/B model is a school week that has class periods one through four on one day and class periods five through eight the following day throughout the whole school year. Benefits of the A/B model are to extend school periods for more time for active learning, projects, and curriculum planning. Another model for block is the 4x4 model that meets for only five periods a day identical to the A/B model, but the 4x4 Model class periods meet everyday not every other day. Benefits of the 4x4 model are extended school periods just like the A/B model. However, since the same classes meet everyday, these classes would be completed in only one semester, allowing students to have more electives or allowing students to make up failed classes to keep on track for graduation in one year.

Application in classrooms and similar settings

By reducing the total number of class periods in one day, additional benefits can be gained from a block schedule. One is the reduction of the total number of discipline problems outside of the classroom. Schools operating on block schedule now only have five periods of class therefore reducing the total amount of time spent going between classes between periods. Because there would be fewer periods, there would be fewer opportunities for students to get into trouble in the hallways. Less trouble in the hallways will obviously result in fewer discipline referrals and a safer school climate. Also, a reduction in the total in the total number of class periods would provide an additional positive aspect for both teachers and students. Teachers would only have to prepare for fewer, but longer class periods and in turn, students would have fewer classes to study for and less homework to complete.

What administrator, teacher, student, or parent wouldn’t want a safer school climate or have a less number of classes for less work? A block schedule can provide these easy answers. Unfortunately, a block schedule is not as easy as it appears and problems will arise if both administrators and teachers do not meet certain challenges. Challenges will occur in scheduling both the semester and the class periods, in retention of learning either on a day-to-day basis or on a yearly basis, and in student behaviors inside or outside of the classroom.

A challenge to overcome with block scheduling might occur depending on how guidance counselors, administrators, and teachers plan the student’s day spent in school. A block schedule would create more choices for all students. Guidance counselors and administrators would be able to offer more choices on what classes they might want to take during the school year. Administrators would need to hire more teachers for more student choices in favor of electives.

Guidance councilors and administrators need to plan on a yearly basis far in advance. Teachers must be able to plan on a daily basis and yearly basis as well and for a longer class period with a variety of instructional methods. An important point to remember is to be able to engage students with active learning activities. Active learning provides students the opportunity to actively practice what he/she learned in class and apply recently exposed knowledge to complete projects and activities. These experiences would help students retain what they learn in meaningful ways. In addition, cross curriculum planning and co-teaching would also need to be planned by regular and special education teachers for daily classroom lessons during a common prep in order to provide a curriculum for the needs of all students. Administrators need to help teachers succeed by providing teachers the ability and time allowed to work together by having a common prep time. This common prep would allow all teachers to plan together for lesson plans to include all students.

Evidence of effectiveness

The study reported by the article Block Scheduling an Evaluation of Outcomes and Impact, reported outcomes by teachers, administrators, students, and parents in a study of three schools as the follows:

Teacher interviews · By varying activities between large group assignments, small group assignments, and individual projects, teachers reported that they were able to spend more then half of each class period on activities other then teacher-oriented lecture. · Students seem more settled in class, and there are fewer student behavior problems, resulting in fewer detentions. · The extended time blocks allowed teachers to do more activities and expand on lessons. For example, teachers could present a lesson, show a movie, and conduct a review all in one day. · Students were able to participate in more independent projects and present the results from the projects to their teachers and classmates during class time · In general, teachers spent much more time working with individual students and felt that they know students better. · Because they could cover concepts with more depth, teachers perceived teaching to be more interesting and challenging. Teachers also reported that they could cover the same amount of material, or more, then they could cover under a traditional schedule. · There were fewer projects and papers to grade at one time because teachers had a lighter student load than under the traditional schedule.

Student interviews

· Greater opportunity to take a variety of courses, academic electives, and advanced placement. · More time to work with other students in class; more opportunities for independent projects; and higher teacher expectations for learning. · Fewer classes to focus on and more concentrated assignments and homework. · Class time available for the teacher to answer homework questions. · More time to address difficult assignments comprehensively

Parent interviews

· Seventy-eight minutes are a long time for students to devote to a subject with which they may be struggling. They may become frustrated and lose motivation to work. · Block scheduling has isolated the children because of lack of opportunities for them to interact with one another. There are limited opportunities for students to socialize because they spend less time in the hallways. · With block scheduling there is concern that the students are not being challenged enough in their classes, and this calls into question whether block scheduling provides “tougher�? courses.

Critics and their rationale

Retention is the amount of learning that takes place without students losing the knowledge they have learned or forgetting it over time. When following an A/B block schedule, students may forget information between the days off.

On a 4x4 model, students meet everyday for a semester, but might not be tested on a state or district test until the end of the following semester. Especially with testing being tied with No Child Left Behind. Students might forget some information during the off semester. To overcome this problem, teachers need to change the way they present material and to team teach using strategies, and also to develop curriculum to help students better retain information. Administrators need to help train or find workshops in order to train teachers to make better lesson plans under a block schedule for the retention of knowledge. In addition, for more training for teachers, administrators need to support and schedule a common prep time for teachers to get together for planning.

Within the classroom, teachers need to plan for a longer class period. A student’s attention span tends to be about 20 minutes on any one particular topic or activity. Teachers need to plan different activities during the class period to give students different activities to keep them actively engaged and involved with the lesson. Regular educators especially need to communicate and plan lessons with special educators in order to make lessons accommodate the needs of all students in the classroom. Students with ADHD, poor organization skills, and memory problems require lessons tailored to their needs to keep them actively occupied with the lesson. Regular educators and special educators as well need to communicate often about a student’s needs with the intention of facilitating the student with additional time, practice, help, and organization during the student’s resource class. Administrators need to schedule a common prep time for both the regular and special educators, which will help, make team teaching more successful.

Absenteeism is an outside classroom behavior that has an impact on any school schedule. Nevertheless, absenteeism is a larger problem for students due to the fact that if a student misses one day, it would be the equivalent of misses two days. Students with medical problems or truancy problems would miss a great deal more of instruction time with a block schedule. Teachers and administrators need to communicate often with students and parents to keep them informed. Communication is the key in this situation and would aid the student by enabling him/her to catch up with missed lessons and work.

Foreign languages would also we greatly affected. Foreign language teachers need a whole year to teach a language because retention is very difficult in learning a new lesson. Some languages are very difficult and students need time to practice speaking and learning with one another. Can one imagine learning German 1 and German 2 all in one year!

Alternative explanations due to Diversity or Otherconsiderations

According to the article Going on the Block, scheduling was harder for students in self-contained classes. The needs of the students with disabilities, whom could not be met in the regular education or inclusion classes, who need to be placed into self-contained class which would only be offered on a limited basis due to the lack of the number of classes offered and what period of the day the class was offered because of scheduling. For example, if a self-contained history and English class was offered third period only and the student needed both classes to graduate, the student would only have the option of taking one class or the other class. This would obviously cause scheduling nightmares for guidance counselors, special education teachers, and students. This challenge could have been easily averted with team planning by administrators, guidance councilors, and special education teachers.

A change from a traditional schedule to a block schedule must be thoroughly planned on a four-year basis and not a year-by-year basis. The needs of the students must not be passed over in a hurried attempt to quickly change to block for its proposed promises. Classes need to be well timed for students with disabilities to graduate on time and with their peers.

Signed "life experiences", testimonies and stories

If you want to kill you music program within a couple of years, go to the block schedule. If you want to save a program from the block schedule go to this site Block schedules and Music Programs - Brandon Correa

I currently teach physical education in a 8 block system. One advantage of this system is that the students actually have a chance to warm-up, play an activity, and have time to take a good shower at the end of class. We also utilize text books as part of the class to have students learn about what we are trying to teach them. After using the text book during a period we still have time for physical participation. I believe the 8 block system is good for physical education. -

My high school was on a modified 4x4 block, where we only had 4 classes a day with a resource period where students could visit teachers and the like every week. Personally I enjoyed having a block schedule for my music classes. I had band rehersal every day for 90 minutes. Coming from a middle school that was a normal schedule I loved having a much longer band rehersal period, it felt like more was accomplished when the whole band could sit down and practice together for extended periods of time. As far as the rest of my classes were concerned, classes like math could become boring rather quickly, but the 90 minute periods allowed science classes to explore more in depth labs that would otherwise be unavailable in a normal schedule. I liked my block schedule school, it was a very unique experience with a schedule that CAN work if implemented properly. Matt Munley

I am a choral director who teaches on an alternating day block schedule. According to the available research on block scheduling the students are achieving greater heights and being allowed to accomplish more in the regular education classrooms. It is the position of many music educators though that the longer period, but lack of repetative practice for students is detrimental to the music programs that function on block scheduling. I, on the other hand, have only ever known block scheduling as a choral director and have found many positives of this type of scheduling for the music program. I also believe that the way the schedule is set up can be the beginning or the end of any co-curricular class. --Chris Royer--

I, as a band and choir director at the high school level have mixed feelings for the Block Schedule. I currently also teach in an alternating A-B school. For the marching band it seems to be very helpful to be able to use the full 80-90 minutes to get the equipment outside, begin rehearsal and have a full rehearsal. On the other hand the repatition that Chris brings up is key for the younger students who have not learned good practice habits. I grew up in a 9 period school where we still had rehearsal outside and brought everything outside and back inside in that small amount of time. It was just something we did. To me, it worked better because of the repeated daily rehearsals than what I see at my school and neighboring districts. For the choral ensembles, it the shorter amount of time is nice also for the sake of singing. Yes we do other activities, music theory, history and other topics, but since I require my students to memorize the music, many do not take the music home, and therefore it takes twice as long to memorize when you do not sing everyday. As I said before, it is mixed feelings for this because of what I said at the before. -Jeremiah Kramper-

As a science teacher I loved block scheduling because we were able to do pre-lab activities, the lab, post-lab activities all in one day. The downside is that if you don't have plans for the entire time the students get a bit restless. With block scheduling the teacher has to keep the students engaged in learning for longer periods of time. This could be challenging at times. --Valerie Munds

I taught on block scheduling where the students changed classes the latter part of the school year. As a music educator it had its pros and cons. The pros were that you had a longer period of a day to work with kids. The con, for me, is the retention of the students for the day. Also retention when it came to having practice when they were not obligated, via a grade, to the class.......C. Graham

Block scheduling is a great tool for a small school (around 200 high school students). It gives a teacher a great deal of time with each student individually while a concept is being reinforced. I was taught under this concept and enjoyed the variation of my schedule from day to day. Nick Chatterton

I also teach in the A/B Block schedule and I greatly dislike it. We have block at the middle and high school levels in my small district so I spend A days at one school and B days at another school. It is okay at the high school level where most of my students are mature enough to stay focused for as long as I need them to. I do get worried about possibly strained voices in choir, but I can work around that most of the time. The worst part of the situation for me is that the administration felt that the middle schoolers all needed to have a study hall even though block scheduling is supposed to be without study halls. Therefore, the students get 1/2 period for a study hall. That is the period that band meets which gives me 1/2 period of band every other day. That tells me that the value of music education in this district is not very high and it is frustrating because block scheduling is taking away time from my classes at this level. My attitude will be more positive if and when I can convince administrators that music should not be slighted for study hall. - Missy Legutki

I spoke with a high school chemistry teacher who changed to a school with block scheduling after teaching 30 years with regular scheduling. He did not like the block schedule at all. All of the labs in his curriculum were based on 50 minute intervals. He felt the extra time was wasted. He also said he did not get through as much of the material because classes didn't meet every day. -- Debbie Unewitz

My high school had a very weird form of scheduling that allowed science classes to have double or triple periods but not other subjects. We had 6 schedule days, but still only attended school 5 days a week. The days were labeled a - e, with the 6th day being called an "ex" day. days a, b, c, all classes met for one period. D days and E days were double period days; most classes still met one hour these days (math, english, foreign language)some classes did not meet on one of these, such as social studies, music and pe, and the extra hours were used as double, or even triple periods for the science classes. On the ex day no classes were in session, but students could use these days to catch up on homework (of which there was plenty!), see professors for extra help and conduct research and experiments. It made the schedule very confusing, but it was one solution. I share this not because I think it would be good for everyone, but because it was one way of being creative with the schedule, and I think it's important for teachers and administrators to be ready to think creatively about scheduling. -- Emily Cox

Raised in a military home, I had the opportunity to attend many different schools with traditional, 4x4 (also known as Block 4), and Block 8 scheduling. One difficulty that I experienced was being able to transfer mid-year from traditional scheduling to Block 4. At the beginning of the school year, I was enrolled in 7 courses in the traditional schedule. When I transferred mid-year, I was only able to take 4, because the school that I moved to was on Block 4. I was not able to complete the other three courses. This seemed to be a guidance counselor nightmare.

Teaching in a Block 8 seemed to have many advantages. One obvious advantage was extra preparation time for teachers and a reduced load of students. The more time a teacher has to prepare, the more likely the teacher will be to run high quality lessons. I did not notice a reduction in the amount of misbehavior between classes. Often administrators, teachers, and students feel that passing periods should be longer since students are required to sit for so long on the block schedule. I think that it would be better to have more, shorter passing periods than a couple of long ones. I did enjoy teaching and being a student in the block 8 schedule the best. It seemed as if the block 8 schedule does not have incompatibilities with transfer students, and it allows for more in-class time and all of the benefits of having extended periods, especially in science education. --Mindy Waters

I learned how to teach math using Block 4 (4 classes for 90 minutes.) It made me value being prepared and having enough activities to keep students occupied and engaged for an hour and a half. I now teach in a regular schedule with 47 minute classes and I feel I was a better teacher using the block. - Brad Frey

References and other links of interest

Santos, K., & Rettig, M. (1999). Going on the block: meeting the needs of students with disabilities in high schools with block scheduling. The Council for Exceptional Children, 31(3), 54-59.

Shortt, T., & Thayer, Y. (2000). The principal factor in block schedule success. The High School Magazine, 7(9), 10-15.

Thomas, C. (2001). What is wrong with block scheduling? NASSP Bulletin, 85(628), 74-77.

Rettig, M. & Canady, L. Block scheduling: more benefits than challenges. response to Thomas. NASSP Bulletin, 85 (628), 79-85.

Weller, D., & McLeskey, J. (2000). Block scheduling and inclusion in a high school. Remedial and Special Education, 21(4), 209-218.

Evans, W., Tokarczyk, J., Rice S., & McCray A. (2002) Block scheduling an evaluation of outcomes and impact. The Clearing House, 75(6), 319-323.