<p>A few high schools in our region have begun operating under a 4 class/semester system. Students attend 4 ninety minute classes per day and complete a year’s worth of work. They are able to administer the state’s high stakes test at the end of the course. If a student fails the course, then he/she can immediately retake the course. I can see how this might help low achieving students pass the lower level exams, I have my doubts about the effectiveness of this system, particularly for G&T students. </p>
<p>How does it work for foreign languages? Reading intensive courses?</p>
<p>If you have experienced this, please share your opinions!</p>
<p>At our HS they call it “block scheduling”. Four 90-min class periods per day (plus a twenty min homeroom and about half an hour for lunch). We don’t have any high-stakes state exams at the end of courses. Our HS is grades 10-12.</p>
<p>I’ve had one D go through HS, the other is class of '10. When I heard that the HS was on block scheduling, I was skeptical. I was worried about students going half a year without math or English, and the potential of going almost a full calendar year without studying a subject (for instance, having Spanish first semester soph year and second semester junior year).</p>
<p>However, I’m now a fan of block scheduling. First of all, there is the potential for a student to do eight courses/year (four each semester) vs. the seven courses that would fit in the traditional schedule. Secondly, students are balancing homework for a maximum of four classes at a time, not seven. Granted, since they complete a full credit in 18 weeks they have a lot of homework, but I think it’s easier to focus on four subjects a night than it is to switch gears for seven subjects each night. </p>
<p>At our HS, most core courses are 18 weeks / 1 credit. Some of the AP courses (Chem, Calc, Bio come to mind) last 27 weeks and are worth 1.5 credits. Many of the electives (drawing, ceramics, photography) last nine weeks / 0.5 credits.</p>
<p>It is a disadvantage to have an 18-week AP course (such as Statistics) first semester; the class ends in January but one cannot take the AP exam until May. It’s also tough if a student misses two days of school in a row…that’s like missing almost a full week under the traditional schedule.</p>
<p>On the other hand, block scheduling is probably better preparation for the typical college schedule.</p>
<p>Edit: Both D’s are identified as G&T. However, in our school district most of the GT kids don’t require special support by the time they get to HS. I guess AP classes offer enough challenge?</p>
<p>Can’t imagine half a year without math or english. Things are bad enough after summer vacation.
Our HS has A&B days, four classes each day so kids take 8 subjects any given year. We like it just fine so far.</p>
<p>We have block scheduling, and it’s great. In addition to the reasons that mrsref listed (which I agree with), it allows kids to “double up” on a subject and complete more levels than in a traditional schedule. For instance, kids can take French 1&2 freshman year, 3&4 sophomore year, AP junior year. Lots of kids double up on math classes or science classes, and end up achieving much higher levels than would be possible in year-long classes.</p>
<p>Not only do they only have four classes’ worth of homework at a time, they are only focusing (more intensely, I think) on just four subjects at a time, and only have four exams to study for at a time. I think that 90 minutes of a subject allows for more depth of study/discussion/practice.</p>
<p>BTW, our school has review classes after school for all AP students who took the class first semester, in preparation for the May exams.</p>
<p>I have semester block scheduling… it works out very well. it keeps overwhelmed feelings away, less hw a night, straight-through period allow for more teaching, less transitioning between class time. languages have worked out fine. i can take several science/math classes a year and be fine. also, alumni have said it’s an easier adjustment to long college classes. i prefer it.</p>
<p>We’re on a block schedule as well and have 2 kids at the hs. They are both G&T (we call it AIG here) and have been in honors and/or AP whenever it’s offered.
A few years ago the hs switched up our AP classes. Now, in order to take AP (granted, we’re a small school, with not much offered) you first have to take a semester at the honor’s level. Then, the 2nd semester is the AP.
This really cuts into the schedule. For instance, in order for Jimmy to take AP Eng his junior year, 1/4 of his junior schedule was spent on that class.
The school only offers APUS, AP Stats, AP Calc AB, and both AP Eng. AP Stats is the only one without the honors level prereq.
Jimmy is taking AP Physics online this year through NC Virtual Schools. All online AP classes are year round as well.</p>
<p>Aside from the issues of how much the AP classes eat into their schedules, neither of my kids have had trouble getting through the amt of work required in one semester. All classes tend to start out with a lot of review anyway, so that helps to get the kids back into the right frame of mind. As an 8th grader, my daughter had an advanced math class where they did Alg and Geom in one year. She went into HS ready for Alg 2 Honors but didn’t have that class until spring semester of her freshman year-- No problem considering all the review that started out the Alg 2 class.</p>
<p>I’m a fan, we have trimesters which is similar in that the kids take 5 classes that are 70 minutes each 5 days a week. Some classes are one tri, most are 2 and AP and the more rigorous college prep (not AP brand) classes are 3 trimesters. AP classes end on the may testing date which is several weeks before school gets out, but generally the kids finish up some classwork or the teachers generall finish up with some sort of capstone project after the national AP test date. Teachers love it, kids love it, parents love it. To me, block scheduling benefits the brightest kids since they have more classroom hours that are compressed and moving along and for the AP/high rigor classes the kids are in the class 70 minutes per day, 6 days per week for an entire year and rarely fail to cover all the material suggested by the AP curriculum as opposed to a traditional semester school without block scheduling where they might be in an AP class 40 minutes, 5 days a week for the year. I believe that the lower achieving kids have core classes (English, math, science) that parrallel the college prep classes and are 3 trimesters as opposed to 1 or 2 so indeed the lower achievers again are in class more hours total per year than a traditional high school system which is a win/win for them.</p>
<p>I LOVED this when I was in HS! It allowed me to take 6 years of my foreign language is high school and 12 AP’s–it also made work much more manageable, I think, especially for kids in tough classes. The one disadvantage is having to review more intensely for AP tests for which I had the course in the fall. But, overall, I loved it, and I think it more closely approximates college as well.</p>
<p>I can see how it works for schools that have the resources to offer many advanced classes. The districts that I’m looking at, unfortunately, do not. Their foreign languages do not go beyond the fourth year, and Math ends at Calculus. It seems like they’re doing some window dressing to hide the fact that many of their students need a lot of extra work to make it to the almost proficient level that the state tests require.</p>
<p>Our sch. used to have A day/B day but switched to the 4 class/semester system about 4 years ago. S2 had two years of each system. He liked the 4/sem. system best.
The different thing is that our system chose to keep AP classes and selected electives (theater/orchestra/band, others I can’t remember) on the year long A day/B day system.</p>
<p>S2 liked the things others have already mentioned…plus if you got a teacher you didn’t like you only have to live through one sem. with him/her instead of the whole school yr.</p>
<p>We have a 4 by 4 system, and there are pros and cons. Math, foreign language, and AP classes do present special challenges.</p>
<p>I think for advanced kids, it works really well. My S2 was able to double up on math freshman year, and now is taking Calc BC this year (his junior year). Also, he has been able to take extra science classes. By the time he graduates, he will have taken the equivalent of 8 years of science, including Honors and AP Chemistry, Honors and AP Bio, AP Physics C, and AP Environmental Science. He’s a math/science kid, so this has been great for him. </p>
<p>Foreign languages can be difficult. To avoid a long gap, most kids take all the courses consecutively, so you might take 2 years of the language in one academic year. As a result, some kids are done with their foreign language classes by sophomore year, which can be bad if you go to a college that requires you to take a foreign language. </p>
<p>The fast pace of classes does not work for all kids, however. As a poster above said, if your child gets sick, missing one day of school is like missing 2 days. I also am not sure how well it works for kids who need extra help. My youngest has ADHD, and I think having less classes to focus on may be good, but I am not sure how well he will handle the fast pace. We’ll see when he starts HS next year!</p>
<p>I am a senior attending a high school on the block system. I’m considered “GT,” and I love it. It lets more advanced students take, for example, two years of math or science, or two year’s worth of a language in one actual school year. Though the system can be intense if you’re taking a lot of AP classes (I’m in four out of four…) it works out because you have only four classes to focus upon at a time.</p>
<p>The only real issue is AP tests. Generally kids take AP tests that correspond to their AP classes in the Spring, or they attend study sessions that start in the late winter/early spring for purposes of retaining all of the course content. It’s not as bad as it sounds, though. </p>
<p>Catching up after taking a half year without math, for instance, is not difficult because the teachers are used to building in a review unit at the beginning of the courses and are very understanding about forgetfulness caused by the scheduling system.</p>
<p>For some it works great… but for my oldest, sitting in a 90 minute class with 90 minute tests (the same amount of time most HS schedule for finals) was grueling. As soon as you got to know a teacher, the class was over. Of course, the school was huge (800+ in graduating class), so there were a lot of factors of the school not to like, IMO. The two youngest never left private school.</p>
<p>I’m a senior at a school with block scheduling and I love it. Our school unfortunately only offers 2 AP classes, Calc and English, and both are only offered second semester due to lack of any real demand, so the AP tests don’t pose a problem. Also, we don’t have any high-stakes tests administered at the end of a class. I agree with everyone who has talked about how nice it is to only have to focus on 4 classes at a time. While going awhile without math or English seems like it might cause problems, I never noticed. For example, I took Algebra II the first semester of sophomore year, went a full calendar year without a math class, and had Precalc the second semester of junior year. I didn’t have any issues with keeping up or forgetting too much, especially as most teachers will spend some time reviewing at the beginning of a class. I also like that on block scheduling, come January the student is done with all his or her current classes. It’s more bearable than having to deal with a difficult class or one you don’t like for a whole year without a break. Also, with finals in both January and June, it makes the transition period less stressful than at a school with scheduling that leaves 7 intensive finals to be studied for concurrently at the end of the year. I’m a fan of block scheduling as opposed to the regularly scheduled classes we had in middle school. Having experienced both, I definitely enjoy block scheduling more and I find it more conducive to my learning without stressing me out. I definitely wouldn’t cross a potential high school off your list for having blocks. In fact, I’d encourage you and your student to check it out!</p>
<p>My school (I’m currently a HS senior) used block scheduling for my first three years then changed to a traditional hybrid this year, so I’ve had a taste of both… to put it mildly, I’m a fan of block. At my school, block allowed students to take more courses in areas of interest. For courses students don’t like, block is also great since they only take the course for half of a year. The fact that you have four classes instead of six or seven is also big since it means more time to focus on each subject. On block, I often had two or three tests on the same day, but that was never a problem for me. Now that my school is on a traditional, it’s not uncommon for students to have five or six tests per day (e.g. tomorrow, I have five tests, two projects and one essay due ) - OVERLOAD! I understand that many schools assign certain testing days to departments i.e. Science/Math on M/W/F, Humanities on T/Th but some schools don’t do this for some reason. </p>
<p>I know one of the most difficult issues on block schedule is AP testing, but my school avoided that problem pretty well by offering most/all AP courses during spring semester. For courses that require more time, a pre-AP course is offered in fall semester. For a class like Physics C, an “introductory” physics class was offered in fall that covers most of fundamentals necessary for C. All in all, I think block is the way to go.</p>
<p>HS my kids attended has block scheduling. For the first year of a language you had to take the language the entire year (2 semesters) to get credit. That meant 90 min/day for the whole year. For years 2, 3, 4 AP, the course was only semester long. It seemed to work well. English classes one semester were offset with history/government classes the second. The same formula applied to math and science. The block allowed kids coming in taking algebra I to actually be able to take calc by loading up on math classes as “electives”. The biggest problem was the way the school handled music and sports. Music had to be taken every semester or the kid was penalized by being put into a lower ranking class (e.g. if you did not do marching band in the fall you had almost no chance of making first concert band in the spring). Sports were just as bad - they called the class advanced athletics- and if you were on a team (either jv or varsity) you had to take the class all year or you had little chance of having any playing time. Of course this only applied to the “big” sports - football, basketball, volleyball. This meant a music or sports kid took 25% of their classes in this field. Most of these kids had no interest in playing college sports or music. Tough call. My kids were only allowed to pursue these interests because they came into high school with credits (math, English, etc.) I saw many kids who did not and when they graduated they were shortchanged when they tried to apply to schools out of our area.</p>
<p>Our high school had block scheduling. Over the 10 years that they have been doing this, they have gradually made all AP classes except English two semesters. This has helped tremendously.<br>
I do think that it’s a a problem for math and language courses. There is just so much math that you can cover in a day no matter how much time you have. Many math teachers ended up staying after school every day to help the students. At times, because my daughter wanted to keep taking music classes which was only offered one time per day - she had to put off taking other courses that she would have liked.<br>
When my older son switched out of our high school into a private school, our language teachers admitted that Spanish 2 at our public high school was really Spanish 1 everywhere else. The main advantages that I see are the extra course per year which allowed my daughter to take some really interesting electives and the focus on team and cooperative learning since the teacher could not just lecture 90 minutes per day.</p>
<p>Our public schools switched to block scheculing four years ago, which was when we withdrew our high school student from public school. In general, very good students like the block schedule, but there is research available that overall, students who take AP classes in block format score lower. College Board has figures, but I do not know how accessible they are. Our school district will not release scores and I think that it’s because they are so bad.</p>
<p>Our school district has a hard time filling the kids’ schedules for eight classes over four years. So senior year kids take some real interesting classes, are farmed out to the community college, and work as aides in the office, library, or for teachers. Many students also say that the extra twenty minutes of class (compared to the schedule of four years ago) are spent doing homework.</p>
Which kind of block format? A/B or 4x4? I’ve also wondered if College Board has figures on how students who don’t start school until after Labor Day fare on the AP exams compared to students who may have been in school a month earlier and therefore had more time to prepare for the AP exams in May.</p>