Clarifying Changing Time(s)

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Four-day school weeks.

Year-round education.

Block scheduling. 4 x 4; 4 x 4 modified, parallel -- or is it A/B?

What are you talking about? And what has this got to do with kids learning?

As schools and communities apply research-based teaching and learning methods to realize gains in student learning, many look to modifying or changing traditional scheduling arrangements for a better fit. What are some of these new arrangements? Do they really work? Although proof is inconclusive at this point, many say there are numerous advantages.

To help Alaska and other Northwest parents, teachers, and community members to sort through and understand the complex alternatives, a free booklet—Scheduling Alternatives: Options for Student Success—walks readers through these options. Produced by the non-profit Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, the booklet lays out definitions and ideas behind each option, along with the potential benefits and concerns associated with them. It gives examples and ideas for implementation from Northwest schools:

• In an Alaska elementary school with grades three to five, parallel block scheduling allows each grade an hour of "block" each day where students may spend time in math, language arts, physical education, music, or library. The idea in this arrangement is to increase personalized instruction for each child.
• In one Idaho elementary school an optional year-round plan proved so popular that it had to be controlled. Another elementary school went to a year-round schedule because of overcrowding and economic conditions. Another school has been built since, and a return to a traditional calendar.
• In a Montana high school, an alternating block-schedule plan, also called the A/B plan, uses eight blocks of classes over two days. The reported results include students with better attitudes toward school, teachers who feel rejuvenated, and better opportunities for college bound and non-college bound kids.
• One of the first block schedules in Oregon got high marks in a recent study from a majority of students, teachers, and parents. The 4 x 4 modified block, which is a localized plan, provides the high school students with 88-minute block periods and a 58-minute lunch period. With the longer periods, students complete classes in one semester rather than a year.
• A Washington state rural high school went to a 4 x 4 block schedule after a seven-period day was thought to be spreading teachers and students too thin. Now, instead of seven classes, the students have four—plus a longer school day by 15 minutes. Classes which were offered only every other year are now available every year.

Scheduling Alternatives is out of print, but available online at www.nwrel.org/request/feb97/.

This column is provided as a public service by the Northwest Regional Educational Laboratory, a nonprofit institution, 101 S.W. Main Street, Suite 500, Portland, Oregon 97204.