The Northwest Sampler - Alaska - By Request....

Four years ago, Mountain View Elementary School received a grant from the Alaska Department of Education to implement a parallel block schedule. The motivation behind parallel block scheduling is simple: Decrease the number of students each teacher sees, and thus increase the amount of one-on-one attention each child receives.

Each grade (Mountain View serves students in grades 3-5) is allotted an hour of "block" per day. During this hour, students spend part of their time in either math or language arts, and part of the time in either P.E., music, or library. Students from each class are split into two groups, with one group attending the math/language arts portion and the other attending the P.E./music/library portion. After about 30 minutes the two groups switch.

This arrangement has worked well at Mountain View because students have increased opportunities to receive personalized instruction. Because most schools do not have the means to reduce class size as they would like, parallel block scheduling is a feasible alternative that is not difficult to implement. Though teachers at Mountain View were skeptical of the arrangement at first, they, along with the community, are firmly in support of it now.

Observed Outcomes

Disciplinary interactions have been reduced.

Student-to-teacher ratios are lower.

Teachers can consistently use cooperative learning activities and manipulatives.

Time on task has increased.

Keys to Success

Necessitate open communication with staff and parents.
Ensure staff support the new schedule; if they aren't in favor, it will be difficult to proceed.
Commit all key stakeholders to reducing class size.
Involve the specials (P.E., library, music, computer) teachers in the decisionmaking process.
Remain flexible throughout the process.

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Date of Last Update: 09/19/2001
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