Many parents learned from an article in the Baltimore Sun, here, that public high schools in Baltimore County, Md., would be changing their schedules to one of two choices in the 2014-15 school year: an A/B block schedule with 90-minute classes, or an eight-class daily schedule with 40-minute classes.
The current schedule at several high schools in the district, including some of the higher-performing ones, is the traditional seven-period day, with each class lasting between 45 and 50 minutes. Students take the same seven classes every day, and their schedules are good from the beginning to the end of the school year. In an A/B block schedule, students would sign up for eight classes every year, taking four of them on the “A Days” and the other four on the “B days.” Most commonly, A and B days just alternate—i.e., the A days would be Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Tuesday, Thursday, Monday, etc. Each class period is longer under a block schedule, usually coming in at about 90 minutes.
Some high schools in the US use a regular block schedule, not an A/B block schedule, where the first four classes meet every day for the first half of the year, ending in January, and students start taking the second group of four classes in the second semester. Although a number of Maryland high schools use the more traditional block schedule, sometimes referred to as a 4×4 block schedule, that’s not one of the options being offered in Baltimore County.
There are some obvious advantages to an eight-class year: Students can take one more class than they would have been able to take with a traditional seven-period day. This could prove useful not only for struggling students who failed a class and need to make it up but also for those who want to take an extra class, like statistics or a fine arts elective, for enrichment. There are also anecdotal reports from schools that have switched. Although the change may be stressful in the beginning, as teachers adjust to filling longer class periods with material, the school environment eventually adjusts and both teachers and students feel less stress in an A/B block schedule. It gives everybody more time to let lessons sink in.
Along with those advantages come some disadvantages: Students have to keep up with the work in eight classes at a time under an A/B block schedule, rather than just seven. Furthermore, some student advocates have argued that many high school kids can’t remain focused for a 90-minute class period. Teachers, however, have found ways to fill the extra time with engaging student activities, so probably about four out of five teachers won’t fill the extra time with more lecturing. Another problem, brought up mainly by math and foreign language teachers, is that students retain knowledge better if they see it every day. With an A/B block schedule, there’s a day in between where students won’t get the material.
Some less obvious pros and cons of 4×4 block scheduling
Student achievement in science classes is higher with a 4×4 block schedule than with a traditional seven-period schedule, research out of North Carolina has found, here. On an end-of-course biology test, similar to the High School Assessment in biology used in Maryland, a statistically significant difference was observed between students who took biology for a full year on a seven-period schedule and students who took the class for a semester using the longer class period each day on a 4×4 block schedule.
Among all students, more were proficient on the exam who took biology on a 4×4 block schedule than on a seven-period schedule. African-Americans also showed statistically significant proficiency differences under a block schedule than under the traditional seven-period schedule. In both cases, students under a 4×4 block schedule performed better than those under a seven-period schedule. The differences for students with disabilities were not statistically significant in this study, although the data showed more were proficient under a traditional seven-period schedule than under a 4×4 block schedule. Possible reasons for the statistical dead heat among students with disabilities focused on individualized instruction plans. If used correctly, the IEP for any given student may prevent longer class periods, even if the school is using a block schedule.
Other disadvantages of a 4×4 block schedule are addressed with A/B block scheduling as well. For example, classes like orchestra and choir, as well as several other electives, meet for the entire year whether the school uses a block or seven-period schedule. With a 4×4 block, students have to sign up for these classes twice, making a moot point out of the advantage of having a schedule slot for one more class. This disadvantage affects more than electives, too, since most colleges require three “years” of math, with selective colleges recommending four years. This means, one class in the 4×4 schedule is some type of math in both semesters, again nullifying the advantage of being able to take one more class every year. With an A/B schedule, since the classes meet for an entire year, students only have to sign up for one math class out of their eight classes.
The Baltimore County strategy
Although I think parents should find out what their schools are doing from the schools themselves, not from the newspaper, I applaud the change in Baltimore County Public Schools. I just don’t applaud their communication strategy or the limited involvement of their own teachers or parents in the decision-making process. (Ten teachers were included in a focus group to assess the change described here.) I believe, once teachers and students adjust to the change, it will be positive for everyone involved. Differences in academic performance, based on research, will be small but non-negative, so I think the change will do no harm to the school’s mission or to student life. It’s that community interface that needs work.
Furthermore, the move to an A/B block schedule, in which some classes will be more difficult because of the alternate day, especially foreign language, seems a good compromise between classes that occasionally need more time, like lab classes and the fine arts, and those that can’t always make effective use of the extra time or lose student engagement at the end of long periods.
The Baltimore Sun is reporting that an association of principals in Baltimore County has joined the teachers union in calling for a momentary pause in the implementation of the A/B block schedules in the county’s high schools.
“BCPS is large and diverse. Where possible we should recognize this and allow each school community the flexibility to design their own school environment and then look at student achievement results in order to decide if changes are needed,” the paper quoted Bill Lawrence, the executive director of CASE, the association that represents the principals, as saying.
The teachers union has voiced concern that the change will add to their already strained workloads by making them teach six classes instead of five. They are also worried that when the district says the change will enable it to use staff more efficiently, teaching positions may be cut in the name of efficiency.
Update Feb 11 2014:
ABC 2 in Baltimore reports a third option to this schedule for schools, rather than the two options we originally reported: Option 3 will be to conduct four classes a day on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday, using the A/B Block format, and then conduct all eight classes on Wednesday, using the 40-minute periods. This hybrid doesn’t have an official name, but it has been tried at other schools.
Students at Hereford High School, in northern Baltimore County, are upset that their schedule will have to be changed. The school now runs a 4×4 block schedule, along with two other high schools in the county, and that’s not one of the new options.
“We are the top performing school in the county, and that’s a fact.” ABC quoted one tenth grader at the school as saying. “So why not change the other schools to what works, what we’re doing?”
“We’ve had it for 20 years, 20 years!” another said. “There’s a reason we’ve had it for 20 years: because it works.”
Isn’t it amazing how much wiser 16-year-olds can be than adults?
WBAL-TV (NBC affiliate) is now reporting that the school board has no intention of revisiting this decision by Superintendent S Dallas Dance. They say the change is necessary to alleviate the issue of students who transfer from one school to another during the course of the school year and would like to keep the same number of classes in their new school.
Under any of the options proposed, all high school students in a Baltimore County public school would be enrolled in eight classes throughout the school year. Students at Hereford and two other high schools now take four classes at a time, using a 4×4 accelerated block schedule.
“Some schools have a higher percentage of transiency population than others. We have some that are 40+ percent,” WBAL quoted Assistant Superintendent Maria Lowry as saying. “At some schools it’s not as high, but the issue is even if you had one student who was disadvantaged by moving from one school to the next, and there was something we could do about it, we felt that we needed to address it.”
We would like to hear from students at Hereford or at any school that uses a 4×4 block schedule. Why might a change to an A/B block schedule, in which you’re studying for up to eight classes at a time instead of four, be harmful to your academic life?
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The Baltimore Sun reports that the PTA Council in Baltimore County has asked Mr Dance to delay the high school schedule change.
The council also asked him to “support the ability for each school to make an autonomous decision on which scheduling system is best for their school. The decision should be made after open discussion, input and engagement from staff, parents, and students.”
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A delay seems futile to me: An A/B block schedule will provide the advantage of eight classes per year over schools that now use a seven-period daily schedule, and schools that now use a 4×4 accelerated block schedule will have to switch to either an A/B block schedule, an eight-period daily schedule, or a hybrid A/B for four days a week with Wednesday being an eight-period day.
If it’s the right thing to do, there’s no point in delaying it for a year or something; if it’s the wrong thing to do, it should be canceled altogether, not simply postponed.
Does the PTA think it’s the wrong thing to do? And if not now, when?
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Students at Hereford who don’t want to switch from a 4×4 block schedule to an A/B block schedule, I think you have a point. You know your school is a great school, and I agree. I’m not just talking about test scores, either, although most scientific research uses test scores to evaluate scheduling decisions. Here’s the abstract from one study, done in December 2005 and published by the National Association of Secondary School Principals:
The effect of block scheduling on high school student achievement in mathematics and reading was investigated. … Student scores from 9th- and 11th-grade … Levels tests and ACT exams in mathematics and reading … [showed that] students in 4×4 block scheduling had greater gain scores in reading and mathematics than did students in both traditional scheduling and A/B block scheduling.
In today’s edition, the Baltimore Sun’s editorial board joined the PTA’s call for a delay in the changeover in the schedules that will force a change to high-performing schools that use a 4×4 block schedule, like Hereford, and those that use a seven-period day, like Dulaney.
Editors argue, as we have above, that gains would be very modest for schools now on a seven-period day and probably nonexistent for those now on a 4×4 block schedule, and there are many other considerations at play. Among those considerations is the issue that Mr Dance needs to be more open to input from the community and the board needs to be more willing to stand up to a superintendent who could, if unchecked, “run roughshod over a board.”
“That protesters have sometimes acted rudely in public sessions should not impugn the merits of their arguments,” they write. No one is acting rudely here, just wanting to be listened to. And their arguments certainly have merit in this case. “A one-year delay seems a reasonable compromise and would demonstrate that the board and superintendent care about the views of the PTA and the residents of the county.”
A radio show featured an extended discussion of this topic on April 9. Dallas Dance and Wendy Flowers, who represents a group of parents, students, and teachers at Hereford High School, discussed this subject with Don Rodricks, a columnist for the Baltimore Sun.
Here’s our report.