Block scheduling. It’s the norm in nearly every university in the United States, but not necessarily at the high school level. My own high school operated on a version of the traditional “period” scheduling in which students have 6-8 shorter periods in a single school day. Block scheduling pares down the number of classes, but expands the amount of time in a single class period. Therefore, a student attending a high school with block scheduling would have only four classes a day, but each one would be significantly longer than the classes in a 6-8 class period schedule.

Increasingly, the popularity and interest around block-scheduling is taking hold of policymakers in high schools. In the United States, more than 50 percent of high schools have adopted or are strongly considering adopting block scheduling. In this post, I will consider the origins of the traditional high school schedule and pros and cons of block scheduling. These are the primary sources I used:

• http://www.educationworld.com/a_admin/admin/admin029.shtml
• https://owlcation.com/academia/What-Is-a-Block-Schedule-Facts-About-Block-Scheduling
• http://www.aasa.org/SchoolAdministratorArticle.aspx?id=14852
• http://www.nea.org/tools/16816.htm
• http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/26/nyregion/longer-classroom-periods-test-tradition.html

The traditional 6-8 period style schedule of most American public schools was developed during the industrial era of factories. The purpose of public education then was to prepare children for a future job, and at that time many of those kids were going to be working in factories. At factories, workers are given a certain task, then when a bell rings, they move on to another task, then when a bell rings, they move on to yet another. Sounds similar to the average school schedule, bells and all.

That is why many argue that as the goals of education are changing, so should the structure of the school day.  The assembly-line preparation of the quickly-moving class periods should change to reflect the deep analysis and in-depth processing that is expected of students in college. Rather than the factory, students are headed to the university. Proponents of block scheduling believe that it is the best way to prepare students for college.

Firstly, colleges use block scheduling, so it makes sense for students to be familiar with that type of school day before they move away from home and try to go at it on their own. In middle school, attention spans may not be long enough to endure the length of block-scheduled class periods, but high school would be the perfect transition period to introduce that sort of format.

Additionally, block scheduling provides extended time to engage with the material being learned and for teachers to interact with their students in more in-depth ways. Individualized instruction time is more plausible as a teacher with see fewer students in a single day, and longer cooperative learning activities are better able to be worked into lesson plans.

The cognitive load – or amount of information having to be processed by a learner – is reduced through block scheduling. Whereas with traditional scheduling students have to quickly shift mindsets from one subject to another, block scheduling allows for more quality time processing information from a fewer number of subjects, and thus better long-term retention.

Finally, block scheduling has the potential to reduce student stress levels. In a traditional schedule school, homework is often assigned in every class due the next day. With after-school jobs, sports, and extra-curricular activities preventing students from having a large amount of work time every night, this can be extremely stressful for students, damaging their mental health and physical health through insufficient sleep. In a block-scheduled school, class do not meet on back-to-back days. Therefore, students would have at least two days to complete assignments before having to turn them in. If one day is particularly hellish, they will have another day to work on the assignment, therefore reducing stress.

On the other hand, block scheduling also comes with some drawbacks:

Some argue that because teachers only get to see students three or four days a week, they lack a certain continuity that hinder the learning process. Students might not feel as comfortable with a teacher they see only some days versus a teacher they see every single day.

Others point out that if a student misses a day of school, they are missing much more information on block-scheduled day versus period-scheduled. The information and activities in a block-scheduled day also are more interactive and longer making them more difficult to make-up for absent students.

The larger issues that is cited with block scheduling is that AP or Advanced Placement courses are difficult to teach via a block schedule. AP courses often require a lot of material to be covered, and teachers find it difficult to fit all of that into a fewer number of class periods.

As the debate over block scheduling continues, it will be interesting to see what the ultimate verdict of American’s school systems will be concerning its legitimacy.