Jackson Reed using covid-era block schedule again?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy sh*t,

Is it too late to transfer to MacArthur?

MacArthur also doing 80-minute classes.

The question isn't whether they are doing 80-minute classes or not...both the A/B and the 4x4 schedules have 4 classes per day, 80 minutes each. The question is whether they are doing the A/B schedule (8 classes for whole year, each class meets every other day) vs the 4x4 (4 classes that meet every day for one semester only followed by 4 new classes for the 2nd semester). If it's the 4x4 schedule, start complaining now and get it changed as soon as possible!

Except many people have made it clear that the 4x4 schedule was a Covid era phenomena and is no longer.

I love your advice…who would you complain to get it changed if the entire school system was on a 4x4 schedule?

No—people have said that it was a covid-era schedule at JR but that it’s still in place at many other DCPS high schools, as it was pre-covid. JR was an exception (Walls, as well, I believe) before and had to fight to get the exception again after. (DCPS prefers 4x4 for HS because it offers more opportunities in a single year for students to retake classes if they fail, which in theory helps graduation rates. It’s terrible in pretty much every other way.)

The question of whether MacArthur will be on an A/B schedule or a 4x4 still has not been answered.

This. DCPS will not say explicitly that this is why they prefer the 4x4 but they also cannot give any reasons for why it was mandated (except for some B.S. about it being more similar to college schedules....of course, very few college students would take a math or language class and then wait an entire year to take the next class in the sequence). Not to mention they provide no evidence or research as to why this policy made sense.

In any event, it's no longer technically mandated of high schools but many still have kept it. J-R fortunately does not have it. According to a previous poster, MacArthur also does not, which is good news.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Macarthur is doing A/B schedule, not 4x4. Their Friday bell schedule might be a bit different though, as they seem to have an advisory that only meets on Friday. But still, A/B

Good news!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Holy sh*t,

Is it too late to transfer to MacArthur?

MacArthur also doing 80-minute classes.

The question isn't whether they are doing 80-minute classes or not...both the A/B and the 4x4 schedules have 4 classes per day, 80 minutes each. The question is whether they are doing the A/B schedule (8 classes for whole year, each class meets every other day) vs the 4x4 (4 classes that meet every day for one semester only followed by 4 new classes for the 2nd semester). If it's the 4x4 schedule, start complaining now and get it changed as soon as possible!

Except many people have made it clear that the 4x4 schedule was a Covid era phenomena and is no longer.

I love your advice…who would you complain to get it changed if the entire school system was on a 4x4 schedule?

No—people have said that it was a covid-era schedule at JR but that it’s still in place at many other DCPS high schools, as it was pre-covid. JR was an exception (Walls, as well, I believe) before and had to fight to get the exception again after. (DCPS prefers 4x4 for HS because it offers more opportunities in a single year for students to retake classes if they fail, which in theory helps graduation rates. It’s terrible in pretty much every other way.)

The question of whether MacArthur will be on an A/B schedule or a 4x4 still has not been answered.

This. DCPS Central loves the 4x4 because if a kid fails math or English, they can retake it 2nd semester rather than waiting until the next school year. DCPS is all about improving the graduation rate. They don’t really care too much about AP scores or whether you struggle once you hit college

[Anonymous]

Anyone's kid notice they have a different schedule when they access Aspen on their phones vs log on to a computer? My rising 9th grader has this, and so does her friend.

[Anonymous]

Yes...the email said they continue to tweak schedules to balance classes and they will get their final schedules when they get to school on Monday.

[Anonymous]

Wow…what a disaster.

[Anonymous]

I have one at J-R and two at Walls and the two at Walls have had worse issues with their schedules this year. Blame DCPS for terrible scheduling systems.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They may have done this during covid, but it's not a "covid schedule". It's got many advantages. Most of the private schools use it. I grew up in Canada and that's how we did it even many years ago.

My high school in MD had block scheduling in the 90s.

They do it in most (all?) MCPS high schools in 2023!