APS ending block scheduling?

[Anonymous]

https://www.arlnow.com/2025/11/24/aps-considers-changes-to-block-scheduling-at-high-schools-in-2027-28/

What is driving this review?

[Anonymous]

I think post pandemic, school districts around the nation are looking at how schools
functioned back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, when educational outcomes and student health (mental and physical) metrics were much better. 45 minutes periods worked for decades, so why not now.

We are in the midst of an unprecedented student health crisis and also test scores are not improving despite the promise of scheduling changes, new technology, and other fads that have come and gone.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next topic for school reform will be introducing fresh "home cooked meals" at every school à la France, Japan, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think post pandemic, school districts around the nation are looking at how schools
functioned back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, when educational outcomes and student health (mental and physical) metrics were much better. 45 minutes periods worked for decades, so why not now.

We are in the midst of an unprecedented student health crisis and also test scores are not improving despite the promise of scheduling changes, new technology, and other fads that have come and gone.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next topic for school reform will be introducing fresh "home cooked meals" at every school à la France, Japan, etc.

They openly admitted that the data doesn’t point to either way being better. This smacks of “something must be done. This is something, therefore it must be done.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think post pandemic, school districts around the nation are looking at how schools
functioned back in the 70s, 80s, and 90s, when educational outcomes and student health (mental and physical) metrics were much better. 45 minutes periods worked for decades, so why not now.

We are in the midst of an unprecedented student health crisis and also test scores are not improving despite the promise of scheduling changes, new technology, and other fads that have come and gone.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next topic for school reform will be introducing fresh "home cooked meals" at every school à la France, Japan, etc.

I think this theory makes sense. I know in elementary school we are seeing that many kids have almost no stamina for learning or assignments. I can’t imagine doing block scheduling. L maybe shorter classes with more frequent changes Would help. My own middle school son has tons of free time and never has to bring home homework because he is a” sit down and get it done type kid” Block schedules are probably more favorable to his type than kids who are easily distracted or frankly don’t care about doing well.
I’m going to guess that some teachers will like the idea of the change much more based on subject

[Anonymous]

It will result in more time wasted. We all know it takes a good chunk of the beginning of each period to get everyone settled and on task. At least with block scheduling, there’s still a large amount of time left to accomplish something.

[Anonymous]

I don’t work at the high school level so I’m not sure what they’re planning requirements are, but this could be related

[Anonymous]

I get the sense that 90 minutes is too long, but 45 minutes is too short.

With 90 minute blocks students get wiggly and stop focusing long before you ever hit 90 minutes, and teachers stop teaching and try to have students do homework so a lot of time is wasted. As another example, my kid tells me that 90 minutes is too long in band so the teacher goes around the room asking everyone questions, basically to fill time. It's a huge waste.

[Anonymous]

I think it's healthy they would review this and consider all the options rather than just continuing what they've always done.

45 minutes is absolutely too short for some classes.

It is tough because some subjects benefit from the shorter periods and some benefit from the longer ones.

[Anonymous]

The other issue is they are supposed to have anchor days once a week (all classes 45 min) however since they so rarely have a full week of school (I believe last week was only the 2nd one all school year), they never have anchor days. So the current system is not operating as designed because APS has added so many random days off.

[Anonymous]

Block schedules always resulted in wasted time and are terrible for music and language learning

[Anonymous]

Bring back textbooks, 50 classes, and tracking. Life was great in the 70’s and 80’s.

[Anonymous]

50 minute classes*

[Anonymous]

The other thing that is so different in current era school is having what amounts to an entire study hall built into their schedule daily. We did not have this. My kid really uses the time and gets a lot of homework done. So I don't hate it. But it's a major shift in general philosophy.

[Anonymous]

My kid is in college now and found that the block scheduling prepared them well for the long twice a week classes. Their friends who never had block have more of an adjustment. The 50 minute 3x a week classes actually felt like breeze in college.

[Anonymous]

It seems like there should be other options than those they are considering. My high school had slightly longer classes (maybe 55 min?) and each one met 4 times a week. That worked pretty well.

It is also not clear to me how they are going to handle science labs if the classes are all 45 minutes. How does HB handle that now?

Also, I worry if some high school teachers near retirement may just retire instead of completely revamping their classes. I know my kid is taking one class that is never taught during the daily shorter period since the teacher has really designed it for the block schedule. It is going to be a lot of work to restructure that class.