Reply to Anyone else educated by FCPS and sees the decline?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I graduated from FCPS when you only had six classes and no block schedule. Did they lengthen the day for the 7th class? If not, have we not reduced the amount of time spent on core subjects like math and English?[/quote]

Depending on when you graduated, in HS the number of math and science requirements have gone up (English remained the same).  All classes have to meet the units of time required for a Carnegie unit, but they can arrange them differently.  I graduated in the early 1990s and it was still unusual then to complete calculus in high school--and many college prep students who were more of a humanities bent only took 2-3 years of math in HS.  That would be so rare now! My friend got into a T20 school and only took up to geometry.  The requirements really were quite less then.  I think the greater emphasis on math/science has led to a lesser emphasis on English/Literature.[/quote]

Let's look across a two-week window in FCPS to compare:

[u]1980's and before:[/u] 10 class meetings across two weeks, 50 minutes per class, for a total of 500 class minutes (same classes every day, no blocks)

[u]Today:[/u] 5 class meetings across two weeks, 90 minutes per class, for a total of 450 class minutes (block schedule)

Is this correct? Perhaps the blocks are longer than 90 minutes? If not, I don't see how students are not getting less time in any one class than they were back in the day. Makes sense since there are 7 classes now versus 6 back then and they did not make the day substantially longer (if at all). Adding the extra class for more electives (or mandatory state courses) came at the expense of core subjects, no?

Every high school also seems to have some random extra period where students are not in an actual class (Bruin Time, Spartan Time, etc.). This also takes away time in an actual class, right?[/quote]

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