Reply to APS Block Schedule - 90 minute core classes

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Google benefits of block scheduling.  Teachers are NOT using it as a study hall.[/quote]

Haha I can Google benefits of Lucy Caulkins too, look how that turned out. [/quote]

You guys are idiots. Seriously. Block scheduling has been around since the 90s. We had it in my high school. Grow up. [/quote]

Interesting, and yet people have been saying local school systems have been in decline since the 90s…

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No. “They” haven’t been saying that. 
[/quote]

Yeah, they've been saying it since the 2010's.  Especially regarding APS.[/quote]

APS isn’t in decline. You’re all so sheltered that you have no idea what a bad school system actually looks like. None of the ones in this entire metro area are bad. Not even close. The bulk of complaints about schools here, whether it’s APS, FCPS, MCPS, are just because too many people are overstretched on their house and angry they paid $900k for a shack inside the beltway and that pinch makes them feel like they’re entitled to something they were never going to get - a private school experience in a public school system.

The schools are good. You’re angry at what you spent on a house to get into those schools. But it doesn’t make them bad schools. Your issue isn’t block scheduling, it’s your mortgage  [/quote]

They didn't say they're "bad."  They said they're "in decline."  A good school system can be in decline and still be better relative to other school districts.  It means they aren't as good as they used to be.  And I don't care about ratings relative to NYC Public Schools or Chicago or even DC.  I care about the school system my kids are in; and if it can be better, then people should push it to be better and call it out when they believe it is heading in the wrong direction. Why should we just accept whatever we have as long as it's still better than elsewhere?

Also, my buying a house has nothing to do with my dissatisfaction with certain things about APS.  Not everyone "spent on a house to get into those schools."  Maybe those who have more money and spent more money on their homes have a tendency to be more critical of APS; but don't you think it might be that they have higher expectations based on APS' reputation as well as their own personal experiences with APS, perhaps in comparison to their own educational experiences - as opposed to those of the poorer people in the community coming from far inferior education systems and therefore finding anything APS offers to be superior to where they came from?  THOSE are the people who "spent on a house" to get their kids into a good school system.

There is nothing wrong with holding a school system to higher standards.[/quote]

APS was definitely much better back in the 90s and early 2000s; we moved here in 2005 with a baby thinking it was for good schools.

However, back then APS was dealing with declining enrollment, meanwhile the county was getting wealthier with the housing boom and growth.  They introduced IB into WL to attract students from Yorktown which at that time was comparable to Mclean in performance, and getting to HB was so much easier because there simply were fewer students interested in an alternative program.

Fast forward 15 years, and county student population exploded meanwhile the county coffers have declined; they blew a TON of money in the 2010s building SMALLER new high schools and the marque $$$$ Heights building.  ATS & HB is overrun with applicants who are simply trying to escape the overcrowsed high schools rather than actually interested in the alternative program.  The county was sued for equity, and so has invested a lot of effort on improving equity and their approach has to been to remove things like differentiation at younger grades and eliminate homework; bringing everyone down to same performance rather than improving from those who are behind.

Compounded with AHA lobbyists who are pushing more and more housing with more high need students, it is a different place.

Whether block scheduling which also started in the time was a factor is hard to know, since so much about the system has changed in last 20 years.[/quote]

PP here.  Yes, exactly.  Some bad curriculum/instructional choices and, worst of all, lowering of expectations and standards in the name of equity.  A better school system would raise the expectations and standards for the lowest performing, not lower them for the high achieving.

I will note regarding block scheduling - to get back to the original topic - that another advantage to block scheduling is that a student who is out sick one day does not miss every single class, just half.  And when a student is out for a week (like mine is now due to a positive COVID test - ugh!), they only miss each class a few times rather 5 times.[/quote]
There are other schedules where classes don't meet every day. Some schedules have classes meet four times a week, with off one day, with normal class length of 50 or so minutes.

Do you feel that your child misses less when they're out sick for a week under block? In theory, block and regular classes should cover the same content each week so you'd miss a comparable amount under either system. If they use part of blocks for independent work, however, then an absent student would miss less new content with blocks, but that may not be a good thing in the big picture since it means they get less new weekly content under blocks. [/quote]

Exactly, if they are missing less content in a week when they are out on block, that means THERE IS LESS CONTENT IN A WEEK. [/quote]

I actually think block can be worse when you're out sick. If you're out one day and it's the day you have math, you have missed double the math content than if you were just out for one day. [/quote]
But overall, you have more time to get caught up - in any class.
Plus, since everything is online and assignments are through Canvas, students have immediate access to their assignments and can work on them before returning (if they're not too sick to do anything, of course) rather than waiting until the next time their class meets after returning.

I think it's better overall to miss one block class than 2 regular classes.  If the student is missing out on group work from that one block class day, the teacher can make accommodations for that if needed. IMO, that's better than missing two days' worth of lectures.

Other schedules with classes meeting 4x/week really isn't much better than the 5x/week scenario.  But with block scheduling, even if the student is out a whole week, they are missing some of their classes only twice and others 3 times instead of missing all classes 5 times.

But yes, I think math and science classes could be the most challenging to miss under the block schedule; though I'd argue it's not any worse than missing those classes 5 days in a row under traditional scheduling, and I still think better.  I'll have to ask my child what they think when they've returned to school.[/quote]
The concern with blocks is with what you describe here: 
"If the student is missing out on group work from that one block class day, the teacher can make accommodations for that if needed. IMO, that's better than missing two days' worth of lectures."  
[b]Under block, there's group work but regular schedule there's two days of instruction.[/b]

Also, I think PP's comment about block math classes being worse to miss relates to missing one day as opposed to five. If you miss math one day in blocks, you've lost a bigger share of that week's class time than under a regular schedule. 
[/quote]

I realize it's been a while since I've been in high school, but even under the 5x/week schedule we had group work during class.  We also had research time in the school library for term papers.  So, I am not persuaded by the suggestion that a regular schedule is solely two days of instruction.  Additionally, there is often review and continuance of a topic or concept for consecutive days in a 5-days-a-week schedule.  So again, no, I don't believe students necessarily miss material, or more material, when they miss one block schedule class.

Any teachers here who have taught/have experience with both formats who are able to comment on how much time is "lost" each day reviewing yesterday's material, reminding students "where we left off," etc versus block scheduling? [/quote]

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