The new school year is under way. Many thanks go out to students, parents, and staff for a great start.
One big change that our staff and students are working with is block scheduling in the Middle School and the High School. We’re excited by the benefits offered by block schedules, even as we work out the kinks and learn how to best take advantage of this new system.
What is block scheduling? Basically, it is a shift from the familiar 50-minute class period, Monday through Friday, to a longer, 88-minute class period on alternating days—what we call the A/B schedule. Each student takes four classes each day, plus a short advisory mid-day, or eight courses in total. A calendar for the alternating “A Days” and “B Days” guides teachers and students through the semester.
Why did we adopt block scheduling? In everything we do at Cook County Schools, we strive for excellence. Every day, we work to make our schools work for everyone. Block scheduling promises improvements over traditional scheduling in three important areas.
First, longer class blocks allow our teachers and students to approach material in a rich mix of teaching and learning modes, including direct instruction, project-based learning, labs, hands-on work, on-line inquiry, and collaborative group learning. We know that different students have different learning strengths. The longer class block allows us to vary our teaching to better address all of our students and to better take advantage of their different strengths.
Second, blocks afford efficient use of time by reducing “passing time” between classes. In the course of each week, we are able to redirect 10 minutes from passing time to learning time, while shortening the length of the school day by 15 minutes.
Third, by reducing the students’ daily focus from six or seven classes to four, we hope to improve the quality of attention paid in class, and to reduce the stress of fragmentation of the school day. It also gives students more opportunities to take more art, music, and advanced placement courses during the school year.
No doubt, we will run into some challenges as students, families, and teachers adapt to the A/B block format. Administration is committed to supporting the school community through this change. Patience and persistence are needed as we work together to improve our schools, no matter the issue at hand. The bottom line, of course, is a better school experience and better learning outcomes. As we evaluate this change, we will report what we find.
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