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PBealo · Site Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 112

Even though the TRHS Principal, Don Woodworth, says that the time for discussion of blocks is over - I'd say its just begun!! Who knew prior to March 2008 that the district was even considering this??? Not me, not the Timberlane Music Assoc., not the PTSA...

Here are my initial thoughts:

After only 4 weeks of discussion with the School Board, TRHS Principal Don Woodworth declared in his April newsletter “With the blessing of the School Board and SAU leadership, we are beginning a focused discussion as we move toward implementing a block schedule in the 2009-2010 school year…We must move the conversation from if to how, and the timetable from someday to now.”. Most district parents haven’t even heard of this extreme plan with many potential pitfalls let alone signed up to it’s implementation.

4X4 Block scheduling is a 15+ year old idea that would replace TRHS 7 period 45 min per period day with 4 90 minute periods. The same 4 classes would be taught each day, so kids would have the same 4 classes through each semester. This allows what we think of as 1 year of a class today to be completed in ½ a year. So, what’s the problem with this you ask…

1) AP tests are only given in spring, so if your child took an AP class from Sept to January he or she would have 5+ months to forget some of the content before being tested. AP Grades will suffer. This is not just my opinion, the College Boards, the company that produces and grades all AP tests has published conclusive data showing how block scheduling lowers grades.

2) Sequential classes will suffer: look at classes like science and math where one year’s work builds off the last. If Junior takes Algebra II Sept to January, he may not see Geometry until 9 months later in September. How much of his prior learning will he recall in detail so he can use it immediately?

3) Are freshmen and sophomores in particular, really ready for 90 minute periods in every class? I know my eldest wasn’t, and I doubt my youngest will be either. And how effectively can all of our subjects be taught in 90 minute periods? Certainly it opens up time for longer labs for the sciences – but what about math and social studies? Do the kids and teachers burn out after 50 minutes and fritter the remaining 40 minutes away as a study hall?

4) What happens to the music program? We just finished a $9 million performing arts center, we have NH’s best music program serving hundreds of our High Schoolers with kids routinely receiving the highest grades in statewide competitions. With block scheduling our kids will no longer have the opportunity to devote any part of the school day to music on a year around basis. If they can squeeze one or two 1 semester classes into their 4 years they’ll be lucky. Other schools implementing block scheduling report numbers as horrific as their orchestra going from 100 members down to 4 members within 2 years. That’s not a music program.

5) Today, teachers teach 5 out of 7 periods, seeing ~150 kids per day. In blocks, teachers teach 3 out of 4 blocks, and see ~90 kids per day. The total number of kids remains the same either way. If we want class sizes to remain constant, we’ll need to hire more teachers. About 5 to 7 more by my reckoning, for an additional salary expense of $200+ thousand per year. And where will they teach?? Will we need to expand the school? How much will that cost? Who knows, I certainly don’t and the SAU Administrators aren’t coming up with numbers: but Mr. Woodworth says that the time for discussion is over, we must act now.

Certainly, there are perceived advantages to a 4X4 block schedule. These can’t be ignored:
1) ½ the number of disruptions per day. I have seen how chaotic the halls get between classes – I do sympathize with Mr. Woodworth on this score. There will still be these crazy times, just fewer of them per day.

2) The Administration will tell you, and have put into a presentation already, that in ½ a year any given coarse can be covered “in greater depth but less breadth” in 4X4 blocks. What does this mean exactly? Our kids will know more and more about less and less??? In the end, our kids need to pass not only their teachers’ tests, but such standardized tests as NECAP, SATs, AP and ACT tests. These standardized tests test a full breadth of learning. They will not take into account the “greater depth” our kids will know about some subset of their breadth. The goal of our schools ought to be to teach at a minimum the curriculum mandated by the state – not to only a portion of it.

3) Less homework will be given per night because only 4 classes per day are held. OK – I understand fewer subjects mean fewer types of homework, but if they’re moving at twice the speed trying to learn more in less time how is it that the amount of homework per class doesn’t double? If it doesn’t double, how can they truly be getting the practice in math skills and writing?

4) Teachers have fewer classes for which to prepare. OK, I see this too…but they need to prepare to teach longer classes each day. This strikes me as a wash.

To summarize 4X4 block scheduling: this system seems to produce fewer disruptions in school per day at the cost of:

1) Poorer standardized test scores
2) Decimated music program
3) Requires an upfront space increase and higher salaries every year thereafter
4) There is a real risk the kids won’t learn the same amount per class

I do not see this as an acceptable tradeoff. I fail to see how our SAU Administrators see these tradeoffs as positive. Many teachers have grave reservations about this approach – and these are teachers who have seen block scheduling fail elsewhere already. Before we accept Mr. Woodworth’s assertion that the time to talk is over, I believe the parents and taxpayers need to have a long, honest and forthright discussion with the SAU. This isn’t just a matter for an isolated School Board meeting or a coffee break with the Principal – we need to jointly determine a path and build a consensus for that path, and that will take many months, not a week or two. Until that consensus is reached no additional funding for implementing block scheduling should be spent, I know some has been spent already, but do not know how much. Is the light we see ahead the end of the tunnel, or is it the headlight of a train barreling at us? At this point we just do not know

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curt · Posted: Tue Apr 29, 2008 8:54 pm Post subject:

Welcome to our local web world!!

I am one of the four sponsors of SpeakoutDanville, where we have a Timberlane discussion area. Our current policy is that everyone can read the discussions but only Danville residents (or people with other connections to Danville) can become members and post new articles or replies to existing articles.

HERE is our main discussion on block scheduling. I posted a link to your above article to the current end of our discussion, so people will come over here and read your contribution. You make a lot of good points.
_________________
Curt Springer
Danville

therents · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 67

I found a presentation on Block Scheduling at www.danvilledelivery.com

It looks interesting.

NH · Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

Hello. I came across your forum and I see that you are concerned about block scheduling.

From a number of years experience in the schools, and from studying trends in education for their origins and purposes, here is what I think.

Block scheduling is likely not the only change that is going to be done or has been done that goes against what seems normal. It is part of a bigger plan.

After experience with it myself I can tell you that in my opinion it is just another 'fad'. I feel that it causes the curriculum to be watered down. It might be being used so that more 'thematic' type of learning or 'team teaching' and 'group learning' can be implemented, all unproven fads as well.

I would like to know if any of you have heard of any of these other 'trends' and if so, can you tell me if they are being used in conjunction with any of the following?

Block scheduling

If so you have far worse problems than just block scheduling.
I would first ask, who told them or asked them to do this?
What is their mandate? Who says these are 'best practices'?

NH · Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

Well I just watched this video of the principal (?) selling block scheduling to the school board although they seem to have already been 'briefed' on it: http://www.danvilledelivery.com/media/20080320_sb/bs.mp4

I think a lot of my own questions in the post above were answered by it.

Can you recognize and count the OBE 'buzzwords' used by this principal?

He emphasizes 'feelings' time and time again -- less stress, less homework, easier for the students, DUMBING DOWN. Competencies... Consensus...

Then he drops the bomb that this would mean more staff, more $$.
All very predictable. This is an excuse to spend more money...and of course the more money they spend, the less effective the learning becomes. It's going to 'force' them to make changes he says. It will cause the teachers to have to 'prepare together' to make sure they are using 'best practices'. (By whose authority are these practices 'best'?)

When he is questioned he uses the excuse that 'everyone else does it'. Fact is, he's being INSTRUCTED to do it. By whom?

Use your 91-A rights to find out, and quickly.

Once again, 'change' for the sake of 'change', and it's full speed ahead even after other schools have failed and dumped the methodology.

So far not ONE of these people has picked up on the collectivism of the planning strategy -- he cited that teachers would have more leeway and academic freedom to teach, but in truth, it's to make sure they are planning TOGETHER and not doing something on their own. So if one of them thinks they might have a better way to do something they will NOT be ALLOWED to do it if the group doesn't do it or approve of it.

The woman who takes a swig of water also talks 'feelings'; she says we want teachers to 'feel' successful and she thinks that they will reap the benefits many years from now. I would not place any bets on this since just feeling successful does not MAKE one successful. What tells me that this is not going to be the savior of education they are claiming it is? Block scheduling is not going to make geniuses of their unruly kids.

Then he says: "It's a time of change.. we will keep things in a forward looking mode"...Read: "Progressive".

The white-haired man who described the girl who liked it, was actually describing her dumbing down. He keeps repeating that everyone is going to 'feel better about themselves' and thus it will solve disciplinary problems. I can say from experience that it does not.

And these people can't see it? They want to make the periods longer so they can 'cross' the curriculum and do other things and thus make it fit for the other things they have planned. It has nothing to do with the success of the kids.

And if kids are 'feeling' successful does that means they are???

Finally the prinicipal admits this change is part of a bigger plan!!! And he throws in a few more buzz words of OBE to prove my point.

For someone who's been through all this, it is all too familiar. And judging from all the others things he said, I was right. YOU HAVE BIGGER PROBLEMS than just 'block scheduling'. Your school has fallen into the OBE trap.

Timberlane is indeed in trouble.

The case against block scheduling:
http://www.jefflindsay.com/Block.shtml

The findings of this research support some of the findings of Skrobarcek, et al. (1997). Skrobarcek and his colleagues reported that for a group of high school students taking Algebra 1, the block classes consistently had a higher failure rate than the traditional classes. http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-66355137.html

And here, they blame the teachers. Maybe they 'feared' it because it does NOT WORK and made their jobs HARDER and the kids more bored?
http://www.aasa.org/publications/saarticledetail.cfm?ItemNumber=4315

One more gimmick?
http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9A0DE5D91339F932A15753C1A96F958260

NH · Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

Also, this post by Tom Linehan gets to the crux of the matter.

http://salemnhforum.org/viewtopic.php?t=1783

Excerpt:

therents · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 67

Part of the bigger plan is to get a new HS and MS.

BS means more space is needed. Woodworth has also mentioned at SB meeting that our kids will no better when they have a pretty looking school.

Lunch will also be problematic. We will need a larger cafe. With BS 1600 kids need to be feed in about 20 minutes, we now have 6 lunch periods at 20 minutes each. In fact, reading over at www.speakoutdanville.org, it looks like Danville Elementary held their Bingo for books at Sanborn because our HS cafe only holds 300 people.

NH · Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

NH · Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

Area Schools Settling Into Block Schedules
But Experience Fails to Demonstrate That Longer Classes Boost Learning
By Daniel de Vise
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, August 25, 2005; AA12

When the Anne Arundel County school system nearly doubled the length of classes at Severna Park High School, Renee Belisle found it harder to sit still. And the more demanding regimen seemed to stress out her teachers.

But there were things Belisle liked about the school's move in fall 2003 to divide the school day into larger blocks of time -- known as block scheduling. The new schedule, which called for longer classes to be held every other day, added two class slots. That allowed Belisle to take Advanced Placement Spanish literature her senior year. The extra classes might have helped her get into Cornell.

"It was good to be able to take more classes and just kind of see what you wanted to do," said Belisle, who will start college this fall. "But you don't know if they got watered down for [the sake of] quantity instead of quality."

The Anne Arundel school system is about to begin its third year of block scheduling, one of the most significant, and disputed, changes imposed by Superintendent Eric J. Smith in a bid to raise high schools' academic caliber.

From its origins in the school-reform period of the early 1990s, block scheduling has slowly expanded across the region. Neither a sweeping change nor a fad, the block schedule is now embraced in roughly half of the Maryland suburbs as a tool to increase academic depth and flexibility. And most communities have departed from the traditional schedule of six or seven 55-minute classes.

Smith placed the county's 12 public high schools on matching block schedules two years ago. That same year in Prince George's County, then-Superintendent Andre J. Hornsby imposed block scheduling in high schools. Frederick County high schools, among the first on the East Coast to try block scheduling, made the change in 1991. Fairfax County, the largest school system in Northern Virginia, began moving to block scheduling in 1993 and now has every high school on the schedule.

Howard County, by contrast, took several high schools off block scheduling in 2004 when the system adopted a uniform class schedule based on 55-minute periods but incorporating elements of the block schedule. Six of Montgomery County's 24 high schools use block schedules. The format is uncommon in Southern Maryland.

The underlying trend might not be block scheduling so much as uniformity: Superintendents are increasingly placing schools on similar bell schedules, with similar textbooks and lesson plans.

They speak of a need to standardize what is taught from room to room and from school to school; to guarantee that a certain amount of instructional time is spent on math or reading or some other academic priority; and to simplify such tasks as training new teachers.

"When I first arrived, we had three different types of schedules," said Smith, the Anne Arundel superintendent. Now, he said, "we're all talking about the same textbook, and we're all talking about the same amount of time."

Block scheduling came about as a way to break up the assembly-line schedule that dominated high schools until the 1990s. The theory: Longer classes would give teachers more time for instruction and for using a variety of teaching styles, and students would spend less time walking through halls between classes and settling into their chairs at the start of classes. The schedule seemed natural for, say, science teachers, whose typical lesson might involve a lecture and laboratory work.

Frederick high schools were among the first to adopt a form of block scheduling known as the 4x4 model. Students take four classes at a time on a semester system. The format allows students to complete eight courses in a year, compared with six or seven in the traditional schedule. Teachers' planning periods are extended from about 50 minutes to 90. And the average teacher "load," the number of students taught in an academic session, is reduced by about half, to 100 or fewer.

"By the end of the first couple weeks, the teacher could pretty much name each student," said Lucy Romeo, who will be a junior at Middletown High School.

The schedule has its drawbacks. Around the country, band and art teachers have complained, citing difficulty in persuading students to schedule a class that will take up one-quarter of their academic day.

Anne Arundel and Prince George's schools adopted the other pervasive form of the block schedule, known as A/B. Students take four classes one day and four other classes the next, for a total of eight courses taught on alternating days.

That format allowed Anne Arundel high schools to offer two additional class periods; before fall 2003, most high schools had a six-period day.

As with the 4x4 schedule, the A/B schedule allows teachers more planning time. The chief drawback: It increases each teacher's student load. A typical Anne Arundel high school teacher sees at least 180 students over the course of a week.

Even with the expanded planning period, teachers "are not getting the time to sit and plan," said Sheila Finlayson, president of the Anne Arundel teachers union. She said the block schedule -- and the student load, in particular -- is a top complaint among teachers who leave the system.

Smith thought high schools needed to offer a seventh or eighth class period to stay competitive, given the rising expectations of college admissions officers. Simply adding a period would be too costly, he said, because it would require hiring many more teachers. The block schedule accomplished the goal without added expense.

"It was important that we increase the number of credits available to students in Anne Arundel County," Smith said. "I knew, from a financial standpoint and a political standpoint, it would be impossible to go to a seven-period day."

He said teachers have been steadily added to the system to reduce class sizes and teacher loads in response to teachers' complaints.

By squeezing eight classes into an academic calendar that once accommodated six, Smith has reduced the number of hours a teacher can devote to a course. The instructional time spent in a class has dropped from about 9,000 minutes to 7,750.

Belisle, who experienced the old and new schedules at Severna Park High, noticed the difference.

"In some classes, there was like an eighth of the book that we didn't finish," she said. "Nothing can make up for the fact that a class that was made to go in 180 hours now has to go in 140 hours."

Parents remain divided on the benefits of the block schedule. Terra Ziporyn Snider, a parent leader who initially protested the schedule change, says she understands Smith's motives.

"I think he knows, and any good educator knows, that the gold standard for any high school program is an eight- or nine-period day," she said. "I don't think we should go back to the six-period day. I really think it was a detriment to our students' competitiveness."

But Leslie Cowing, who has two children entering Severna Park High School this year, said some children cannot handle the extra time and expectations. "Every 20 minutes, you have to shift your attention or you just cannot focus as a student. That's the brain," she said.

Howard County school leaders found a way to expand the six-period day without resorting to block scheduling. Their uniform high school schedule, adopted last year, combines five 55-minute class periods with one "block" period of 90 minutes. Students switch classes on alternating days during the block period. The result: seven classes in six periods.

Mount Hebron High in Ellicott City was on an A/B block schedule, like Anne Arundel's, until the change. Meghan Tranter, who graduated this spring, preferred the new schedule to the old.

"With a six-period day, you would see your teacher every day, and it was easier to just keep things in your head," Tranter said. Under the A/B schedule, with classes offered on alternating days, "it was hard to remember what you did two days ago," she said. "It just got kind of confusing."

The lesson of block scheduling, according to studies and position papers, is that no such reform will magically raise test scores. A 2003 study tracking ACT scores in 450 Illinois and Iowa high schools found no benefit to block scheduling. Locally, school systems with block scheduling and those without all report steady progress.

"We thought that if we changed the schedule, we'd just have a miracle with these scores," said Snider, the Anne Arundel parent. "And we've learned that it's hard to make these changes."

Source: Washington Post

NH · Joined: 30 Apr 2008 Posts: 8

Philadelphia-area school district finds block scheduling doesn't deliver higher test scores

Sunday, April 04, 2004

By Martha Raffaele, The Associated Press

HARRISBURG -- In the mid-1990s, the Coatesville Area School District traded in its traditional high-school schedule for a new format with fewer classes, but longer class periods, hoping that more in-depth classroom study would produce higher test scores.

Now, with the nation's public schools facing intense pressure to improve math and reading test scores under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, administrators in the district near Philadelphia have concluded that providing four nearly 90-minute periods of "block scheduling" hasn't helped.

In February, the school board approved a return to a schedule of seven periods of approximately 40 minutes. The change will take effect in September.

"In our circumstance, it was an educational decision on how kids best learn," said James T. Scarnati, the district's superintendent for the past three years. "We changed in order to help us become better and more proficient at what's being measured by No Child Left Behind."

Block scheduling was among a variety of alternative schedules endorsed by the National Education Commission on Time and Learning in 1994. The commission urged schools to rethink traditional schedules so students could spend more time on core subjects such as English, math, science and history.

It is unclear how many schools nationwide adopted block scheduling -- the number in the state also is unknown, according to the Pennsylvania School Board Association -- and statistics on those that have tried and abandoned it are even harder to come by.

Additionally, no broad national studies have been conducted to determine whether block scheduling improves standardized test scores, said Carol Freeman, a research associate with the Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota.

Block-scheduling research compiled by the center has generally focused on either one school district or one state, with varying results. For example, while a 2003 study of Connecticut high schools found that performance on state tests "may even improve" under block scheduling, a 2002 comparison of two South Carolina high schools -- one with block scheduling and one with traditional scheduling -- found no significant difference in reading or math scores.

"Block scheduling ... makes it easier for teachers to do the kinds of activities that can research an objective. If they want to stand and deliver a lecture, then you might as well have a shorter class," Freeman said. "A schedule can't push learning."

At Coatesville, math scores are a concern, Scarnati said. Coatesville's average score on the state's 11th-grade math test has fluctuated between 1250 and 1280 over the past several years, according to state Education Department records. The minimum score that students must attain to demonstrate they can perform at their grade level is 1310.

Scarnati said the timing of the test may create difficulties for students. Coatesville's block scheduling enables students to take a year's worth of classes in one semester, and the test is given in the spring.

"The gap occurs by children taking a year's math course in the first semester, then they probably more than likely don't take another course until the next year. There's no chance to remediate [any problems]," he said.

Coatesville physics teacher Dave Fenimore believes the longer periods work for English, social studies, and "special subjects" like art and music, but not for math and science.

Although it is supposed to enable teachers to offer a wider range of classroom activities in one period, Fenimore said he primarily stuck to lecturing because he believes students should learn how to listen and take notes.

"It has caused problems for me, because in a field like physics, you introduce a topic, and you need time to absorb that concept," said Fenimore, a 17-year veteran. "I ended up introducing multiple concepts in class. I've been arguing that it's akin to dumping five gallons of water on a drowning man."

James Buck, a 16-year-old junior, said block scheduling was "a relief" when he entered high school, because the pace felt less hectic.

He expects he will adjust to more classes in shorter periods next year, but said many students are anxious about the change.

"My personal opinion is that they're moving too quickly," Buck said. "If they told us this year that they would start implementing it for the class of 2006, I wouldn't mind."

Source: AP

curt · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 6:57 pm Post subject: Re: IB

curt · Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 10:26 pm Post subject:

PBealo · Site Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 112

Can any parents attend this following meeting??? It would have been good to see a detailed schedule like this earlier, though Don Woodworth did have a brief mention of it in his April newsletter...seems like a good opportunity to discuss the Administration's lack of communications and openness with parents with people who just mihgt care.

I wonder why the Timberlane Administrators don't want it taped??? Someone REALLY ought to do just that. It is a public meeting afterall.

> Every 10 years our school must be recertified by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC). This Sunday through Wednesday a NEASC team of 17 secondary educators will be visiting TRHS to see where we stand in relation to the seven standards set for public schools. They will be reviewing our self-study (an 18 month process), meeting with parents, students, teachers, School Board and others, and all the while measuring us against the standards. So, all the meetings relate to how we are measuring up to the standards of Mission, Curriculum, Instruction, Assessment, Leadership and Organization, School Resources, and Community Resources.
>
> This Sunday, we will make an initial panel presentation to the NEASC team beginning at 1:45 in the PAC, and you are most welcome to attend that hour long presentation. However, we are not video- or audio-taping the presentation, and we will ask others not to do so as well. There will be a reception in the school cafeteria at 3 PM, and the team will then be interviewing teachers one-on-one from 3:30 until 4:30. After that members of the team will meet with all interested parents in Room 600 at 4:40 PM. You are also welcome to attend the reception which will continue even after the team leaves to interview the teachers. The parent meeting too is open to all parents of students in our school. Hope you can make it.
>
> The agenda for the panel presentation is broken down into three component areas: one, who are we as a school community; two, how are we guided by our stated Mission; and, three, our responses to five general questions posed by NEASC. Hope this is helpful.

PBealo · Site Admin Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 112

Attached is a presentation Mr. Woodworth sent me. I had asked for the one presented to the School Board. I added notes and questions, and make it available here:

http://www.chachka.net/BlockSchedulingBoardPresentationwith%20Bealonotes.pdf

There are many unquantifed costs shown. Many unsubstantiated statements, and at least one clearly incorrect statement (regarding AP test scores increasing)

also note - the powerpoint file sent to me showed in "Properties" that it originated from Coker, not Woodworth.

Peter

therents · Joined: 29 Apr 2008 Posts: 67

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