Schools of Thought

One of the more interesting structural debates about high school (and one of particular interest to me as I prepare to enter the teaching force) surrounds the schedule. The question of how the school year and the school day should be designed is perfectly legitimate: the three main options are the traditional 6-period day every day, the "A/B" block schedule of 4 longer classes a day alternating with 4 different classes the off-day, and the "4x4" block schedule of 4 longer classes every day for a semester and then 4 different classes the next semester. What's chilling to me is when a shift in the schedule is considered not because of the schedule's effect on the students and their learning, but because of teacher workload. As the Washington Post reports:

Anne Arundel [Md.] school leaders are moving toward a fundamental shift in how high school courses are scheduled, in response to teacher complaints of excessive workloads under the current system of double-length "block schedule" classes.

After just one meeting last week, a school system task force already seems to have reached consensus that the current high school schedule should be scrapped.

[...]

[T]eachers have found their student loads vastly increased under block scheduling. Teachers typically went from teaching five classes a day to six classes across two days, and from serving about 150 students to 180 or more. The schedule emerged as the leading complaint among teachers leaving the system, cited by 71 percent of departing teachers in exit surveys.

[...]

The task force's sense of urgency stems from the disquieting rate of teacher turnover at the high school level, administrators say. Teacher resignations in Anne Arundel spiked from 295 in the 2001-02 academic year, before universal block scheduling, to 467 in 2004-05. Combined resignations and retirements at the secondary level, encompassing both middle and high schools, totaled 242 in 2004-05, or about 10 percent of teachers at that level. Resignations and retirements in elementary schools totaled 160, or about 7 percent of teachers at that level, according to Florie Bozzella, human resources director.

There's not a single word or quote in the article by an educator or administrator suggesting that the A/B block schedule was having a negative effect on student achievement. That's not to say that it isn't; it's just that the students aren't playing much into the equation. The better solution, one might suggest, would be to hire more teachers.

There is quite a bit of research to suggest the benefits of block scheduling, and some to indicate the superiority of A/B scheduling over the 4x4. As a 2000 article in the Phi Delta Kappan noted generally,

In 1998 Donald Hackmann and David Waters found several positive outcomes as a result of block scheduling. They discovered that students were able to take a broader array of courses. In addition, schools reported fewer disciplinary referrals, improved class attendance, increased numbers of students completing Advanced Placement courses, advanced mastery of subject content, and improved course grades. Similarly, Sharon Skrobarcek and her colleagues reported that students received more individual attention from teachers in the block design.

So whether Anne Arundel high schools should operate on a A/B or 4x4 block schedule is a fine conversation to have, and there are arguments to be made on both sides. The problem is that the arguments this task force seems to be considering revolve around teacher workload instead of what's best for students, and that's tremendously askew. Certainly overworked teachers and high teacher turnover are going to have negative externalities with respect to student achievement, but teacher workload can be addressed in a plethora of other ways that are student-independent.

Unless all other options have been utterly exhausted, no educational change significantly affecting student learning should be made without the effects on student learning driving it.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 22, 2005 at 10:38 PM. |