Washington County school leaders will consider block scheduling

ABINGDON, Va. – Washington County school system leaders are meeting Monday to hear from a consultant on options for a change to block scheduling in the high schools.

At 7 p.m. in Room 400 at Abingdon High School, James Madison University Professor Emeritus Michael Rettig will present the pros and cons, and the options for block scheduling plans, which basically establish longer class periods for individual subjects. The meeting is open to the public.

In a letter distributed on the school system’s listserve Jan. 13, Superintendent Alan Lee wrote that block scheduling is being considered in light of new high school graduation requirements from the state that will require students to earn more credits.

“The traditional seven-period schedule will put our students at a disadvantage in that they will have fewer opportunities to take elective courses, perhaps reducing the enrollments in a number of programs,” Lee wrote. “In a world where our students will face more international competition for higher education, jobs and a good standard of living, we cannot afford to have an organizational structure limiting their opportunities.”

Bo Catron, secondary supervisor of instruction for the school system, said the district is considering a modified block schedule that also would enable the county’s high schools to keep programs that might otherwise be lost and avoid the cost of another state requirement: a personal finance course for all students.

He said school system administrators believe a modified block schedule would be the best option to pursue, and they are considering one in which students would have two year-long courses and six semester-long courses, for a total of eight subjects covered in a year.

It would mean one more class per year, for a total of 32 course opportunities for each high school student instead of 28.

That’s significant, he said, because starting with next school year’s freshmen, the state requires 26 credits for graduation, meaning that under the current schedule, each student could take only two elective courses.

“We’re trying to maintain all the quality programs we have and give kids the opportunity to take courses because elective courses – technical and arts and music – are big programs in Washington County,” Catron said.

Another benefit, Catron said, is that the modified block schedule would allow each teacher to teach eight courses a year rather than seven.

That would allow existing teachers to pick up the personal finance course and also help make up for teaching positions that are being left unfilled because of budget cuts.

Other than implementing block scheduling, he said, the school system has two options: Eliminate programs or increase student-teacher ratios dramatically.

He points to Holston High School, which has a different kind of modified block schedule, as an example of how block scheduling can work successfully.

If the school board ultimately decides to proceed with such a plan, it would first be implemented in the fall of 2011, Catron said; Monday’s presentation is just an information session, and opportunities for discussion and input will come in the future.

“If there’s a better way out there to give kids more opportunities, we want to hear it,” he said, “but in our consultation with other professional individuals in other school divisions, we feel like this is the most viable solution to give kids opportunities to do some sort of modified schedule for our students.”

Classroom time

* Block scheduling: Students are in classes for longer periods, but fewer subjects per day. Subjects are then scheduled in alternate day, or semester, or sometimes trimester periods. Block schedules can allow for coverage of more subjects a semester, or a year.

* Period scheduling: Students are in classes for about an hour for each subject every day of the week (usually allowing for seven subjects in a semester).

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