By HANNAH DUNN-GRANDPRE – Digital Managing Editor

In 2000-01, the Clarke County School District moved from a year-long schedule with six classes each day to a block schedule with four classes each day and a new set of classes second semester. Thirteen years later, CCSD has decided to move away from the block schedule and return to year-round classes.

“At the time, the research showed block scheduling was going to be the cure- all. At that point, our students who were not graduating, it wasn’t because of tests, it was because of credits. Giving the students more credit opportunities was a way to help our students graduate,” IB Coordinator/Gifted Collaborator and Scheduler Dr. Meri Blackburn said. “There’s discussion that we shouldn’t be building in recovery options, we should be getting students through the first time. So, the research goes back to how do we teach it right the first time?”

The beginning

With the ultimate goal of helping students pass classes in mind, CCSD’s High School Instructional Committee formally began investigating block scheduling and its effectiveness for learning in Sept. 2011.

According to CCSD Superinten- dent Dr. Philip Lanoue, there were several reasons for the increased popularity of block scheduling in the past 15 years. CCSD officially adopted the block schedule in the 2000-01 school year and replaced the six-period day that had been in place previously.

“There were only several really key reasons for going to the block: less passing time, maximized instruction time, teachers had less students at once, students had less courses to take and with a 90-minute block you could get deeper into the instruction,” Lanoue said.

From Sept. 2011 to spring of 2012, research was conducted to investigate what was the best choice for high schools in the CCSD. After researching and surveying students and teachers, the committee was recommended that moving to a traditional year-long schedule was the most effective choice.

The research, compiled by University of Georgia professor Dr. Sally Zepeda, showed that while there had been slight improvements, students learning on a traditional schedule were consistently outperforming those learning on a block schedule. This research looked solely at performance on various standardized tests and was not connected to the survey given to teachers and students.

The final research write-up explained: There is some support for improvements in student grade point averages and discipline under block schedul- ing, but the research does not provide support for claims of improved test results, better student attendance, or changes in teachers’ practices. Given the pervasiveness of standardized testing since the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act, the lack of robust support for block scheduling as a reform that boosts test scores might give pause to stakeholders considering adopting or continuing such a schedule.

An official vote

After the recommendation was made by the High School Instructional Committee to discontinue use of block scheduling, the Board of Education voted in July 2012 and made the decision to move to seven-course offering beginning in the 2013-14 school year. Following this vote, the scheduling committees at the school levels started working to create an appropriate schedule.

“We had discussed it at the district level, but we went more in-depth and wanted to do our own research to make sure we got what was going to be in the best interest for Clarke Central,” Principal Dr. Robbie P. Hooker said. “The great thing about this schedule is that we didn’t go to a book and get this schedule. It’s a schedule that teachers here at this school developed.”

The scheduling committee researched various schedules from schools across the country. They also looked at several schedules from schools closer to home, evaluating Madison and Morgan county school districts’ schedules in place. However, CCSD schools required a more personalized schedule that had to be created with certain specifications in mind, according to Blackburn.

“After the Board voted to move to a seven-course offering, we changed our focus to look at very specific schedules that would accommodate all of the district’s needs. With the Career Academy and dual enrollment, we have a really weird dynamic. Nobody else has that. There’s a lot of things to think about,” Blackburn said.

Because of these different factors, Blackburn, along with the rest of the scheduling committee, worked to make a schedule that would fill all of the needs of the CCHS and CSHS students.

After creating two potential schedules, the scheduling committee presented them to the CCHS faculty. Teachers were asked to send in any questions they had or potential problems they saw in preparation for the proposal Blackburn would present to the High School Instructional Committee.

“We asked our teachers to send all the pos- sible questions and troubles that they saw with the schedule so that we could troubleshoot, we could come up with solutions for things like dual enrollment,” Blackburn said. “I don’t like to put something out there and then realize later ‘Oh well we should’ve thought of that.’ I like to look at all the problems that are going to come up and at least have a possible solution.”

In Oct. 2012 Blackburn presented the schedule she had created to the High School Instructional Committee. This committee is comprised of CCHS and CSHS principals, associate principals, counselors and members from the Board. CSHS also presented a potential schedule for the upcoming year, but the decision was made to proceed with Blackburn’s because it better fit the needs of the schools.

The new schedule was released to CCSD faculty and parents on Oct. 16, 2012. Following this, Black- burn held assemblies with each grade level, exclud- ing seniors, to explain what the 2013-14 school year would look like. The Program of Studies for the 2013-14 school year was updated to match the new seven-course offering in January.

Under the new seven-period schedule, which will be implemented next year at Clarke Central High School, students will take five 70-minute classes per day and a total of seven classes per year. The schedule breakdown as currently planned is illustrated below, with every class taken twice every three days and a GLAD Time/Advisement period taken once every three days.

Tough Decisions

As the transition to the new seven-period schedule began, concerns from students, parents and teachers have been addressed to try and avoid further conflict in the future. Students’ major concern was how the schedule would support off-campus activities such as internships, dual enrollment or classes at the ACCA.

Students who plan on leaving campus must either spend their morning or afternoon block of time at their respective locations. However, students enrolled at the ACCA, as well as other colleges, will remain on the semester system. Students must dual enroll during both semesters and take at least two classes each semester.

“When you look at the way the new master schedule was built, you ended up with a rotation cycle in the morning, a rotation cycle in the after- noon and then the consistence of fourth block,” Thielman said. “If you were in an internship or you were dual enrolled and you were going to UGA and you wanted to only do it in the fall, there would not be a mechanism for you to come back to Clarke Central in the morning or afternoon in the spring.”

Students also have other concerns about adapt- ing to the new schedule.

“I think its going to be a lot more complicated because we’re going to have a lot more classes and a lot more homework and I think a lot of people are going to be confused by the whole schedule,” junior Priscilla Cortez said. “People are going to focus less on each class. With four classes we can focus more because there is more class time and less classes to have work in.”

Students on the block schedule, at any given time, were responsible for the workload of four classes. On other schedules that the schedul- ing committee looked at, such as the modified block and the year-long schedule CCHS will move to, students are responsible for an entire year’s worth of classes at once.

“The challenge is for students who like to take five to six APs in a year, that means its going to be that much at one time. They’ve just doubled their workload,” social studies department head Ashley Goodrich said. “Even though it’s going to be spread out, I think that’s going to be a challenge. Students are going to have some tough decisions to make as far as what they can really handle.”

A stronger relationship

Despite the heavier workload for both students and teachers, Blackburn feels the year-long schedule will still have positive effects on classes.

“(Teachers) know they’re going to have more students not over the course of the year, but at one time,” Blackburn said. “One of my favorite things about year-long (scheduling is) I knew my students so much bet- ter after having them for a whole year. It was like having a real family.”

In addition to building class bonds, according to Goodrich, the new schedule will help teachers connect with students because of the amount of time they will work together during the year. “Developing relationships with your students is the most important part of our job. With some students, it’s challenging to figure out how you can best connect with them and there’s maybe those three or four

students every semester who I finally have gotten to that point with at the very end and then it’s over,” Goodrich said. “I feel like this will give us more time to develop those relationships and when we get to the midpoint, we’ve got that relationship and we still have a whole other semester together.”

One of the reasons for switching to a year-long schedule was the in- creased number of contact hours, or number of hours spent in the class- room. On the current block schedule, there are 130.5 contact hours. On next year’s schedule, there will be 140 contact hours per course.

“With AP US History, it’s just a burden to try and get through that cur- riculum in that amount of time,” social studies department teacher Harry Cooper said. “Having hours back will be a significant help. I’m looking forward to bringing back in fun activities that we just don’t have time for now and I think students will be very happy.”

AP courses that had previously taken place in one semester, such as AP Statistics, will now last the length of the entire year. The prerequi- sites, such as Microbiology before AP Biology will be eliminated.

“At first I was kind of iffy about (the new schedule) because I liked having the semesters so I could get a lot done and be done by my junior year,” sophomore Hanleigh James said. “But, this seven-period year, it sounds like it makes a lot more sense, especially since I’ll be taking AP classes where I don’t have to rush each semester.”

With the new seven-course offering, students will have the opportu- nity to earn 28 credits over four years, four more than the graduation requirement of 24 credits. On the 4 x 4 block schedule students were able to earn 32 credits over the course of eight semesters, eight more than the graduation requirement.

“On one level it doesn’t sound like much, going from eight options to seven and for kids who do well and do what they’re supposed to do, that loss of one course in a given academic year should not be an issue at all,” Thielman said. “If you’re perpetually caught in the cycle of failure though, that becomes problematic.”

On the current 4 x 4 block schedule if students failed a course in the fall, they were given the opportunity to retake the class virtually via education2020. This system allowed students to remain on track with their required courses and move on to the next grade level if they had failed a class.

“(Block scheduling) allowed at-risk and off track students to recover credits with the opportunity to graduate on time. It also allowed students an opportunity to take more classes in other to explore their interest and to prepare for post secondary plans,” one of the comments from the teacher survey said in response to the question “What are some advantages of the current high school schedule?”

According to the research done by the district, two shorter spaced classes would be roughly two times as effective as one longer block of instruction with regards to students’ ability to retain information.

“(The new schedule) certainly should have a positive impact on the graduation rate. When you extend the length of time kids are in class (over the course of a year) then I think you end up having a greater number of kids take it once and pass it,” Thielman said. “Now, are there kids in transition that are going to have some challenges? I think so.”

Of the four core subject areas, math, English, science and social studies, math is the only subject in which the courses must be taken sequentially, meaning you cannot take the next level until you pass the first and the courses cannot be taken at the same time. If a student fails a math course, because four are required over four years, there are limited options for credit recovery. To ensure that students are getting as much help as possible to pass their math courses, weak math students will take a math support class in addition to their other course so that students never go a day without a math course.

“If you’re not a strong science kid, you’re probably not a strong math kid. Those go hand in hand. So, if you need as a sophomore, say if you didn’t pass Physical Science in ninth grade and you choose to take it next year in e2020 while you’re taking Biology and while you’re taking Geometry with support there’s four of your classes just to math and science. So, then you have English, social studies and you have to have a foreign language. So, you’re done and if you don’t pass two, you’re in a whole lot more trouble,” Blackburn said.

Approaching a paradigm shift

One positive aspect of block scheduling that had been initially considered was the opportunity for students to make up classes they had failed within the same academic year, and therefore stay on track for graduation. However, as CCSD moves away from block scheduling, this idea has been reexamined.

“If you have a population of kids that have historically said, ‘Well, if I fail this it doesn’t really matter, I can take it again,’ there’s going to have to be a paradigm shift. We’ve said to kids, ‘What happens if you don’t pass math this year?’ and ‘What happens if…’ It changes the conversa- tion,” Thielman said. “This is just human nature, until people have gone through that transition phase, there are some that will continue to oper- ate as if the old system were in play.”

As CCSD moves to the new system, the transition period may be difficult due to the complexities of the schedule, according to the Thiel- man, however, students still have every opportunity to be successful as they did on block.

“It may take us a year, it may take us two years, but at the point at which the kids internalize ‘I better take this once, pass it and get on with it, because if not then I’m not going to be able to graduate with my class.’ Kids will step up and do what they need to do to be successful and it will take care of itself,” Thielman said.

To try and keep students from falling behind, administrators and counselors have made a point to talk to students to plan their schedules and decide what the most effective and beneficial path will be for them.

“I’d like to believe the conversations have staying power once (stu- dents) go back to class, but if someone says, ‘I’m just going to go back to my old habits,’ then being in that transition group doesn’t really matter because you’ve made other decisions that are keeping you from being successful,” Thielman said. “I think we have systems in place that will en- courage kids that are currently not being successful to be successful and we’ll still try and figure out what’s the best way to realistically achieve a goal and if that means staying in our system longer, so be it.”

Options for students that fall behind include summer school and e2020 as well as zero and eighth period, time before and after school where students can take virtual classes. As CCSD moves to the new year- long schedule, teachers, administrators and counselors will continue to advise students and work with them to stay on track, according to Thielman.

“I’m absolutely confident about the decision to go off of the 4 x 4 block and to go onto this new schedule because in the long term, it is in students’ best interest,” Thielman said. “Are there going to be individual failures here or there? Yes. Are there going to be some anxious moments as we transition? Absolutely. But, I think if we’re sensitive to that, proac- tive in our thinking, there’s a resolution for everything.”

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