KTBS 3 News | Shreveport, LA: ArkLaTex News - Scheduling conflict at Caddo Magnet High

Posted: Nov 17, 2009 5:54 PM
Updated: Nov 17, 2009 6:12 PM

A scheduling conflict of sorts is brewing before the Caddo Parish School Board.

School system administrators are considering moving all high schools to a "block" schedule, which would mean more class periods each school year. The school day isn't extended, so students spend about 20 percent less time in each class under the block schedule.

The thinking behind the idea is that with seven to eight classes a day instead of the traditional six, students would have more opportunities to gain the required 24 credits to graduate.

But one teacher at Caddo Magnet High, which operates on the traditional schedule of six, one-hour classes, said they don't need that kind of change. Magnet has some of the parish's highest-achieving students, he said, and classes don't need to be added to give students more chances to pass because very few students earn failing grades.

The proposed change would force teachers to cram more material into each class and could affect Caddo Magnet's blue-ribbon status, teacher David Wells said.

"We just don't think block scheduling is going to continue to keep those high standards and let us cover all the material that we need to cover." Wells said.

Caddo Magnet, Captain Shreve and Byrd High have not switched to block classes, officials said.

School administrators will meet with a scheduling expert on Wednesday to discuss the benefits and drawbacks of the proposed changes.

Neutral + − !

Last, First at Nov 17th 2009 7:07 PM

The ONLY school that is on the block schedule in Caddo Parish is Southwood.

High + − !

Mack Evans at Nov 17th 2009 7:53 PM

Several studies by universities and a key study by College Boards has shown that block scheduling and modified block scheduling have lowered students achievement by as much as 20%.

Block scheduling is being touted as a way to help students that are having trouble.  How will cutting time in class by an hour a week for each subject and adding to a students work load with eight classes help a struggling student?

It seems that the outstanding and the struggling student are both being harmed in the name of reform.  Please read the studies and speak to your school board representative.

Me at Nov 17th 2009 9:34 PM

Contrary to the previous comment, a study by Trenta and Newman (2002) compared the grades of students in school before and after implementing block scheduling (longitudinal study). The authors concluded that, While not all the data relationships were significant, all that were significant involved a positive relationship with time in block scheduling (Trenta, 2002).

As a former high school student in the Bossier Parish school system, Benton High, I can say block scheduling was very beneficial to most students, including myself. It allows teachers and students to go into more detail and breadth on a subject.

And to answer your question, it can help by providing more time to students struggling with a concept or topic. And if you are going to tout a study be sure and cite it so that it can be verified.

FacePalm at Nov 17th 2009 10:15 PM

Before you go around throwing your cited source in everyone's face, maybe you should give a link to it so everyone else can read it, eh? Or did you just copy whatever the abstract says, since I doubt you got access to a journal archive without paying for it.

It is also obvious that block scheduling did your reading comprehension no favors; if you'd been paying attention, you'd see that the news story is talking about a system where students take more classes in one day with a result of less time per class... so tell me, please, how this is providing more time to students struggling with one class?

FacePalm at Nov 17th 2009 9:57 PM

I find it disheartening that the school board would rather (effectively) lower standards to improve statistics than actually improve the output of Caddo schools.

Block scheduling allows students to fail and under perform more times before being held accountable; do we really want LESS accountability for our children and young adults? What about the students who are doing well or excelling? Why should they suffer lower quality instruction because of the failures of their peers?

It sounds like the school board wants to try the, "flying crap," approach: if you throw enough crap at the wall, the right amount will eventually stick. Students can pass all the B.S. electives they want, but we shouldn't be matriculating kids who can't read, write, or properly speak English, or do basic math.