Get Schooled

By Jen

March 16, 2005 03:33 PM | Link to this

I do not think there are many school systems in the metro area that offer block schedule. DeKalb is the only one I know of currently. The one school in our county that was on block schedule was forced to switch back because of the issues that occurred when students transferred from one school to another during the school year.
AP classes themselves are a good topic to be discussing. Have you considered doing a “challenge index” similar to the one Jay Matthews and the Washington Post does annually for the Washington DC area? There is always so much focus on SAT scores, but parents need to be pushing their children to take whatever AP and IB classes are available at their schools.

By neil

March 17, 2005 08:05 AM | Link to this

I graduated from Campbell high School in 1999. For the last two years, we were on block schedule. The school compensated for the AP schedule in three different ways. Science AP classes lasted the entire year. AP English alternated days with AP Government. And AP Econ was taught as a semester long class with a week-long refresher near the time of the AP tests. This worked generally well, though I was unable to take AP Calculus because it coincided with the only AP English class.

By high school teacher

March 17, 2005 11:36 AM | Link to this

Douglas County schools are on the block schedule. Most AP courses are indeed 2 semester courses. AP English, American Literature, Calculus, and Chemistry are two semesters long. Students are limited by the course options if they take AP, but that just prepares them for the world of college, where they must select their own schedule.

By Ernest

March 17, 2005 12:07 PM | Link to this

While DeKalb had the right ideas in moving to the Block schedule, it is now obvious there was not much education for staffers in how to effectively implement it. There are many school systems in GA and around the country that use the Block and find effective ways to integrate AP courses. Heck, I believe Druid Hills HS used the block before other schools considered it. In hindsight, DeKalb should have attempted to ‘learn’ from others before fully converting over.

By Aaron Skinner

March 17, 2005 03:49 PM | Link to this

I went to high school in The Woodlands, TX, a suburb north of Houston. We had the 4x4 block schedule, and for courses that were taught in the Spring, there was not much problem. For courses taught in the Fall, they were taught in the regular 90 minute period during the Fall, and then there was a 45 minute “trailer” for the course, which was taught in the Spring. This trailer kept us from forgetting everything we had learned during the break from January to April. This system promoted pairing-up of AP classes, although if you had an odd number of them, you could always take Study Hall for the other 45 minutes. Other year-long courses, like Band and Choir, were 45 minutes all year. In fact, I took Choir just to fill up the other 45 minute period with my Band class, and later ended up majoring in voice at college. Anyway, with the 90+45 AP classes, some teachers taught everything in the Fall and then reviewed all Spring, and some other teachers taught 2/3 in the Fall, and the other 1/3 in the Spring. If teachers aren’t on the same page though, that can be bad if students have to switch teachers because of scheduling conflicts. I guess the system worked, because our school had something like a 90% pass rate, 75% of which were scores of 5! I wonder if they’re still using that system?…