Block Schedule Endures, But Results Are Unclear

Parents remain divided on the benefits of the block schedule. Terra Ziporyn Snider, a parent leader who initially protested the schedule change, says she understands Smith's motives.

"I think he knows, and any good educator knows, that the gold standard for any high school program is an eight- or nine-period day," she said. "I don't think we should go back to the six-period day. I really think it was a detriment to our students' competitiveness."

But Leslie Cowing, who had two children entering Severna Park High School this year, said some children cannot handle the extra time and expectations. "Every 20 minutes, you have to shift your attention or you just cannot focus as a student. That's the brain," she said.

Howard County school leaders found a way to expand the six-period day without resorting to block scheduling. Their uniform high school schedule, adopted last year, combines five 55-minute class periods with one "block" period of 90 minutes. Students switch classes on alternating days during the block period. The result: seven classes in six periods.

Mount Hebron High in Ellicott City was on an A/B block schedule, like Anne Arundel, until the change. Meghan Tranter, who graduated this spring, preferred the new schedule to the old.

"With a six-period day, you would see your teacher every day, and it was easier to just keep things in your head," Tranter said. Under the A/B schedule, with classes offered on alternating days, "it was hard to remember what you did two days ago," she said. "It just got kind of confusing."

The lesson of block scheduling, according to studies and position papers, is that no such reform will magically raise test scores. A 2003 study tracking ACT scores in 450 Illinois and Iowa high schools found no benefit to block scheduling. Locally, school systems with block scheduling and those without all report steady progress.

"We thought that if we changed the schedule, we'd just have a miracle with these scores," said Snider, the Anne Arundel parent. "And we've learned that it's hard to make these changes."