The Academic Focus Block Schedule…

A Better Way for Students to Learn

by Jack Hobbs

Why is it that people think that having six classes in one day is the only way high schools can or should be structured? This is not the way college students organize their school day, nor do we see elementary students switching rooms and teachers every hour. The only reason that junior high is scheduled this way is to “get students ready for high school.” If you think about it, how many workplaces in “the real world” expect employees to switch locations every hour, changing bosses and co-workers and sometimes even the language used? If pressed, the reason people will usually give for moving thousands of people every hour in a high school is something like, “Well it’s because that’s the way it’s always been done.” Or, “It’s traditional.”

If we were to use that same logic in all of our social endeavors we’d still be churning butter at home, our schools would be racially segregated, and women would not have the right to vote. We need to start thinking outside of the Carnegie Unit Box and look at alternatives, taking into consideration the ways that students learn best and the most effective methods to challenge and inspire them.

At San Marcos High School we have designed a better way to organize the school day to meet the demands of the twenty-first century. This modified school day, the result of extensive research and a lot of hard work, has been successfully implemented for the past thirteen years here, and has created an atmosphere on our campus that is much more conducive to learning. Select any criteria for measuring student performance at the school, whether it’s test scores, county-wide competitions, graduation rates, state accreditation reviews, surveys of stakeholders, or college acceptance rates, and you will see that this is a school that truly excels.

Our students focus on three or four classes a day with only one passing period in the morning and one in the afternoon. Classes are ninety minutes long, and students complete six classes a year, just like at the other schools in the district. The difference is that they take three in the fall and three in the spring. Teachers meet with ninety students a day instead of one hundred and seventy (or more), and students may opt to take extra classes each year for remediation or acceleration. The vast majority of our students graduate with more than the minimum required for graduation, and go on to succeed at some of the country’s top institutions of higher learning.

And yet, the schedule at San Marcos is often misrepresented and misunderstood by many in the community, by the downtown administration, by our school board and by others who have never set foot on our campus. Since the high schools in our district must compete for students under the district’s open enrollment policy, there is an annual campaign to create a distrust of the block, and every year rumors circulate that “the block is going to go away.” This creates an ongoing perception problem, forcing us to defend ourselves each year and launch a counter campaign to get out the truth.

Why should we have to do this? Is this just the price we must pay for bucking tradition and offering an alternative to the traditional six-period school day? Just about anyone who takes the time to come to our school, sit in on the ninety-minute classes, talk with students or visit with a student through his or her school day will understand why this schedule works better for learning. Since few parents have had any direct experience with the block system and how it works, and most don’t have the time to spend a day here, they must rely on what they hear from neighbors.

One of the most common misperceptions we have to deal each year involves dismissals. Since we are staffed with the understanding that six classes is a full schedule, we cannot offer four classes to every student on campus who might wish to take them. The reason we can offer extra classes at all is because every teacher on our staff agrees to teach six classes a year instead of five. We have committed some of these sections to making sure that all ninth graders have eight classes a year, and after that the majority of our students do take four classes a day. But a full schedule is still six classes a year, which means some upperclassmen may find an hour and a half of extra time in their school day.

Now why is this necessarily a bad thing? To hear the smear spin going on in the community, you would think that all of our students on dismissal get out at noon to engage in juvenile delinquency and mayhem, or that they are forced to go home against the will of their parents.

First of all, no student is granted a dismissal without parent or guardian consent. Some students choose to come to school at 9:30 a.m. and some may leave campus at 1:30 p.m. As I said earlier, most take an additional class, participate in a sport during fourth block, or stay on campus to do homework in study hall during their free period. There are also many students who earn credits by working as lab or office assistants, library aides or teaching assistants. Many of those who choose to be dismissed at 1:30 p.m. have jobs after school or family obligations. This occurs at the other high schools in our area as well, where many juniors and seniors leave school at the end of their 5^th period class at 1:39 p.m. in order to work or pursue extracurricular interests.

At San Marcos we have instituted a more efficient way to structure the day, saving time by eliminating two passing periods and shortening lunch to a half hour. We are able to deliver a year’s worth of instruction in a traditional semester by accelerating the pace of instruction. This creates a system much more similar to the one used on most college campuses, where students focus on fewer classes at one time and class sessions are longer. (Note: I have yet to find a school of higher learning that expects students to attend six fifty-five minute classes a day.)

Many students put this extra time they’re given to full use. They take classes at UCSB or SBCC that we aren’t able to offer here, like Japanese or Astronomy, or they take care of their community service requirement. They participate in job internships, giving them a head start on their chosen careers. Some of our students donate hundreds of hours volunteering at Cottage Hospital, working as tutors for elementary classes, or serving as youth sports coaches. And yet, you probably don’t know about this unless you’re a San Marcos parent.

These students don’t expect any glory or recognition (or pay) for their work, and this is why most never hear about the hundreds of thousands of hours donated over the years. By the way, the community service requirement was another restructuring innovation piloted at San Marcos that is now in place at all of the high schools in Santa Barbara.

Another misconception is that students don’t learn as well in the longer classes, that they can’t sit still that long, or that they will forget what they’ve learned if they don’t take a class all year long. Well, none of the teachers at San Marcos expects students to sit for ninety minutes of lecturing. Classes move at a fast pace with several varied activities and approaches to make sure students understand the material before moving on. Students are expected to do more independent homework for each class, since they have fewer classes in their day, which is another good reason why some chose the study hall option.

Regarding the retention of material, there is a need to review in some classes, just like there is after summer break. Most teachers in the core academic subjects devote time to reviewing material that students need to remember before moving on in the first week of a new term. With classes of ninety minutes, meeting five days a week, there is ample time for extensive review as needed.

So why are the teachers, parents and staff of San Marcos willing to fight this annual campaign of misinformation that plays on the fears of eighth grade parents, a campaign that misrepresents us as some kind of ill-conceived “experiment”? Wouldn’t it be easier just to give up the fight, fall in line, and go back to a traditional six-period day?

It might be easier, but we feel it would be a serious mistake to go down that road. We have looked at the overall performance of San Marcos students over the last decade and found convincing evidence that this schedule opens up options for students, as mentioned above, and provides a better way to learn. To go back would be counterproductive. We don’t claim that we have the perfect system, but we do see the advantages of our schedule far outweighing the disadvantages.

We will continue to look for even better ways to encourage our students to become active, engaged learners who take their educational goals seriously. Once a school decides to embark on restructuring, the staff and parents must continue to innovate and improve in order to move forward. If we discover ways to improve the performance of our students even more, then we have a process in place to institute changes in curriculum and instruction. In the meantime, we will provide the best educational programs possible with the resources, technologies, and expertise available to us.

Parents have the right to choose the best school for their sons and daughters, and we also believe they deserve to have options. Over the years, however, we’ve learned that misperceptions and rumors fly like wildfire, while the truth is often smothered in the ashes of innuendo and half-truths. It’s important to find out for yourself which school environment is best for your son or daughter before making this important decision.