Block Scheduling

Block scheduling is something that has been a part of the schooling system in middle and high schools since the 1990’s. The idea behind block scheduling is having more time in a certain class.

Urbana High School is taking up block scheduling for the 2015-2016 school year for freshmen. The scheduling is, if a student is a freshmen who is taking AP Prep Composition 9 that student does not have a block schedule. While if a student is taking Composition 9 that student has two hours of that class. Also, the student who has block scheduling will not be taking two extracurricular classes, only one.

Personally, I believe block scheduling can be a good and bad thing depending on the circumstances and the students in the class.

The pros of the scheduling are that it gives kids who struggle in English an opportunity to get extra help. Students who find English a challenge will have more time to work on the material needed for the class. Not all kids will necessarily suffer from block scheduling.

There are cons, however, with block scheduling. One of them being that the students who do not need the extra time in English will not benefit from the extra time they have for it. The result may be students not being engaged in class due to the lack of stimulation they receive from what they are learning. Block scheduling also stops students from having the extracurricular classes they want to take. Students may have less motivation to do work because they wish they could be in another class learning something else. Block scheduling will not help students get better if they do not feel like they are progressing academically.

Block scheduling can help and hurt students. I feel a better way to go about it is to test students into certain classes to see where they belong.