ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, October 23, 1996 TAG: 9610230040
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
Beginning in February, Blacksburg High School will test a kind of happy-medium style of block scheduling, designed to accommodate most teacher and student needs in the school.
The "modified alternate schedule," announced at a parent meeting Monday night, will provide two days each week for the longer, 85-minute class periods that are key to any block style.
Karen Coston, a social studies teacher who served on the scheduling committee, said this was a compromise that a majority of teachers were willing to try for a semester.
"Even teachers who didn't want students for an hour and a half every day felt that they could find meaningful activities for them once a week," she said.
Monday's announcement means Blacksburg High will become the third of Montgomery County's four high schools to adopt some form of block scheduling, which involves longer class periods and fewer class changes and is designed to keep students interested in school and reduce the number of behavior problems.
Though block scheduling has been in effect in Christiansburg and Shawsville highs for a full school year, there's no concrete evidence yet that it is meeting its goals. Some students have said the longer classes are boring. Some also complained they aren't able to take a full year of band, chorus or other electives because they had to take other classes required for graduation.
Under the new Blacksburg High schedule, Monday, Thursday and Friday will remain the same, with the seven traditional 50-minute class periods.
On Tuesday and Wednesday, those classes would be split up and stretched to 85 minutes. Even-numbered classes (periods 2,4 and 6) would be held on Tuesday; the odd-numbered classes would take place on Wednesday.
After researching more than 50 block scheduling options, Coston said the faculty narrowed the choices down by listing the negatives and positives about the school. Dropouts were a problem, but discipline was not, she said. Both of those issues were among the reasons listed by principals at Shawsville and Christiansburg high schools when they requested permission to move to full, four-by-four block scheduling.
At those schools, students have four 90-minute class periods per semester. Auburn High School, in Riner, has not experimented with block scheduling.
The modified block system will give Blacksburg High teachers the chance to use a longer period once a week to engage students in more in-depth science labs, longer tests or more broad research projects, Coston said.
On Tuesdays, there will also be an activity period. She said teachers have already come up with activities for students to fill the Tuesdays for the rest of the year, including awards ceremonies, student performances, guest speakers and club meetings.
"I told the teachers this is going to take a lot of planning on their part," Blacksburg High Principal Alfred Smith said. "I don't want to see [the activity period] become a study hall for kids."
While some administrators have talked about having all four schools in Montgomery County on a full block system, Smith told parents he was under no pressure to keep this or any other type of alternative schedule.
"No one would be more surprised than I would to hear that the faculty decided to switch to full semester blocking," as Christiansburg and Shawsville have, he said.
Evaluation of the new schedule will likely be through student, parent and teacher evaluations. If, by spring, they find the system isn't working, Smith said, he promised the school will have the freedom to change again.
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