Imagine walking into school on a Monday morning with six classes, homework due, and not enough time to get classwork done. This is the classic Lake Stevens High School student experience.
Picture a schedule with fewer, but longer, classes and more time to dive into the material. This creates an environment of less stress, more learning, and more focus.
An A/B block schedule is a schedule where students attend half their classes on “A” days and the other half on “B” days. This means longer classes, but they occur every other day. The most common implication of this is a two-week schedule with the first week being A/B/A/B/A and the second week being B/A/B/A/B.
Similar to an A/B scheduling, here in Snohomish County we have Everett Community College which offers a running start program where high school juniors and seniors can take college courses alongside or instead of high school courses.
These classes often meet every other day for, on average, 80 minutes. This is representative of an A/B style schedule.
Not attending six classes daily allows for more focus and fewer classes in a day. It allows students more time to complete their work for a class.
“I can start and finish bigger assignments in one day. It feels like I’m learning in complete chunks rather than pausing my education every 50 minutes and switching subjects,” O’Malley says.
Implementing A/B schedules in our schools can help students prepare for the transition to college and overall can impact students’ focus in the classroom like O’Malley said.
Here at the LSHS, some students feel as if six classes a day is too much.
“It doesn’t give me enough time to really focus and study. Having too many classes a day gets my mind stressed,” senior Gillian Tyson said.
Having six classes in a day can be a lot for a student to worry about, especially if they have tests in multiple classes that day. Switching to A/B days breaks up the monotonous everyday schedule and can help students compartmentalize their days.
Critics of A/B schedules say that absences pose a threat to a student’s education because a student is missing around 90 minutes of instruction rather than 56 minutes of instruction in a day. Students who miss school will have a harder time catching up with the subjects they miss.
However, absences will be a problem no matter the type of schedule. Luckily, we have technology that can help students bridge the gap between missing class and staying on top of work. Teachers also often take longer gaps into account, so the pacing of a class can vary.
Making the switch is a time-consuming process. It would include getting administrative approval, planning, teacher and staff adjustments, curriculum adjustments, community feedback, scheduling reorganization and possibly a trial period. Monetary needs would also probably arise from curriculum issues, teacher training, and software changes.
Switching to an A/B schedule would reduce daily student stress and help prepare for college courses. Concerns about absences are valid, but the pros outweigh the cons. With thoughtful planning and adjustments, this could be an effective switch.
