Alternative High School Scheduling - Student Achievement and Behavior Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium

In 1995, the Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium (MERC) commissioned a study of school scheduling models to determine the effects of different high school schedules on teaching strategies, teacher and student satisfaction, and student and school performance. This briefing paper, our third report of the data, presents the results of the analysis of the student achievement and behavior data.

Advocates propose that block scheduling should accomplish three main intentions: (1) foster teacher classroom and work behaviors which supports greater student involvement in the learning process, (2) create better working conditions for students and teachers, and (3) not lower standards. The block scheduling advocates assume that if changes are made in the structure which allow new strategies to be implemented school and student achievement will improve.

While research on these claims are scarce, the research that is available is conflicting. On the one hand, schools that have implemented block scheduling report that decreases in discipline problems and dropout rates and increases in attendance, grade-point averages, and in some case s failure rates. On the other hand, several Canadian studies report a negative effect on achievement as recorded by national standardized exams. And, a North Carolina Department of Education study (1996) reported that scores had neither increased nor decreased.

The generally accepted view is that teachers and students like longer classes, and that students do at least as well on measures of academic achievement which would be supportive of the advocates claims that block scheduling should be considered successful if it does not lower standards. Other voices, while fundamentally accepting the advocates purposes, seek evidence that changes in school structures and processes lead to greater productivity.

The basic question that guided our research is does any schedule type (short (45-55 minutes) or long (85-104 minutes), or periods which are scheduled every day or every other day) consistently produce different results in student behavior and performance? (See previous research briefs for description of sample.) To investigate this question we reviewed attendance, discipline, and dropout data supplied by the schools in our study. We also reviewed student grades, and standardized test results normally accepted by the public as indicators of student achievement.

Methodology. There are many block schedule structures that can be utilized, but most are mutations of two basic models: the alternating day block schedule, and the semester block schedule (commonly known as the 4X4 schedule).

We wanted to study the impact that the different schedules on achievement and behavior in different settings, but still be able to make overall comparisons. Therefore, we chose a purposeful sample of twelve (12) schools to represent a variety of scheduling approaches which had been in use for a three year period of time. These analyses were supplemented by (1) student, teacher and administrator perceptions at the twelve schools, and (2) on-site visits and administrator interviews conducted at twelve schools. At seven of the schools, focus group interviews with teachers, students, and parents were conducted. The performance measures were examined to determine whether student performance increased or decreased after the adoption of the schedule. To do this, the mean pre-schedule performance levels were compared with the mean post schedule levels.

STUDENT BEHAVIOR

Student behavior was examined in several ways. The perceptions expressed by teachers and students in the surveys and focus group interviews were reviewed against statistical data provided by the schools participating in the study. The average daily attendance rates (ADA) for each school were examined first. Average daily attendance is one measure of student attendance at school. Table 1, displays the averaged daily attendance of students in the twelve schools participating in this study. Average Daily Attendance (ADA) was computed using information the School Division reports to the Virginia Department of Education. Nine of the twelve schools changed the schedule. Three schools in the sample did not experience a change in a schedule. In two short block schools (one six period and one seven period schedule), they continued the same schedule for at least ten years. In one Semester Block school, it opened its doors under the Semester Block schedule and thus did not experience a change in the schedule. The results of this analysis showed that:

In the year after the schedule changes of the nine schools that changed their schedule, two schools increased their attendance rates by at least one percent the year after the change in schedules. Three schools experienced a drop their attendance rates of at least one percent the year after they changed their schedules. Attendance rates in the remaining four schools remained the same. In the two short block schools that did not change their schedules, one school experienced a decrease in their attendance rates, and the other schools attendance rates remained the same.

• Two schools on Alternating Block schedules experienced an increase in attendance the year after the schedule change. Two schools remained the same. Attendance decreased in two schools. Of significance the Alternating Block school with the lowest rate of attendance decreased after the schedule change.
  
• The schools on Semester Block schedules showed similar inconsistencies. One school experienced decreases in student attendance. Attendance rates at the second school remained the same the year after the schedule change, but demonstrated a sustained one percent increase in subsequent years after the schedule change.

In general, it is relatively clear that overall attendance has not been positively effected by the change in schedules. The focus group interviews provided some justification, particularly in the schools on an Alternating Block schedule, that the increases or decreases in school and class attendance may be related to schedule changes. For example,

Alternating Block Teacher Comments:

• "... more kids skip school and cut classes than before because they have figured out there's a lot of time you get caught too. If you miss a class that meets Tuesday/Thursday, and you skip Tuesday and Thursday Mom writes you a note and you come in on Monday, depending on what the principal's dealing with, it's like any kind of reinforcement, you got caught, but you're willing to take the chance."
  
• The attendance issue not necessary coming to the first period where you check the attendance, but it is skipping after the attendance is taken. I think kids are more apt to give it a try, where before . . . the next day, maybe they will forget and I will fall through the cracks. I think kids are more apt to cut than they were before.
  
• The ones who are there every day are actually making better grades than I thought they would have. But the ones who are absent are, it really affects their grades terribly when they're absent one day.
  
• When they miss 1 day it's like they missed 2 days worth of material.

Alternating Block Student Comments:

• "It makes it a lot easier for people to skip classes. I know that . . . "
  
• More kids skip class and school now because of a "lag time" in getting caught.
  
"... more kids skip school and cut classes than before because they have figured out there's a lot of time you get caught too. If you miss a class that meets Tuesday/Thursday, and you skip Tuesday and Thursday Mom writes you a note and you come in on Monday, depending on what the principal's dealing with, it's like any kind of reinforcement, you got caught, but you're willing to take the chance."

On the other hand, the anecdotal data also suggest that students in Alternating and Semester Block schools do not like to miss school because they miss too much work.

Alternating Block Student Comments:

• (Interviewer: "Is it easier to make up the work or harder?") Well, you miss all the material. You can't make up a lecture. I wouldn't want too anyway.
  
• "If you miss a day, you miss a week... If you missed a day last year... and if you miss a day this year, it's like 4."

In summary, these analyses of attendance did not show the expected improvements in attendance that advocates of alternative schedules project as a benefit of such schedules. In Alternating Block scheduled schools, the data support a conclusion that attendance may be negatively affected by schedule. Two factors may be adding to the decreases in attendance. On the one hand, it seems that skipping a class is easier. On the other hand, as Pisapia and Westfall, (1995) noted lower achieving students are missing more school than they did prior to the schedule changes. They related this finding to the fact that when a class is missed a student misses more material than in traditionally scheduled schools and that it appears to be harder to make up work missed.

Student discipline. The impact of the schedule on discipline was examined through the survey and focus group and individual interviews. While at the school site, the researchers also asked as to the number of discipline referrals, suspensions and expulsions. In every school, discipline referrals from classes and suspensions were reduced. More serious problems such as drug and weapons violations were not positively or negatively affected by the schedule changes. Since the responses were uniform and initial data supported them, no further collections were made on these categories. There is a generally agreed upon consensus that the school was "calmer, and fewer discipline referrals were being made by teachers. However, the following student comment was also the consensus at all schools. Teachers with discipline problems before with shorter class periods are still having discipline problems."

STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

The advocates claim that alternative high school schedules will not adversely affect student academic performance. The area of student achievement was examined in three ways to validate this claim first through the teacher surveys which asked for perceptions related to satisfaction with student achievement. Then, focus group interviews probed advances in student learning attributed to the schedule. Finally, these perceptions were reviewed against the statistical data provided by the schools in our sample. Two types of statistical data were reviewed. Student grades were examined first. Then, standardized test data (SATs, TAP, AP) were reviewed to further determine the impact of a schedule change on student achievement.

Is Learning more effective or easier? Teacher, student and parent opinions gathered from the focus group meetings tended to validate the survey responses and grade analysis. Learning, as reflected in grades, was positively affected in most Alternating and Semester Block scheduled schools with the advantage falling to Semester Blocked schools.

When the focus of the inquiry turned to the question of "Is learning within the block more effective, or is the course content easier?", teachers, students, and parents responded that students were experiencing a different learning environment. In Alternating and Semester Block schools, teachers were focusing on ideas more and facts less, and going more in- depth on subject matter. They see students at improving their problem solving and information processing skills. For instance,

Semester Block Teacher Comments:

• Students are very excited plus, they're making better grades than they ever have before, and not just in business. They're saying in other classes, too.
  
• Students in math are not saying that. Ours are moaning and groaning and saying we're going too fast.
  
• concentrate on and only 4 final exams - not because of watering down. However, I do provide less diversity/variety of content.
  
• It is more effective because it's more concentrated ..."
  
• "I see it as more like problem-solving skills, i.e., what do you do if, and how do you approach that? Rather than facts and data - I don't know, again, whether that's my fault or theirs or where that problem might lie... Interviewer "is it a fault?" Well, I don't know. I feel that it is for some reason."
  
• "I see them as thinking a lot more so than in my experience with other...but I don't know if that's true or not, it's just an ending sense that I get. A lot of that comes through discussion."
  
• "I don't know if I have the papers and that sort of statistical evidence to back it up, but my perception is that they learn perhaps better on certain things and on other things, not nearly as well. For example, I think they learn how to (in English when I'm discussing things) function in a seminar situation. It functions better. Because there's more time for that. I think some things do suffer, though, whether it's my fault or the schedule or a combination, but things that might require just sheer repetition; that I sometimes don't do, because I feel like I need to move on to cover additional content. I don't know if those things..."

Semester Block Student Comments:

• "I just think it's a different kind of...not necessarily that one is better than the other, because if you have 6 periods you have the whole year, but you only have maybe a little every day, but in 4x4 you only have 4 classes, but more homework, so I don't think one is easier than the other one, but I think you learn as much."
  
• "...learning more and understanding more than last year. I used stuff learned in math first semester in science second semester. Last year it would happen at same time."
  
• "Exams easier because you just learned the material. Learning better because you can focus better with only 4 classes a semester. "

Semester Block Parent Comments:

• "My son is working at the same amount as before; his grades are fine/good. No mention of any particular class being better or worse. Actually lots of time to do chemistry labs. Also loved the teacher too. No way to tell if any emphasis on academic or subject. "
  
• "My son likes the schedule because he gets more in-depth and interesting classes (more involved). When he was first told he would have to transfer because of the boundary change, he was resistant. In fact, he wrote a letter to the superintend asking him to stay where he was... Now, he would never want to leave for another school."
  
• "There's two ways of looking at it. I think the number of facts that ended up in her head was probably less, but I think her attitude, and what they did equipped her well. She may have lost a few facts, but she gained some other skills _ processing skills..."

Alternating Block Teacher Comments:

• I still have terrible grades because that is the nature of the beast, even though my students care... I don't know if they are learning more... I think unfortunately most of us feel like saying no but...
  
• Sometimes, I think students learn better because they take fewer courses a day. Still, they still have quite a responsibility. I'm not sure...
  
• The ones who are there every day are actually making better grades than I thought they would have. But the ones who are absent are, it really affects their grades terribly when they're absent one day.
  
• More, no, but they're understanding more...You don't get as far.
  
• I can see some real pitfalls for the average kid. I was concerned that average kids, c-level, they need to meet every day and here's why: homework assignments are easily lost or forgotten about, if not seen every day. Absences really hurt this level of student. Won't hurt the AP student. If they're absent, it hurts, especially with makeup. Then if say this allows for makeup, well you're still slowing down the whole educational process because of students not being present.

Alternating Block Student Comments:

• "Teachers tend to go more in-depth in an idea...". "I think we are getting more in-depth... of the background of it."
  
• "It gives you more time to learn. You'd start to learn something and then the bell would ring before. You never got to finish."
  
• "I think learning is a problem with every class because you start something new on Monday and then you don't come back to it until Wednesday.."
  
• "If you learn something, it should stick with you, so I mean, it might be hard to remember it for Wednesday, but you need to remember it for longer than Wednesday. That's the purpose of learning, isn't it?"
  
• "It forces you to really learn instead of memorizing because you have to know it for a longer time. Short-term memorizing is not actually learning it."

Grades. Grades were the first measure of student performance reviewed to determine the impact of various schedule changes. In the surveys, teachers were asked to judge theirsatisfaction with student achievement as reflected in grades. Pisapia and Westfall (1996, p. 13) found that, when compared with their counterparts working in other schedules, teachers reported significantly different levels of satisfaction with student achievement as reflected in the grades of their students. For example, they reported that the schedule significantly affects teacher satisfaction with their student s achievement as reflected in their grades (p=.00, Eta =.05). For instance,

• Teachers in Semester Block schools (m=.87; Eta=.06) report that student achievement as reflected in grades is significantly better than schools employing alternating long block schedules, (m=.36), and everyday short block schedules (m=.49).

The teacher's subject area also significantly effects their satisfaction with their student's achievement as reflected in their grades (Eta=.07). For instance,

• English teachers in Alternating Block schools using a study block are significantly more satisfied with student achievement as reflected in grades than English teachers in everyday short block schedules, and other Alternating Block schedules. Their level of satisfaction (m=.70) was similar to English teachers in Semester Block schools (m=.50).
  
• Math teachers in a sixth period schedule (m=1.00) were more satisfied than math teachers in Alternating Block schedules. Their level of satisfaction was similar to math teachers in Semester Block schedules (m=.85).
  
• Social studies teachers in Semester Block schools (m=1.12) and everyday short block schools were more satisfied than social studies teachers in Alternating Block schools.
  
• Vocational teachers in Semester Block schools (m=1.19) and six period day schedules were more satisfied than vocational teachers in Alternating Block schools that their students are gaining an in-depth understanding of the subject matter (p=.00, Eta=.06), and (2) whether teachers believe that their students are learning as much as they should be this academic year (p=.00, Eta=.07).

A grade analysis was conducted to validate these perceptions and determine if schools which changed their schedule improved after a schedule change and to contrast teacher opinion with actual grades received by students. Table 2, displays the GPA s of five schools which such data was available.

The data in Table 2 indicate that after the schedule change,

• GPAs increased at all five schools which changed their schedules, except one Alternating Block schedule school. The most significant increases were in the Semester Block schools. However, the Alternating Block schedule school which did not experience a schedule change the year after the schedule change experienced an increase in overall GPA two years after the change in the schedule.

The increases in GPA are primarily attributable to more students enrolling in Performing Arts classes when a school moves to an alternative high school schedule. For example, Pisapia and Westfall s (1995, pp. 164-171), analysis of GPA by subject area in four of the five schools, found that in one Semester Block school four hundred and five students (405) enrolled in Performing Arts classes and eighty four percent (84%) of them received grades averaging 3.5 or better. At another Semester Block school, student enrollment in Performing Arts Classes increased from one hundred and eighty-one (181) students in 1994 (83% of them received grades averaging 3.5 or better) to three hundred and fifty-one (351) students in 1995 (92% of them received grades averaging 3.5 or better). The number of students taking Performing Arts classes also rose at two of the Alternating Block schools. In one school, 96% of the students in performing arts classes received grades averaging 3.5 or better. At another Alternating Block school, 79% of the students in performing arts received grades averaging 3.5 or better.

• In their 1995 study, Pisapia and Westfall (pp.151-156) also found no negative impact of Alternating and Semester Block schedules on students performing at different levels of achievement as judged by GPAs. In particular, the GPAs of honor s student, students who were meeting the schools expectations (average students), and students who were not meeting the school s expectations rose to a greater extent in the school which moved to a Semester Block schedule, than the two schools moving to an Alternating Block schedule.
  
• In their 1995 study, Pisapia and Westfall (pp.164-165) compared the student grades by subject area and found that science grades of students in Semester Block school experienced higher increases (24% above 3.5 to 39% above 3.5) than schools on alternating and short block schedules. Furthermore, science grades in Semester Block schools increased at a higher rate than other core subjects. English grades in the Semester Block school were also higher than those Alternating Block schools. Other core subject area grades were relatively unaffected by changes to alternative schedules.

These findings are generally supported by the comments of students and teachers during the focus group interview.

Semester Block Student Comments:

• "I am learning more. Like in history, I learned just as much as I did when I took it in 9th grade_just a shorter time period; you don't have to go through the whole year drawn out...you can get it over with real quick and you learn just as much."
  
• "I think I am learning better because I only have a couple classes to worry about. I can focus better?"

Alternating Block Student Comments:

• My grades are better, but I don't know if that's because I've learned more. Maybe its because I'm realizing now that college is coming and I, you know, am taking school more seriously.
  
• Mine are better than before.
  
• I don't think the block has negatively affected any of my grades.
  
• I was really killing myself for good grades last year and this year, with this scheduling, I've been able to...it's been a lot easier... because I can manage my time better.

Seven Period Day Teacher Comments:

• About the same.
  
• I have lower grades than normal this year and I don't know whether it's the character of the class or is it time allotment.

STANDARDIZED TEST SCORES

Scholastic Achievement Test Scores (SAT). The scholastic achievement test (SAT) scores for eleven of the twelve schools in the study are displayed on Table 3. The school not represented was a Semester Block scheduled school which did not have a senior class in its first year of operation. Results are as follows:

• One year after the change, four of the seven schools which changed to an Alternating or a Semester Block schedule experienced rising SAT verbal scores. However, over the lifetime of the change, (in some cases 1yr, and others 4 years) verbal scores rose in six of the seven schools with data beyond the first year of the change.
  
• One year after the change, three of the seven schools which changed to an Alternating or a Semester Block schedule experienced increases in SAT math scores. In two schools, math scores rose dramatically over the lifetime of the change cases
  
• Two and three years after the schedule change, four of the five Alternating Block scheduled schools experienced increases in verbal scores. Whereas, two of the five Alternating Block scheduled schools experienced increases in math scores two or three years after the change in schedules.

TAP Scores. Table 10 displays student performance on the Test for Achievement and Performance (TAP) composite scale for all students and those who scored above the seventy fifth percentile on the measure. TAP is synonymous with the Iowa Test of Basic Skills and is given at the 11th grade.

• One year after the change, three of the eight schools which changed to an Alternating or a Semester Block schedule (for which comparable data were available) experienced rising TAP composite scores. All four of the schools, which demonstrated increases, were Alternating Block schedule schools. However, only one of these schools was able to maintain its improvement over the lifetime of the change (from 2 to 4 years). One Semester Block school demonstrated a 3% increase in TAP scores after three years.
  
• The schools which on a short block schedule, who did and did not change schedules, also experienced no positive changes in TAP scores, during the same years in which data was drawn from the alternating and Semester Block schools.

Advanced Placement Tests (AP). It is obvious from the results found on Table 12 that schools that have changed their schedules and have not changed their schedules are experiencing some declines in the percentage of who scored 3 or better on the tests for advanced placement into colleges. For instance,

• Two of the four Alternating Block scheduled schools experienced declines in the percentage of students who scored at three or better on the advanced placement tests.
  
• In the two Semester Block schools, the percentage of students who scored at three or better on the advanced placement tests declined.
  
• The school on the six period day schedule also experienced declines in the percentage of students who scored at three or better on the advanced placement tests.

With one exception, all schools, experienced fewer students sitting for advanced placement tests. This decline is likely related to the fact that colleges and universities are requiring students to score at the 4 or 5 level rather than the traditional 3 level for college credit, and fewer students are taking the courses and the exams.

John Pisapia

The information found in this research brief has been synthesized from the following MERC publications. All tables and graphs are provided in the printed version. Copies can be purchased using the online order form on the publications page.

Pisapia, J., & Westfall, A. (1995). Alternative high school schedules: Technical report. Richmond, VA: Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium.

Pisapia, J., & Westfall, A. (1996). Alternative high school schedules: A view from the teachers desk. Richmond, VA: Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium.

Pisapia, J., & Westfall, A. (1996). Alternative high school schedules: A view from the students desk. Richmond, VA: Metropolitan Educational Research Consortium.

Westfall, A. & Pisapia, J. (1994). Scheduling secondary schools: Questions and answers.

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