This article gives an historical perspective of block scheduling as well as looking squarely at the advantages and disadvantages of it. It focuses on how block scheduling affects such things as school climate, staff morale, and most importantly student achievement. Results from surveys given to administrators and students utilizing block…

Understanding the relationship between innovative learning spaces and teachers' pedagogical and social practices is essential given the increasing investment in innovative learning spaces worldwide. This study examined the socio-spatial practices of a group of teachers at a secondary school in an innovative learning space. Interview responses from…

Why do a trimester schedule? With the advent of block scheduling, many high schools conducted research on utilizing that plan in a trimester format. There appeared to be three issues that most schools faced: (1) How to provide substantive instructional time that was not fragmented?; (2) How does the school climate contribute positively to…

This publication focuses on block scheduling. Alternative scheduling models--usually called "block scheduling" because they involve blocks of time for student learning--restructure the school day. Schools may adopt block scheduling to create more productive and personal relationships among teachers and students, to design challenging…

In 2003, Dr. Freddie Thomas Middle School in Rochester, New York, was in serious trouble. In 2000, it had been labeled a "school under registration review" by the New York State Education Department and was under a directive to make significant progress or face serious consequences. Three years later in 2003, only 3% of eighth-grade…

Although many high schools are switching from a semester to a trimester schedule as a response to increased high-school graduation requirements, there is very little empirical research on trimesters. In this ethnographic case study (2006-2009), we observed 22 math and science classrooms, interviewed seven administrators, two counselors and 22…

There are those in the school community who believe that the anxious feelings and heightened sense of anxiety experienced by sixth graders as they transition from elementary to junior high school constitute a rite of passage. Teachers and school administrators in the Indiana Area Junior High School in Pennsylvania believed differently. During the…

This "snapshot" illustrates how one school is managing to make a positive difference for ninth graders. It describes the Ninth Grade Success Academy, a school-within-a-school at Thomas A. Edison High School in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which has a number of features specifically designed to help ninth-graders make successful…

Today's schools are responding to the pressing need for positive student-teacher relationships that promote successful learning and prevent dropouts and violence. To meet this challenge, many secondary schools are reorganizing around smaller schools or "houses" and structuring longer blocks of learning time. Authors Elliot Y. Merenbloom and…