Several studies have found that an inordinate amount of potential instructional time is lost in the American secondary school classroom. This paper briefly overviews the history and types of block scheduling in secondary schools and presents findings of a study that examined the perceptions of administrators and teachers in two large eastern…

This study was conducted to: (1) determine if the intercession calendar, an alternative calendar that reduces the total school year for students who do not need remediation, positively impacts overall student achievement; (2) to assess the explanatory ability of the intercession model in accounting for student academic achievement variability; and…

This is a followup study of teacher perceptions regarding block scheduling. The original study was done in 1996 at a small city high school in a predominantly rural county in Ohio. At that time, lack of communication was found to be the central theme in the resistance that emerged. This paper is based on data from written responses to open-ended…

This study examined one public school system's change in its scheduling format from a seven-period day to block scheduling. This longer uninterrupted instructional time, usually lasting 90 minutes, provides for fewer classes and transitions per day, and the completion of more course credits during the school year. Participants were 200 high school…

This paper outlines, explains, and illustrates the core block model of scheduling, which allows students to spend more time with fewer teachers and encourages greater teacher interaction and ownership in the lives of their students. The core model has been used effectively with advisory programs, drop schedules, and exploratory blocks. It serves…

This study examined the relationship between school scheduling format and average composite scores on the ACT Assessment after controlling for lifestyle factors, gender, school enrollment levels, number of examinees, and years under the scheduling model. The participants were 38,089 high schools seniors in 568 public high schools in Iowa and…

During the past 4 years block scheduling has been adopted by a majority of the high schools in Middle Tennessee. This paper presents findings of a study that explored the effects of the new schedule. Data were gathered from a questionnaire that was completed by 280 teachers and approximately 2,000 students from 6 high schools in the region. Both…

This paper is a literature review of intensive education, or "macro block-scheduling." Intensive education is a change in the structure of secondary school organization. It involves organizing the school's schedule for efficiency and effectiveness so students study and teachers teach one subject for 30 days. Students stay with one…

The block schedule is fast becoming the new instructional delivery format of choice for the 1990s in American secondary schools. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the effects of changing from a six-period day to a four-block schedule on two large high schools in Knox County, Tennessee. Part I of the study examined the…

A description is given of the development and implementation of the BLOCK Schedule Program, which provides an alternative format to the traditional high school schedule and has a time frame similar to that of a summer school schedule. The target population was high risk students at the sophomore and junior levels. Students attend BLOCK classes for…

The barriers to physical mobility of the elderly are explained in this study which concentrated on spatial-temporal accessibility, and the use of mass transit to urban services and resources. The first area of concern dealt with the amount and extent of free time available to the elderly who are perceived as having large blocks of descretionary…

Although parents are key stakeholders in the educational process, their perceptions are often neglected in studies of school reform. This paper presents findings of a study that explored the attitudes of parents of New York State high school students toward block scheduling. A survey of all parents of 11th and 12th graders in a rural New York high…

A study of teacher perceptions regarding a proposal to adopt block scheduling was done at a small-city high school located in a predominantly rural county. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 7 selected teachers from the faculty of 41. Lack of communication was found to be the central theme in the resistance that emerged. This paper…

As of 1996, Chaparral High School in Las Vegas, Nevada, was in the fourth year of a radical restructuring effort. The school changed from a 6-period day, composed of 51-minute periods, to an alternating day schedule, composed of 3 102-minute periods per day. This report describes how the school developed and implemented the new schedule. Faculty…

This study had three purposes: to compare the concerns of student teachers in a full semester program with the concerns of those in an eight-week, block program; to apply a factor analytic approach to the classification of student teacher concerns; and to determine the level and direction of changes in concerns as a result of experiences during…