Stamford High Schools May Move To Block Scheduling

STAMFORD, CT — The Stamford Board of Education's Teaching, Learning and Community Committee discussed a proposal to implement block scheduling at two city high schools during a meeting Tuesday night. Though still in the planning phase, this schedule change could be put in place as early as this fall.

According to Associate Superintendent for Teaching and Learning Brian White, Tuesday's meeting was the first opportunity for the high school-level scheduling committee to share their work, which has been ongoing for at least two years, with the board.

"[Block scheduling] is being considered very seriously," White said. "It is our intention to implement the block schedule at Stamford High School this fall and at Westhill High School in the fall of 2020."

Under block scheduling, a student's day would consist of four 85-minute class blocks, eight in total for the year. Currently, most classes at both high schools are 50 minutes long. Students would have alternating "A" days and "B" days, both of which would consist of four classes. For example, if a student had English during first period on an A day, they would not have that class on a B day.

White said the decision to move forward was made by the scheduling committee last year. (To sign up for Stamford breaking news alerts and more, click here.)

"Last spring, both the principals of Stamford High School and Westhill High School had communicated with their faculties that the outcome of that committee work was to move toward blocked scheduling," White said, "and that this year we would be taking steps as a district to support the faculties at both schools toward making that transition.”

The committee is currently working with administrators from both schools and will be working with other committees of teachers and stakeholders to inform what schedules would look like next year at Stamford High and the following year at Westhill.

While the typical high school student might be used to the 50-minute model, block schedules are common in college and are not unique to schools in Stamford. The Academy of Information Technology and Engineering (AITE) currently operates on a similar schedule and has for at least a decade.

"We’re certainly looking at that [AITE] schedule as an example of a model that has worked here in Stamford," White said. "I think it’s certainly going to be helpful for us as we find our way with Stamford High School and Westhill to be able to have AITE as a reference point of a high school in Stamford with this schedule model that has done very well."

Much of the committee-level work that has occurred over the past couple of years consisted of looking at different scheduling options and considering the positives and the negatives of them.

"When we set out to decide what would be a good schedule we did have a lot of criteria that we looked at," White said. "That criteria included academic factors, social and emotional factors. Ultimately, all things considered we felt the block had many positives and that’s when the decision was made to go in this direction."

White also said they are being thoughtful about the transition from middle school to high school with these longer block schedules, however there are no plans to implement this type of schedule at any schools other than Stamford High and Westhill.

According to Stamford Public Schools Public Affairs Officer Sharon Beadle, a block schedule will also be beneficial to help students meet graduation requirements by adding one extra block to their schedules. It also offers students the opportunity to have a more robust transcript.

"Instructionally there’s significant benefits to this," White said. "The advantage longer instructional blocks provide is that it offers increased opportunities for students and teachers to go into much greater depth into a concept or skill. So it’s our expectation that with this new model there will be increased opportunities for critical thinking, inquiry, student collaboration, communication and for creativity, and those essential skills that exist across all content areas are the skills that our teachers will be emphasizing in their instruction during the longer blocks."

He also emphasized that students and teachers do have some experience with block schedules, as students currently have one longer block period in their schedules.

"It’s not going to be a completely new experience," White said. "What will be new is having block every period, having fewer classes a day that meet for longer spans of time. That will be a change, and we’re working to support our teachers with a plan of professional development so they’re ready for success in the fall."

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