This fall when the fields and lined, the crowds are out, the band is playing and the teams are taking the field, the iHigh Broadcast Network will be there. Misty Martin's Spanish class eats tostadas and rice on final exam day before winter break in a Kentucky high school. Normally, Martin's students wouldn't have enough time to set up the food, tables, take the test and clean up in one class period. But Martin's high school operates on a block schedule, a new concept in education that extends class periods to give students and teachers more flexibility in learning. Schools across the country have converted to block scheduling in recent years.
Educators find the block schedule a way to implement hands-on projects.
Students in block scheduling schools generally like it because they only have three or four classes of homework to deal with each night. They have fewer classes to keep up with. Teachers say block scheduling lightens their homework, as well. Roy J. Wasson High School in Colorado Springs, Colo., saw its average teacher load fall from 111.4 students to 61.3 in 1995. That means, on average, teachers had about 50 fewer papers to grade every day.