UF study: FCAT scores lower for schools with block schedule

July 12, 2001

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Florida schools looking for ways to improve their FCAT scores may want to think twice about turning to a trendy format of longer classes known as the “block schedule.”

A University of Florida study has found that 10th-graders in schools with block schedules did not perform as well on the FCAT, Florida’s assessment test, as 10th-graders in schools with the traditional schedule of shorter class periods.

“This study is important because it is one of the first studies that has looked carefully at academic achievement in block vs. traditional schedules as measured by standardized test scores,” said Paul George, a UF education professor and longtime supporter of the block schedule concept. “What I would say is that the block schedule may be preferable for other reasons, but not to raise standardized test scores.”

UF doctoral student Bradley McLeland did the study for his dissertation in educational leadership. He compared the performance of 1,106 students in four North Florida high schools, two with traditional and two with block schedules, on the FCAT math and English tests in the 1999-2000 school year. To guard against bias, he selected schools that had students with similar racial and socioeconomic backgrounds, he said.

The schools with traditional schedules had six yearlong classes, each lasting 60 minutes. The schools with block schedules had four semester-long classes, each lasting 85 to 100 minutes, with a new set of four classes starting in the spring semester.

McLeland found that the mean FCAT scores of students in the traditional schedules consistently exceeded the mean scores of students in the block schedules. Although the differences were not pronounced for white students, the study showed, they were significant for black students. For example, the mean score among black students in the block schedule on the reading portion of the FCAT was 269.81. The mean score for black students in the traditional schedule was 278.59.

At first, McLeland said, the results surprised him, since his experience as a teacher and administrator in the Duval County school system had been that the block schedule helped to motivate and encourage students.

But McLeland, an assistant principal of community education in Duval County, said he now believes the results are less a reflection of the block concept itself than of the way it was implemented in the schools in the study.

For one thing, he said, his study took place only the second year after the schools had adopted the block schedule. “Maybe the teachers hadn’t adapted their teaching methods to the block quite yet,” he said.

Also, both schools were using a variation of the block schedule known as the “4-by-4 traditional,” which requires students to take four different classes each semester. As a result, it’s possible that some students began their math block, for example, in January, which wouldn’t allow much time to prepare for the FCAT, given in February.

“Even if they did math in their first semester, they would still be at a disadvantage because they wouldn’t have practiced their math skills in January and February leading up the test,” McLeland said.

To remedy that problem, McLeland said, schools should use a variation of the block, the “A-B block,” that allows students to take the same subjects all year long. Alternatively, they could double block subjects on the 4-by-4 schedule, he said.

McLeland and George said the block schedule has several proven benefits, including reducing discipline problems and boosting students’ grade point averages.

With about 40 percent of Florida’s high schools using the block schedule, the study’s take-home message may be that teachers need to be well trained to manage the block – and the exact scheduling format needs to be chosen more carefully.

“It may be that the FCAT results would be different if the training was comprehensive and if the transition was really effective,” George said.