The six schools in the Freehold Regional High School District will switch to a block schedule format beginning with the 2018-19 school year.
The school district which enrolls students from Colts Neck, Englishtown, Farmingdale, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan and Marlboro currently follows a schedule of seven 47-minute classes and a 28-minute lunch period each day.
The period based schedule has fixed times and days for classes. Administrators said the block schedule format will follow a rotating class schedule with five 67-minute classes per day and a 35-minute lunch period.
According to district administrators, “Each day there will be five ‘blocks’ that are 67 minutes in length, as well as a 35-minute unit lunch period. The new schedule consists of a seven-day cycle (A, B, C, D, E, F and G days), with students seeing only five of their seven classes each day. This means two classes will be ‘dropped’ each day.
“A feature of the schedule is the rotation of classes, meaning that a class meets at different times during the seven-day cycle. The FRHSD rotating block schedule includes four classes that rotate through three blocks prior to lunch and three classes that rotate through two blocks after lunch. On ‘G Day,’ a class from the afternoon rotation will occur before lunch.
“The number of days in each marking period (approximately 45 to 47), semester (approximately 91 to 92), and quarter (approximately 45 to 47) does not change. The number of class meetings will range between 32 and 33 per marking period,” administrators said.
Superintendent of Schools Charles Sampson said, “A couple of years ago during negotiations with the teachers’ association, one of the things we chose to explore together were the parameters to transition the district into a block schedule.
“One of the things that was important to us is that we have seen over time a number of districts transition to the block schedule and it is an overnight transition. We wanted to be much more deliberate than that.
“We have taken a total of three years of planning and collaborating about how we were going to go about doing this because we wanted to do it right. We recognize that people who have been teaching in a 47-minute compartment for their entire career need the support to be able to transition to a 67-minute (period) and that was one of the reasons we wanted to take our time with this,” Sampson said.
“We have spoken to a number of students as to what worked for them in the classroom. Providing the opportunity (for) a more authentic learning experience rather than just having people stand up and talking is something the district has been focusing on for the last couple of years.
“We hope the transition to the block schedule will provide students an opportunity to engage much deeper in their learning and have teachers help in that process,” the superintendent said.
District administrators said the benefits of moving to a rotating block schedule include:
- Longer periods allow for greater depth of instruction. This increases the opportunity for teachers to use differentiated and varied teaching strategies (e.g., cooperative learning, inquiry based lessons, simulations), as well as student-centered learning experiences and instructional approaches;
- Classes meet at different times during the day, which assists with students’ perception and focus. Students will not have a particular class at the same time every day. This is helpful for students who miss class time at the end of the day for athletic events and/or students who struggle to focus first thing in the morning;
- Students focus on five classes per day rather than on seven class per day. Students have fewer classes to prepare for on a given day (e.g., assessments, homework, projects), which can allow them to give each class greater attention;
- Teachers benefit from more usable instructional time each day because less time is lost with beginning and ending classes;
- Additional teacher preparation time is afforded in order to plan student-centered lessons.
“We are excited for the implementation of the rotating block schedule which will greatly enhance instructional time for our students,” Sampson said. “This new schedule increases the opportunity for teachers to use differentiated and varied teaching strategies, as well as student-centered learning experiences.”
The district operates high schools in Colts Neck, Freehold Borough, Freehold Township, Howell, Manalapan and Marlboro.
