Implementation of an alternate day block schedule: a case study

Scheduling is a valuable but untapped resource for school reform. Nationwide, educators and administrators have focused on the manner in which time is allotted to various subject areas during the school day. One of the school improvement efforts that has influenced secondary scheduling is the block schedule. In Virginia secondary schools, the Alternate Day Block Schedule has become an innovative effort for school improvement. In this scheduling arrangement, students attend six to eight blocks of classes over a two-day period. One-half of the classes meet in double instructional blocks one day, while the remaining classes meet the next day. With so much public scrutiny of teacher effectiveness and student achievement, schools are required to incorporate change. The purpose of this study was to investigate and analyze staff development training prior to the implementation of an Alternate Day Block Schedule and to describe how teaching practices changed due to the schedule implementation. The study involved interviewing the teaching staff, administrators, and parents of a case study site which had used the Alternate Day Block Schedule for the past three years. The case study and document reviews were conducted using interviews to gather in-depth information from administrators, teachers, and parents. Information obtained from the interviews were then further studied to find responses that were either similar or extremely different. The majority of the interview responses reflected a consensus of opinion regarding the overall success of the alternate day block schedule. There were, however, two areas of the research that provided differences of opinions regarding the effectiveness of the block schedule: staff development and teaching practices. Responses by teachers and parents to interview questions revealed that schools considering moving to a block schedule model would benefit from in-depth study of the staff development provided and the evaluation of teaching practices gained from the training.

Name thesis:degree_name

Doctor of Education

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Administration

Department dc:contributor.department

Educational Administration

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1997

Author dc:creator

• Cunningham, Dianne J.

Chair dc:contributor.committeechair

• Alexander, M. David

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Earthman, Glen I.
• Salmon, Richard G.
• Singh, Kusum
• Stowers, Donald E.

• development
• teaching
• schedules
• block

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-10022007-144713

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/39491