The effect of block scheduling high school mathematics courses on student achievement and teachers' use of time: implications for educational productivity

Block scheduling involves the reallocation of instructional time into longer class sessions to encourage more active teaching strategies, reduce fragmentation inherent in single-period schedules, and improve student performance. To the degree that such policies reallocate existing resources to realize higher levels of desired educational outcomes, the goal of productivity can be served. Despite widespread experimentation with various forms of block scheduling. there is conflicting evidence on the impact of these innovations on student achievement, and little evidence of their effect on classroom practice. This study explores these relationships, More specifically, the study draws on data front the National Education Longitudinal Study: 1988 to estimate the impact of block-scheduled mathematics courses on tenth-grade student achievement and teachers' use of class time. Findings suggest that while block scheduling is positively associated with teachers' use of multiple instructional methods and more individualized instruction. this scheduling reform has a negative impact on students' tenth-grade mathematics scores, controlling for other factors. Implications for educational productivity are discussed. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.