Block scheduling is a major topic that has been discussed by the Stamford Public Schools district over the past couple of years. An article published in the Stamford Advocate had said that Stamford High decided to go to block scheduling for the next school year, when in reality, it had not been fully decided yet. Two sides quickly emerged on the issue as the pros and cons of such a change in schedule were considered. Personally, I think the block scheduling would be a good idea.

The state is changing the number of credits needed to graduate high school from 20 to 25 starting with the graduating class of 2023. Block scheduling would make that 25 credit requirement easier to reach for incoming freshmen. By changing to block scheduling, the amount of classes you would be able to take would increase from 28 to 32. This would allow students to have four more opportunities to reach the necessary credit requirement for graduation. If we don’t switch to block scheduling, students would have to get 25 credits with only 28 classes available. That does not leave much room for error if a student fails a class or losses credit because of poor attendance. Students would have a full schedule almost every year. Having four more opportunities would provide students with much greater chances of hitting that 25 credit goal.

Changing to block scheduling would also allow for more time in the classroom. Teachers would have more time to teach and not feel as rushed. We would also be able to cover more of a topic at once instead of having to break it up over several days.

Some people may be against the block scheduling because of how long the classes would be and the fact that it is very different from the current schedule in place. People could be worried that because we would be the first non-magnet public school in Stamford to do this, there could be some mistakes made and new issues along the way. However, this schedule is in use at AITE which seems to be doing fine. An AITE student I spoke to agreed with me. Junior Elena Salm said, “I would say that it is better because you get another day to do your homework and you finish the curriculum before the school year is over. It also is more like a college class so it prepares you for your future.”

I think that maybe testing out the schedule for a day before we fully commit to doing it would be very helpful. We can see what it would be like to have classes that long and if it would be able to work. Making a plan to have us test out the block scheduling for a day could help impact the decision based on how well or not so well it goes. Since I am a junior and the school is not doing the scheduling next year, it won’t affect me. However, I think that with the new credit requirement, block scheduling would help a lot with maintaining students’ academic successes.