Arlington school officials think the best way to get 11- to 14-year-olds to settle down and focus on learning is to shrink the seven daily periods to four or five and stretch each core-subject class to as long as 93 minutes.
They are proposing that middle schools move to block scheduling, a system that all four Arlington high schools follow in full or in part.
If the Arlington school board approves the plan, the district would spend the 2012-2013 school year training teachers and staff to prepare for a block schedule in fall of 2013. Core subjects of math, English, social studies, science and world languages would have longer class times and switch to every other day, while physical education and electives would remain at the shorter length.
Blocks for sixth-graders would be 76 minutes long and 93 minutes for seventh- and eighth-graders. P.E. would also move to alternate days for sixth grade, making room for an additional elective.
But can middle schoolers, with their growing bodies and hyper-social minds, stay in a chair for 90 minutes?
Absolutely not, nor should they be asked to, say a number of area education experts. But longer classes provide more time to get out of seats and into projects, experiments, problem-solving, role-playing and other creative activities and to engage with the subject, their teachers and their peers, education scholars say.
“It’s a tough call,” said Lisa Tourissini, education coordinator for Marymount University’s Master’s in Education program in Reston. “I don’t know if I’m for it or against it. It requires a lot of planning, but there’s a lot of benefits to it.”
Some Parents Skeptical
Some parents are worried that the longer classes will be too long for that age group.
“It’s the push-down to sixth grade that I’m concerned about,” said Ellen Fitzpatrick, who attended a meeting at the Central Library on Saturday.
The meeting was organized by parents who think the proposed schedule would hurt band, orchestra and choral programs. But many there voiced fears that the longer classes would be hard for middle schoolers to endure.
“I don’t think sixth-graders are ready for it,” said Fitzpatrick, a former middle school teacher and mother of a sixth-grader. “I don’t think seventh- and eighth-graders are ready yet.”
School officials say the teachers would be trained by experts in using longer times, and they will also receive support from other Arlington teachers who currently use the block system, said Margaret Gilhooley, assistant superintendent for instruction.
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