After five years when Bulloch County's three public high schools all used the same type of daily schedule, with four 90-minute classes, they will go two separate ways in 2011-12.
The reasons illustrate big differences in the schools' sizes and class offerings. At Statesboro High and Southeast Bulloch, students will continue to take four classes per day in the so-called 4-by-4 block schedule, only with a new twist for students taking Advanced Placement courses. But Portal Middle/High School, which has no AP classes, is adopting a seven-period day.
While Portal students adjust to having shorter classes in greater variety, most students at Statesboro and Southeast will see no real change from last year. But accelerated students taking AP classes, instead of taking one AP course first semester and an entirely different course second semester, will now take those two classes all year long on alternating days.
The divergence follows a committee's discovery that scheduling makes little if any difference in student achievement, attendance or discipline. While not producing any specific cost comparison, the committee also found that either the four-block or seven-period schedule can work within the school system's plan to reduce staff as a cost-cutting measure.

No real impact
"We looked at the data to see if schools do better on block in terms of graduation rate or test scores or attendance and discipline. We really examined all of that very carefully and came to the conclusion that, really, scheduling didn't seem to have an impact one way or the other," Dr. Fran Stephens said.
Stephens, assistant superintendent for teaching and learning for grades 6-12, and Charles Wilson,  assistant superintendent for business and finance, co-chaired the High School Scheduling Committee. With school administrators, counselors, teachers and parents from all grade levels among its nearly 20 members, the committee looked at whether changing to a seven-period day would save money.
"I can't give you a dollar figure," Stephens said. "We never really could nail that down, so it really was about how you can accommodate the staffing formula. That was our goal, to get the high schools at the staffing formula teaching with the number of teachers that you have allotted. We kept that as a parameter as we looked at what's best for students."

Staff reduction
In February 2010, the Board of Education adopted a plan to eliminate 71 jobs through attrition over the next three  years. Teachers are still being replaced where further reductions would swell class sizes beyond state limits and in programs with specific mandates, such as special education. But other teachers who have retired or left the system have not been replaced.
Statesboro High School, for example, has lost 16.5 teaching positions since 2008 and retains 54.5 certified personnel today. Meanwhile, class sizes have grown from an average of about 22 students in 2008 to 29 for the coming school year, said Statesboro High's principal, Dr. Marty Waters.
But the committee found that 4-by-4 block scheduling could still work with current staffing levels. So, at least for Statesboro High and Southeast Bulloch High, they turned to what would work best for students, including accelerated learners taking AP courses and those, on the opposite side of the averages, needing to make up courses they have failed.
With eight courses available every year, the block schedule offers students the possibility of earning 32 credits in four years, instead of the 28-credit maximum with seven periods. With 24 total credits required for graduation, that leaves more room for students in need of "course recovery" to retake failed courses in required subjects. On the other hand, those who pass everything have the option of graduating in three years.
Longer classes also mesh better with join enrollment opportunities at Georgia Southern, Waters said, since students on a seven-period schedule would often miss two high school classes to take one college course.
The modification of the 4-by-4 schedule this year to include the A/B alternating block is designed to answer concerns expressed by parents of students who take Advanced Placement courses. The College Board, which governs AP courses and testing, administers the exams only in the spring, and one concern has been that students who take AP courses ending fall semester face a disadvantage by testing time.

Alternating block
By making all AP courses last a full year, the A/B alternating block remedies this. It will also reduce the pressure on some students to choose between AP courses and other activities, Waters says. Students will take one AP course, such as AP English Literature, on Day A, and a second course, say AP Biology, at the same time on Day B, alternating throughout the year.
"We've had kids, particularly our accelerated group, wind up having to make choices between, just to give an example, AP Chemistry and our Wind Ensemble, or Advanced Drama or Engineering," he said. "We've seen that, to a greater degree, we've been able to work out through A/B where those kids are able to take both."
Southeast Bulloch High School will also be using an A/B alternating block for AP courses, but with the alternating courses limited to the first block in the morning.
Statesboro High was actually the last of the three schools to adopt 4-by-4 block scheduling. It did so in 2006, after trying both a seven-period day and a more complicated form of block scheduling earlier in the decade. Meanwhile, Portal and Southeast Bulloch have been on 4-by-4 block since 1997.

Coming Saturday, an in-depth look at Portal Middle/High School’s change to a seven-period day.