The following provides references for selected studies, articles, and Web sites on the subject of block scheduling:
- “Block Schedules and Student Performance on AP Examinations,” published in Research Notes by the College Board’s office of research and development in May 1998. Information on ordering copies of the report is available at The College Board. (Requires Adobe’s Acrobat Reader.)
- “Debunking the Semestering Myth,” by Dennis Raphael, Merlin W. Wahlstrom, and L.D. McLean, was published in the Canadian Journal of Education in the Winter 1986 edition. Mr. Raphael and his colleagues also published a follow-up article on science achievement under a block schedule in the same journal in 1987. Most critics of block scheduling point, however, to an 1990 article by David J. Bates, “Science Achievement in Semester and All-Year Courses,” published in the Journal of Science Teaching in March 1990.
- The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction‘s most recent study, “Block Scheduled High School Achievement: Part III Comparison of End-of-Course Test Scores for Blocked and Non-Blocked High Schools” is currently available.
- “Block Scheduling Effects on a State Mandated Test of Basic Skills,” from the Education Policy Analysis Archives. Mr. Veal also published a second article on block scheduling in 2000 in Volume 3 of the Journal of Science Teacher Education.
- “Block Scheduling: What We Have Learned,” a chapter written by Robert Lynn Canady and Michael D. Rettig, was published in Research Review for School Leaders in 2000 by Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and edited by W.G. Wraga and P.S. Hlebowitsh.
- The Center for Applied Research and Educational Improvement at the University of Minnesota maintains a Web site with references to research on block scheduling.
- Jeff Lindsay’s Web site is www.jefflinsay.com/Block.shtml .
