This paper investigates the impact of doubling instructional time in mathematics and language arts for low-achieving students at a diverse regional high school in northern New Jersey. Prompted by No Child Left Behind (NCLB) accountability requirements, the school extended class periods from 42 to 88 minutes for students who had not passed the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment. Using an ex post facto, between-subjects design, the study analyzes New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA) results across four school years (2003–2007). The paper reviews theoretical foundations of block scheduling, surveys conflicting empirical research on its academic effects, and situates the intervention within broader issues of urban demographics, socioeconomic status, parental involvement, and test accountability.
The paper models how to construct an ex post facto quasi-experimental design when random assignment is impossible. By restricting the population to a single school with stable demographics and similar instructional staff across years, the researcher controls for confounding variables and isolates the treatment (doubled class time) as the primary independent variable — a strong methodological choice for real-world educational research.
The paper opens with a policy-driven introduction that establishes NCLB accountability as the motivating problem, then narrows to the specific school intervention. A formal hypotheses section follows, succeeded by delimitations and definitions. The literature review occupies the bulk of the paper, covering the history of scheduling models, block-scheduling variants (4×4, A/B, Copernican), empirical evidence (or its absence), and contextual factors including ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and urban school climate. The paper concludes the reviewed section by linking scheduling research back to NCLB's accountability demands.
The re-authorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2002, commonly known as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), raised the bar and increased accountability for public schools throughout the United States. According to Nichols (2005), NCLB has renewed interest in methods that utilize class time more efficiently. Nichols further notes, "Despite renewed interest in experimental and innovative scheduling structures, only limited empirical research explores the impact of block-scheduling structures on potential student academic achievement" (2005, p. 299).
Accountability is provided by means of high-stakes standardized tests prescribed at various grade levels. Schools are held accountable for students in these prescribed grades attaining minimum established proficiency levels. Students are tested when they reach the prescribed grade, and the percentage of students required to achieve minimum proficiency each year is defined by NCLB as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). The specific level of proficiency, as well as the test instrument prescribed, are established by each individual state based upon the requirements of NCLB. Schools that do not make AYP generally struggle to find the formula that will improve student performance, while schools that meet or exceed AYP generally seek strategies that ratchet up performance in anticipation of more stringent future requirements.
One such method is the doubling of class time in critical subjects for students most at risk of not achieving proficient scores — commonly referred to as low achievers. Mowen and Mowen (2004, p. 4) identify this "modified block" option as a potential strategy for specific subject areas in need of improvement, based on the generally accepted principle that increased "time on task" results in increased student comprehension and skills. For example, if students taking one 42-minute period of math and one 42-minute period of English did not score proficient in either subject and the school did not make AYP, increasing instructional time to 84 minutes or more might improve student performance.
The literature review indicates conflicting results in this area of research. This study seeks to address the need for more empirical research on modified block scheduling. To that end, this paper studies the proficiency levels attained by first-time 11th-grade students administered the New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA). The HSPA is the standardized test adopted by the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) in response to NCLB. It is administered to all first-time 11th graders during the first full week of March of the school year, such that the 2004 HSPA was administered in March of the 2003–2004 school year, the base year for this study. All New Jersey high school students are required to score proficient or above as a graduation requirement; however, the state provides an alternative route to graduation for students who never pass the HSPA.
The students in this study are the first-time 11th graders of a diverse, medium-sized regional high school serving approximately 800 students from three communities in close proximity to the urban center of Paterson, New Jersey. The school reflects the combined demographics of those communities: approximately 45% Hispanic, 15% African American, and 40% Caucasian, at a lower-middle income level. Of the three communities, one is low income, one is working class, and one is a professional community. Fifty percent of students receive free or reduced lunch, representing a significant low-income population.
HSPA results for 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2007 are used for the study. It had been customary at this school for 11th graders to have been enrolled at some point in the previous two years in algebra I, geometry, ninth-grade English, and tenth-grade English, all taught in single 42-minute periods, five days per week, throughout the 180-day school year — until the 2004–2005 school year.
Seeking to improve test results, in school year 2004–2005, administration decided to provide an extra contiguous period of algebra I, geometry, and English for students identified as low achievers. The term "low achievers" identifies those students who entered high school without having passed the Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment (GEPA), the New Jersey required test for eighth-grade students under NCLB. The additional 42 minutes of class time was added to the original 42 minutes and consumed the 4-minute passing period, for a total new class time of 88 minutes devoted to the targeted math and English classes. By school year 2006–2007, an additional one minute was added to every class, increasing double-period classes from 88 minutes to 90 minutes.
This ex post facto study analyzes the impact of the school's doubling of class time based on results of the HSPA. Analysis of variance and effect size are used to determine the program's success. The years covered are 2003–2004, 2004–2005, 2005–2006, and 2006–2007, encompassing the transition year and the three subsequent years during which the program became fully implemented for all students. Test scores for non-low achievers who did not receive the treatment are also analyzed over the same period to ensure consistency of the test instrument.
What is the impact on the standardized test scores of low-achieving students when they are provided double contiguous periods — twice the instructional time — in mathematics and language arts?
The purpose of this paper is to determine whether there is a significant impact on the learning of low-achieving students as a result of doubled instructional time in English and math, as measured by their outcomes on the HSPA. Due to the high percentage of minority and low-income students in the population, the paper also conducts a secondary analysis by demographic group. The impact is measured by the percentage of students scoring proficient or better on the HSPA. That percentage is the dependent variable; the doubling of class time is the independent variable. Doubling instructional time in this case is also analogous to adopting a modification of the student schedule design commonly known as block scheduling, which is discussed further in the literature review.
This paper tests the following null hypotheses:
Null Hypothesis 1: The means of the HSPA math proficiencies are equal from year to year.
Null Hypothesis 2: The means of the HSPA language arts proficiencies are equal from year to year.
This study examines the doubling of math and English class times for low-achieving students in an effort to improve performance on state-mandated tests required under NCLB. Because these tests are specifically designed to be administered at a particular point in a student's education, the test is given to a different cohort group passing through the same grade each year; therefore, the analysis incorporates a between-subjects design. To ensure minimal risk to the internal validity of that design, this study is limited to a specific public high school in New Jersey that adopted the modified block concept identified by Mowen and Mowen (2004) as a recommended approach to improving low-achievers' scores in academic areas. Restricting the study to one school ensures that the populations studied are highly similar, have received instruction from the same or similar instructors, and share the same academic environment. Consequently, the most distinct variable in the study is the change in treatment — the doubling of class time.
The following definitions ensure uniformity and understanding throughout the study. All definitions not otherwise noted have been developed by the researcher:
AYP — Adequate Yearly Progress refers to the state-stipulated percentage of students, by subject (math/English) and by demographic group (race/socioeconomic strata), that must pass the HSPA. Schools that do not meet or surpass AYP are subject to sanctions, which may differ by state.
Class time refers to the prescribed time during which a single class is conducted (one period). Prior to the doubling of class time, one period equals 42 minutes; subsequently it equals 43 minutes.
Doubling of class time refers to increasing class time from 42 minutes to 84 minutes plus the consumed passing time of 4 minutes, for a total of 88 minutes, subsequently increased to 90 minutes due to minor schedule changes.
GEPA — Grade Eight Proficiency Assessment is required by the New Jersey Department of Education in fulfillment of the requirements of No Child Left Behind.
HSPA — High School Proficiency Assessment is the New Jersey state-mandated test required to be administered to all first-year 11th graders in fulfillment of NCLB requirements.
Low achievers are students assigned to lower-level math and English classes as a result of entering high school without having passed the GEPA.
NCLB — No Child Left Behind Act is the common name for the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 2002, resulting in widespread changes in accountability for schools and districts throughout the United States.
Non-low achievers are students assigned to higher-level math and English classes as a result of entering high school having successfully passed the GEPA.
Public Regional High School is a school consisting of grades nine through twelve serving students from a formal consortium of communities that support and fund the school through local tax dollars.
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