Overcrowding has become a growing problem in many local high schools. Some schools have moved to block-scheduling. Block-scheduling can be somewhat effective in trying to handle overpopulated schools, but it has many flaws. Advanced Placement and music classes are hard to schedule, it is hard to transfer into and out of a block-schedule, and high school students tend to get bored after a 90-minute class period.
A new alternative is a modified year-round schedule. A form of year-round schooling, students have approximately a month off between three trimesters of the school year. Students are divided into four groups, and one set of students goes to school year-round with breaks in January, May, September. The next group of students has the months immediately following those off. This solution offers consistency in classes, fewer students in the school building at one time, and does not allow a three-month summer during which students can forget much of what was learned throughout the prior year. This solution is the best one when it comes to the controversy over what to do with overcrowding in schools.
