Can Block Scheduling Impede Math Learning?

While working to improve standardized math scores, a high school I visited this week unearthed a troubling problem. Due to block scheduling, some entering freshmen don't take any math until February-- they have no math instruction for seven or eight months. Some even go without math for a full year. The principal compared these students' Measures of Academic Progress (MAP, creator NWEA: www.nwea.org) at the end of eighth grade with their scores at the beginning and end of their freshman math semester. Many students do not reattain their eighth grade achievement level until the end of the ninth grade math course! They have made no progress in math for a whole year!

First of all, we now know that certain groups of students (low-income and those with identified special needs) lose more ground over the summer months. This is a factor that tends to widen achievement gaps. And in this case, the students are losing even more knowledge because they do not enter a math classroom for seven months!

Second, what should this school do? They originally committed to block scheduling to give teachers more time to explore problems in depth. The principal is now planning a new course for struggling math students that would address their foundational weaknesses in the fall of freshman year. Is this a good solution? What else might be tried?