Academics :: The 4 x 4 Block Schedule
ARHS utilizes an "intensive block"
schedule commonly known as the 4x4 schedule. The school year is split
into two semesters, the Fall and Spring, and students take four courses each
semester. Each class lasts eighty minutes, thus providing time for students
and teachers to delve more deeply and actively into topics and activities.
This emphasis on depth promotes greater understanding of skills,
concepts, and ideas than the traditional fifty-minute period allows. Rather than
depend on the traditional lecture to present material, ARHS teachers encourage
active participation of students in their own learning.
In addition, the 4x4 allows ARHS students to take eight different ten-credit
courses per school year rather than six, as is the norm in traditional school
schedules. Therefore, over a four-year career ARHS students will be able to take
eight more classes than students in schools with traditional schedules. Certain
requirements have increased slightly in order to bolster academic areas of key
interest, while the program's elective offerings have greatly expanded. The
Advanced Placement program has been expanded, bringing to twelve the number of
A.P. courses ARHS offers. Elective courses provide a variety of avenues for
students to follow as they explore their world. A Riordan student's academic
course load will not merely fulfill University of California and California
State University requirements, it will exceed them, with ample room to spare to
sample the expanded elective opportunities available to him.
Importantly, the ARHS schedule provides limited opportunities for students to
repeat courses in which they failed. Rather than leave such remediation to
chance in various summer schools, ARHS is committed to identifying student needs
in key academic areas and serving those needs in the course of the school year.
Click here to view a sample block schedule.