[Real Badman]

Different districts have different requirements, but you can't really read much into that. If you look at the required Math, Science, Social Science, English, etc (all of the "core content" classes) the requirements are the same. As another poster said, the number of electives offered typically swing pendulum.

The difference typically comes in the class schedule and/or number of periods in a day. Several years ago, many of the districts (and, some still do this) went to "Block Scheduling"(4 classes @ 90 mins/day for a semester), which meant high school students could earn up to 4 credits a semester, that lead to 8 per year, which could mean 32 total over their four years of high school. Most all of the districts across the state have their class schedules set up as "Block" (see above), "Modified Block" (some credits you can earn in a semester, others can take the whole year) or your "Traditional" (6 and 7 period days that most are accustomed, too).

As for the Block Scheduling, you are seeing many school districts stray away from this because of testing results and students not being able to retain the knowledge they've learned over such a long period of time. For example, Little Johnny might have taken Algebra 1 in the fall semester of his 9th grade year for 90 mins/day from August to mid December, then isn't scheduled to take Geometry until the 2nd semester of his Sophomore year, allowing a whole calendar year to go by where Little Johnny didn't have any math; consequently he probably lost a great deal of the content learned in Algebra that he would need in Geometry. In the "Traditional" schedule, Little Johnny could take Algebra 1 for 45-50 mins/day the entire school year and only have a 2 month lapse in time (summer break) before he started up Geometry as a sophomore, using formulas, methods, etc., that would benefit him. Basically, the old saying of "Less is More" applied to this scheduling belief, and it's hard to argue with the studies/test scores as a result.

Education and the beliefs from those that run the shows are comparable to fashion, it's trendy. It comes, it goes away, it comes back.

I'm trying to understand why you posted so much there. You really wasted your time posting that.