To Build a Great Schedule, Find an Expert First

All schools build schedules, and lots of staff are building their own. In a typical school district of 5,000 students, there will be more than 200 schedules just in the elementary schools — schedules for the school itself, schedules for special educators, social workers, reading teachers, music teachers and so on.

The school schedules are built commonly by the principal or assistant principal, while individual staff members create their own. Based on interviews with more than 1,000 educators, it’s clear few of these schedule builders consider themselves experts at scheduling. No reason they should because virtually none have formal or even informal training in the process. In full disclosure, I’m a terrible scheduler myself. The task of scheduling often is assigned based on role rather than skill.

Robert Marzano, the noted trainer and educational researcher, identified 21 key skills for a successful principal in his book School Leadership that Works — and school scheduling isn’t on the list. It just hasn’t been seen as a critical skill, though it is. The difference between an average schedule that meets minimum requirements and a great schedule that supports a multitude of best practices can be significant in terms of student outcomes. The difference between building an acceptable schedule and an effective schedule can be expertise, not staffing levels, experience or desire.

Applying Expertise

Scheduling expertise can be infused into schools and districts in three ways:

» LOOK INSIDE.Many schools have a talented scheduler, but they might not have the typical title. One school district with whom I worked had a school psychologist help build the schedules for speech therapists and special educators. Another district had one principal lead the scheduling effort for all elementary schools, not just his own. Another school tasked a team of teachers to build the school schedule.

In all cases, the challenge wasn’t finding the talent, it was giving permission to delegate the task to someone other than the typical person. In all cases, the building principal set the priorities and guided the work but did not work through the details himself or herself.

» LOOK OUTSIDE.Some districts use outside experts, paying for a few days of work each year. A small investment of a few thousand dollars per school has led to twice as many students getting reading intervention or savings of $50,000 for specialists’ salaries, such as art, music and phys-ed teachers because they could now be shared among schools.

» EXPAND THE USE OF SOFTWARE. Nearly all high schools and middle schools use software to build their schedules, but few districts use technology for elementary school master schedules or staff schedules for special education teachers, social workers and reading teachers.

Great schedules are complex and hard to build. A unique skillset can make a world of difference, and fortunately if you go looking for expertise to help, you will find it available in many forms and places. Perhaps the hardest part is realizing that specialized expertise is needed.