Changing Your School's Schedule

Creating and managing the school schedule can be one of the most time-consuming tasks faced by a principal. It's easy to focus on the logistics of the schedule, but the schedule is just a tool to accomplish other things. There are four basic principles for building an effective schedule.

• The schedule reflects your school's values and priorities. Talk with key stakeholders to identify goals. Clarify of goals builds support for a new schedule and narrows the alternatives.

• The most effective schedules are anchored in a shared vision. Do you want to provide more collaborative time, extended instructional time or additional support for students? The options you will consider vary depending on your vision.

• A quality schedule emerges with teachers and administrators work together. Because the schedule is always reflects your priorities, it is important to engage others in the process of thinking about and considering the options.

• Without clear goals, the schedule is merely a plan for organizing teachers and students; when guided by clear goals, the schedule becomes a powerful tool to positively affect teaching and learning.

Before you begin to design a new schedule you will want to be clear about any district or local requirements about the use of time. And other things also affect the schedule like transportation schedules, employee contracts and facility constraints. But, learning about the alternatives and working with others to clarify priorities can really accelerate your thinking about how to use time differently.

There are several good resources including the Research Briefs on scheduling available at The Principals' Partnership website and the book Scheduling to Improve Student Learning (2009).