It's Time for Strategic Scheduling: A must-read guide for school and district leaders
We’re excited to share that New Solutions K12’s Nathan Levenson and David James latest book—a guide for designing smarter, strategic school schedules at any grade level—is now available for preorder! It's Time for Strategic Scheduling: How to Design Smarter K-12 Schedules That Are Great for Students, Staff, and the Budget is a must-read for school district leaders and principals who are looking to supercharge student learning and improve equity and outcomes.
Why a book on scheduling?
Every school, every year, builds a schedule. That’s a lot of schedules! Unfortunately, most school schedules are approached simply as a technical task centered on making everything fit like Tetris blocks so that each teacher and student has a place to be during every minute of the school day.
This book aims to help school and district leaders shift from thinking about scheduling as a technical task to a strategic activity. When approached strategically, a school schedule can amplify a district’s priorities, encourage best practices in teaching and learning, drive student achievement, heighten student engagement, and ensure equity—and does all of this in a cost-effective manner.
A sneak peek: Three common scheduling myths, and what the research really shows
In our work partnering with educators across the country to help them design and build strategic school schedules, we often hear these three common refrains:
We just need more time in the school day!
We just need more staff!
We just need a different type of schedule!
The reality, however, is that creating a smarter, more strategic schedule does not require more time, more staff, or a different schedule model. Designing schedules that improve equity and outcomes for students is about using existing time and staff differently, and, in most cases, that can be accomplished within the existing schedule type. Here’s what the research really shows:
It isn’t more time that drives learning, but more high-quality academic instruction.
The research is clear: longer classes or longer school days do not in and of themselves make a difference; what really matters is how the additional time is used. Every minute dedicated to high-quality and productive academic activities does make a big difference. So, it is important to 1) know how time is actually being used, 2) evaluate the balance of time in the school day across different activities, like core instruction, non-instructional time, and intervention, and 3) make sure that balance is in alignment with school and district needs and priorities.
Scheduling more precisely to enrollment can give you the staffing you need, and then some, without adding any FTE.
Staffing shortages are a longstanding challenge in many schools. The good news is, staffing and scheduling more precisely to course enrollment can help schools offer their students more without having to hire additional staff or overload existing staff. At its core, staffing precision is a tool in service of student learning, opportunity, and choice: it is about maximizing the reach and impact of every teacher by freeing up staff to teach more sections of electives, intervention, or other courses.
No one schedule model is best; clarity on priorities should drive your schedule design.
6-period schedule? 7-period schedule? A/B block schedule? Existing and extensive research has not identified a correlation between scheduling models and student achievement, and the cost on teacher morale and effectiveness of switching schedule models can be significant. So instead of looking for the perfect “off the shelf” schedule model, school and district leaders should instead focus on establishing a concrete vision for teaching and learning and a clear set of goals and priorities. Clarity of purpose and priorities can help a scheduling team evaluate whether stated goals can be achieved by making adjustments to certain elements of the existing schedule instead of switching to something entirely new.
It’s Time for Strategic Scheduling addresses all of this and more
If the ideas above have you thinking about changes that could make your school schedule more strategic, this is the book for you! We invite you to check out the full range of topics covered and read some additional excerpts.