Why Your Pre-pandemic School Schedule No Longer Cuts It–and Five Things to Do About It

Here is a bit of a scary thought: for the current 2021-2022 school year, the last time a 12th grader had a pandemic-free school year was in 9th grade. A 6th grader would have to go back to 3rd grade. A 1st grader–well, they have only ever known school in a pandemic.

It goes without saying that students’ academic and social-emotional needs are greater and different than they were two years ago because of the disruptions of the pandemic. Despite this fact, many schools are considering returning to “normal” pre-pandemic schedules that do not reflect this reality of changing student needs, nor the improved ability of staff to operate in a virtual environment or known schedule design best practices. Far too many school schedules prior to the pandemic did not regularly facilitate collaboration between the right combination of teachers and staff or take advantage of remote learning in strategic ways.

Using learnings from the pandemic, you can design a strategic school schedule to help both address limitations and improve outcomes for students. Here is how:

1. Increase Collaboration and Save Time by Facilitating Virtual Collaboration Opportunities for Teachers and Staff

“I have never had so much time to plan and collaborate with my peers–it has been incredibly helpful!” This was a common refrain we heard from educators during the early months of the pandemic. One of the most common schedule elements we observed in our work with schools and districts during spring 2020 was virtual blocks of planning and collaboration time for teachers. Content or curriculum planning sessions that used to happen only one or two times a year and involved a drive across the district now happened one or two times each week via Zoom. Many districts aligned planning blocks across schools to allow, say, all middle school science teachers to collaborate virtually on lesson planning on a regular basis. Talk about an unexpected, positive change driven by a challenging situation!

Despite their impact, many schools and districts have moved away from these virtual planning blocks, as they were originally made possible by a significant reduction in instructional time in the schedule due to pandemic restrictions. Innovative schools and districts with which we have partnered, however, have continued to thoughtfully use and promote virtual planning and collaboration time for teachers in the following ways:

• Aligning bell schedules by grade level: A district with five middle schools made a point to implement a common bell schedule across campuses. When it built schedules, it then made a point to prioritize aligning common planning time for core content teachers to allow for regular virtual cross-campus planning time. For example, all 6th grade ELA teachers have planning time at the same time every day and join a biweekly virtual collaboration session hosted by the district ELA lead.

• Incorporating regular early dismissal days: How do you find time in the schedule to facilitate grade-level collaboration, content-specific collaboration, cross-team collaboration, and cross-school collaboration? Simple: create a schedule that includes regular early dismissal for students. Finding time for different teams and combinations of teachers and staff to meet at the same school, let alone between schools, is challenging in any schedule. The only “easy button” solution to this challenge is to create regularly scheduled days in which students leave early (or arrive late) and allow teachers 2-3 hours to collaborate. Such extended blocks of planning time were common during the pandemic at many schools but have since vanished. Taking this approach allows schools to facilitate either in-person planning time or virtual cross-campus collaboration opportunities between teachers and staff that otherwise would not be able to meet, all to the benefit of students.

• Building in regular “internal” early release days: This is similar idea to the one noted above, but with a twist. Instead of dismissing students from school early, consider an “internal” early release day: students do not attend regular classes, but do not go home either. Students attend specially scheduled activities in school such as a field day hosted by non-classroom teachers, enrichment activities run by external partners like the YMCA, or grade-level meetings facilitated by school administration. Doing so allows teachers to meet and plan for an extended period of time, either virtually or in-person.

2. Take Advantage of Remote Learning Opportunities, but Selectively

Not all adjustments the pandemic forced on educators were negative. Many schools and districts were quick to make significant upgrades to technology–hardware, software, and internet access–available to students and teachers. On top of that, circumstances required that teachers learn how to use new technologies, such as Zoom and online classroom management tools, quite rapidly that otherwise may have taken them many more years to adopt.

Despite these hardware and software upgrades and improved teacher skill with using technology, just about every educator with whom I speak agrees with the following point: 60 minutes of instruction via Zoom is definitely not the same as 60 minutes of in-person instruction. The vast majority of students found remote learning (and especially asynchronous remote learning) challenging, disengaging, and lacking rigor.

So, should schools “throw out” remote learning completely and fully return to pre-pandemic schedules? Not quite. Here are two ways districts can incorporate remote learning into schedules to improve opportunities for students.

• Offer new or more sections of select advanced courses virtually: A common challenge we hear from schools, especially high schools, is: “we would love to offer more (insert advanced course here), but we just can’t justify creating a course with an enrollment of only 12 students”. Schools are wise to set thresholds to avoid low enrollment courses but should be creative in how courses are offered to still provide students with significant choice. Offering select advanced courses well-suited to the virtual environment is one way of doing so. A district with three high schools, for example, can offer one section of AP economics virtually at all three campuses and allow 12 students from each campus to enroll. What would have been three sections (or 0.6 FTE) is now one section (or just 0.2 FTE).

• Create a district-wide virtual academy for students with very unique health or learning needs: There is emerging literature that some students with special learning needs—including those with IEPs and 504 plans—experienced improved learning as a result of the virtual classroom environment. Some schools reported that certain students worked better away from the distractions and social pressures of in-person school. Going forward, districts can consider creating a district-wide virtual academy to enroll students who are best suited to remote learning. The virtual academy should place a strong emphasis on synchronous virtual classes taught by district teachers and allow students to still have access to in-person athletics, after-school activities, and hands-on vocational courses.

Embrace Pandemic Innovations Thoughtfully to Create a More Strategic School Schedule That Better Supports Students and Teachers

With all the challenges of the last few years, it is refreshing to think of the things we have learned that could potentially improve academic outcomes for students and the lives of our teachers. Schools and districts can create more strategic schedules for the coming school year by continuing to incorporate virtual collaboration opportunities for teachers and by selectively leveraging remote learning opportunities for students. Of course, these methods are not one-size-fits-all. It is important to consider carefully how these approaches can be applied in your school. After all, the most strategic schedule is the one that best meets the needs of your students and your teachers.