New Solutions K12’s Secondary Scheduling Academy is a hands-on training program for school and district leadership teams to learn-by-doing and design powerful, best practice-aligned school schedules.
Upon completing the Academy, teams will have designed the key components of an improved schedule for use in the upcoming school year. This program’s accelerated timeline is aligned to the scheduling cycle and allows time for follow-on support as you continue to refine and implement your schedule.
What You Will Learn
Secondary Scheduling Academy teams will learn how to design a strategic schedule that:
Supports your school and district goals and aligns to best practices
Addresses learning loss and raises achievement by maximizing core instructional time and including effective academic intervention
Increases student engagement by incorporating student voice and choice into the process
Brings decimal-level precision to staffing and maximizes opportunities for students by staffing more efficiently within existing budgets and schedule models
Breaks free from ingrained practices that may not be serving students well
How You Will Benefit
By participating in the Secondary Scheduling Academy, you and your team will:
Design an improved schedule for the coming school year that meets student needs, makes up for lost learning time, and maximizes staffing within your existing budget
Align your schedule with your vision, priorities, and research-backed best practices
Learn how to bring decimal-level precision to staffing and maximize opportunities for students by identifying ways to staff more efficiently within existing budgets and schedule models
Build internal capacity, increase collaboration, and deepen shared buy-in for an improved schedule
Create dedicated time and space for your scheduling team to work together and think strategically
Collaborate and share challenges, ideas, lessons learned, and best practices with a peer network
Gain access to New Solutions K12’s auxiliary scheduling services for follow-on scheduling support
Now enrolling for the Fall 2024 Secondary Scheduling Academy
Space is limited.
What’s Included
In-depth training from scheduling experts on research-backed scheduling best practices, personalized coaching and feedback, and hands-on support as you apply what you learn and design an improved schedule.
Three personalized coaching calls to extend your learning and receive school-specific scheduling guidance and support; to be scheduled as you wish during and/or following the Academy program.
Three virtual training sessions for your scheduling team, including exercises, case studies, facilitated work time, and opportunities to learn from other districts in the Academy cohort.
Structured team work time so that your scheduling team can talk through schedule priorities and challenges and apply lessons learned from the sessions to your schedule as you go
Training materials, resources, templates, and tools for self-use, including a guided self-assessment of your school’s schedule and step-by-step guides to help with relevant analysis and smooth implementation.
Access to New Solutions K12’s auxiliary scheduling services for follow-on support
Who Should Participate?
This program is uniquely designed for middle and high school scheduling teams. Teams are encouraged to include both school-based and central office staff who are involved in the scheduling process. Teams may have up to five participants. Teams might include:
District academic leaders (i.e. assistant superintendent of instruction)
Principals
Assistant principals or counselors responsible for scheduling
School-based teacher leaders
Teams that are most successful:
Include both school-based and central office staff who are involved in the scheduling process
Have a scheduling Team Lead who sets clear goals for the team's participation in the Academy and drives active and full team participation in Academy components
Connect the Academy to existing or on-going scheduling efforts—for example, one team hosted multiple district-wide meetings to share materials from the Academy with the broader team, wrestle with what they learned, and think through how to apply the learnings to their own district setting
Program Fees
The fee for each school-based team’s participation in the Secondary Scheduling Academy is $4,950, inclusive of three virtual training sessions, three personalized coaching calls, and New Solutions K12’s scheduling training materials, tools, assessments, and resources.
Multiple teams from the same district may enroll in the Academy.
Customized Scheduling Academies and district-level support are also available. Please inquire for more details and pricing.
Program Schedule
SESSION 1:
Tuesday, November 12th
1:00 - 4:00 PM ET
Approaching Scheduling Strategically & Aligning Schedules to Best Practices
Methods to create a priorities-driven schedule
Key components of an effective schedule
Structured team work time
Team schedule share out
SESSION 2:
Tuesday, November 19th
1:00 - 4:00 PM ET
Managing the Scheduling Process to Design Schedules Effectively
Common schedule models and tradeoffs
Strategies to manage the scheduling process effectively
Structured team work time
Team schedule share out
SESSION 3
Tuesday, December 10th
1:00 - 4:00 PM ET
Managing Staff & Courses Effectively to Increase Student Opportunities
Precise management of enrollment and course offerings
Equitable access to rigor and opportunities
Incorporating student voice and choice
Structured team work time
Team schedule share out
Three 1-hour personalized coaching calls for your team may be scheduled at any time during or following the Secondary Scheduling Academy.
Now enrolling for the Fall 2024 Secondary Scheduling Academy!
Space is limited.
Your team’s participation in the Secondary Scheduling Academy can be funded by Title II, CARES Act, or ESSER funds.
Auxiliary Scheduling Services
By participating in the Secondary Scheduling Academy, your school or district gains access to our auxiliary scheduling services. Interested schools can partner with New Solutions K12 for the following services in parallel to participation in the Academy.
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Schools that would like an in-depth analysis of their existing staffing practices can partner with New Solutions K12 in parallel to the Secondary Scheduling Academy.
This step is strongly recommended for schools that know or suspect staff can be utilized in more efficient ways or are facing tight budgets. This analysis will help answer questions such as:
How much staff is needed in each department based on student needs and district class size guidelines?
Do all teachers have full workloads?
Which staff are overloaded or have additional capacity based on total students served?
Which departments have capacity to offer more course offerings, expanded intervention, or new enrichment services?
Are existing class size guidelines reflected in the schedule?
What is the full cost of teacher collaboration time?
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Schools that would like an in-depth audit of their existing courses can partner with New Solutions K12 in parallel to the Secondary Scheduling Academy. This review of existing course offerings and programming helps answer the questions, “Is what we’re offering to students aligned to student needs and school priorities, and are courses and supports accessible to students fairly?”
New Solutions K12 will perform a very detailed set of course-level analyses, which will include:
Access to core instruction analysis: How much time is dedicated to core instruction and does how does this vary by grade, subject, and school?
Rigor analysis: To what extent do students have access to high rigor courses, how does this vary by grade, school and department, and how does actual enrollment in high rigor classes reflect a commitment to equity and opportunity?
Intervention analysis: To what extent do students have access to interventions, how does this vary by grade, school and department, and how does actual enrollment in intervention reflect a commitment to equity and opportunity?
Breadth of offerings analysis: To what extent do students have access to rich, varied and 21st century electives, how does this vary by grade, school and department, and how does actual enrollment reflect a commitment to equity and opportunity?
Low enrollment analysis: To what extent are there opportunities to reduce the cost without reduce offerings in low enrollment classes?
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Schools can also partner with New Solutions K12 for comprehensive support for designing a strategic school schedule. This custom support is provided in parallel to the Secondary Schedule Academy and is meant to help teams take an inclusive approach to designing a new school schedule.
Key steps include:
Build understanding of current school and district context through comprehensive stakeholder engagement process
Conduct detailed analysis of existing scheduling, staffing, and academic programming practices
Share, discuss, and refine findings from analyses and stakeholder engagement
Help set priorities for what should be scheduled