Your schedule dictates much of how you deliver your school’s mission to your students. The schedule guides students and faculty through their day, providing time for them to learn and reflect.
The right schedule helps you deliver your mission with excellence. It should be supremely student-centered—meaning it best supports student learning, not what adults in the school may want.
If you find your schedule doesn't provide all that you could need, there are steps you can take to amend this issue.
- Allow changes to be made that best support your community. Let the scheduler have the flexibility to place students, faculty, and programs in the right spaces and at optimal times for program delivery.
- Be transparent with your teachers about schedule change decisions. If you’re considering any type of schedule change, your teachers must understand your reasoning—and not feel like the change is coming out of nowhere. Be open about the process from the beginning, and create a platform for teachers to share their needs and prospectives. You should also give them opportunities for learning and growth. Support teachers in imagining how to create expanded opportunities for student-centered learning with a new schedule.
- Engage with parents openly during the process. Parents want the best for their children—but this desire often comes in many different forms. Many parents worry that if their children aren’t taking the maximum number of classes and participating in extracurriculars, their educational experience and future suffers. Others worry about over-scheduling their children. Share your plan for schedule change, explain how it aligns with your school’s educational philosophy, and describe how it will improve mission delivery. This will unite your community around your decision.
Your schedule should keep students at its center—not the adults or the institution. Help your school implement a strategic schedule that will accommodate your students to the best of your ability, delivering your mission with excellence.
Additional ISM Resources:
The Source for Academic Leadership Vol. 14 No. 5 How Do You Know If Your Schedule Is Toxic?
Additional ISM resources for ISM members:
I&P Vol. 41 No. 8 The Annual Strategic Scheduling Meeting
I&P Vol. 41 No. 14 Faculty, Space, Ownership, and the Schedule
