Scheduling for Social Justice

Within any school there is a distribution of opportunity and privilege. The currency is who gets what they need first. The building schedule is largest system within this culture. Often this schedule is called the ‘master’ schedule. A simple way to build a more antiracist school is to decolonize the name by removing the word ‘master’ from the language. It is much more complex to interrupt the system and its practices that uphold who gets what they need and who does not.

In 2017, it was common for students to form long lines to meet with their counselor for schedule changes. This meant that school did not start on the first day of school and some students were given access and opportunity while others were not. One group of students that had unmet needs were students receiving special education services. The first step to interrupting this problem of practice was creating criteria for schedule changes so that the lines would disappear.

When I began managing the schedule, I communicated my vision for scheduling. I called it scheduling for social justice. The way we schedule can either create opportunity for all students or it can perpetuate privilege for some. I explained the change in practice and how teacher leaders would collaborate together on building an equitable and inclusive schedule.

I used a mason jar visual to explain what scheduling for social justice means. Within the mason jar we put the rocks to scheduling. The first rocks were students receiving special education, then students needing english language development. Finally, students identified as gifted and talented. We defined this as students who had chosen a college credit bearing course. Then all the other courses began the sand that fit around the rocks inside the jar. The idea is that if you put the sand in first, the rocks won’t fit.

For the last four years, our schedule has been created collaboratively centered on equity and inclusion and we refine the system a little better each year. Scheduling this way requires a change in beliefs, behaviors and ways of being. It was no easy change in our system. I am grateful to collaborate with exceptional people who made this change a reality.