Rationale: Flexible scheduling for instructional activities provides students opportunities to work with others and have appropriate amounts of time, varied instructional methodologies, and opportunities to establish adult-child relationships. Flexible scheduling provides educators knowledge about middle school students to provide continuous progress for students.

• From Florida Schoolyear 2000 Project - Middle School Subcommittee (1994):

  Students with a wide range of abilities, physical, emotional, and social development need variety in schedules; alterations, changes, accommodations are important. Organization becomes a tool, not a master.

• A master schedule that preserves teaming as the first priority is essential (Erb and Doda, 1989).
• George, Stevenson, Thomason, and Beane (1992) stress that the master schedule must be designed to make the essential elements of middle school occur. "With the complexity of a fully functioning middle school program, many leaders believe quite rightly that affective scheduling is the sine qua non of the exemplary middle school. They say that without that skill, all of the other efforts to design and implement a quality program will be for naught"(p.119).
• According to George et al., (1992) middle school schedules must be flexible enough to allow for a common team planning time so teachers can deal with the many aspects of a successful middle school program.
• Similarly, George et al., (1992), stress that no schedule can accommodate everyone, but that …" the challenge becomes one of organizing time and space to accommodate the greatest number of principles and people while ensuring a bare minimum of inflexibilities" (p.72).
• A school program (Raebeck, p. 65-66) needs to be:

  Balanced and whole

  Collaborative and professional

  Flexible and functional

  High quality and humane

  Person-centered

  "Our schedule must not only help us get there- it must guarantee that we can get there, and that we will stay there" (Raebeck, p. 66). Create a schedule consistent with your goals. Use horizontal and vertical teaming; construct long range and short term goals; determine what it is you wish to happen.

Epstein and MacIver (1990) list flexible scheduling as a signature practice of exemplary middle schools (p.69). Signature practices are key practices necessary for schools dedicated to the young adolescent.

Unfortunately, in a 1990 survey, Epstein and MacIver found that only 19% of the schools included flexible timing schedules, "…such that today's class periods may be different in length from tomorrow's"(p.64). However, Epstein and MacIver did find that principals of schools dedicated to early adolescents predicted that they would adopt more flexible scheduling such as allowing class periods to differ from one day to the next to accommodate student's needs (p.66).

George and Alexander (1993, pp. 367-407), list eight Cardinal Principles of the middle school master schedule:

1. Scheduling is like budgeting; prioritizing is essential.

• Priorities need to be set by the school staff.
• Middle school schedule needs to accommodate interdisciplinary team organization, exploratory programs, advisor-advisee, alternative forms of grouping, etc.

2. The objective of the middle school schedule is instructional responsiveness.

• Flexible scheduling allows teachers in the teams to influence the process.
• Teachers can vary the time given to different subjects on different days.
• Flexible schedules also offer greater academic opportunities to students.

3. Beware of the war between the six and seven period day.

• There is no "right" way to organize the middle school day, but George and Alexander argue that the seven period day can accommodate a middle school as well as the block or modular schedule.
• Don't ask, "What kind of schedule is best," ask, "How can we schedule our day to facilitate the priorities we have established?"

4. Scheduling must be a collaborative effort.

• A broad consensus will require a compromise from many stakeholders.
• Rarely is one person skilled enough to produce the most effective schedule; collaboration is more effective and pulls in a wider range of needs and areas of expertise.

5. The schedule must be a servant, not a master.

• The schedule should hold itself to the priorities of the staff and district, not the reverse.

6. Teachers can also make important scheduling decisions.

• If teachers are provided with assignments for lunch, physical education and exploratory times, teams of academic teachers can make fundamental decisions about how to organize the remainder of the day.

7. Building the right master schedule is a systematic and methodical process.

• No two schools schedules are exactly alike, nor should they be.
• Schedules are a reflection of the decisions which have already been made in regard to the curriculum, and instructional organization.
• An example from Sarasota Middle School is given:
• The first step is to establish a schoolwide philosophy which will guide the development of the schedule
• The second step is to establish curriculum offerings
• The third step is the establishment of the teams
• The fourth step is the establishment of the room use chart
• The last step is to establish the final block schedule

7. The process of scheduling never ends.

• Considering all the needs, making the best schedule at the time is positive.
• A few students will not fit in easily with the regular schedule so some "hand scheduling" will have to be done.
• Flexiblity and adaptability are necessary.

Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development's Task Force on Education of Young Adolescents. (1989). Turning Points: Preparing American Youth for the 21^st Century. Washington, DC: Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development, a program of the Carnegie Corporation of New York.

Epstein, J. and MacIver, D. (1990). Education in the Middle Grades: Effective Practices and Trends. Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association.

Erb, T. & Doda, N. (1989). Team Organization: Promises and Possibilities (Action Series). Washington, DC: National Education Association.

Florida Schoolyear 2000 Project- Middle School Subcommittee (1994). Center for Educational Technology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Florida.

George, P., & Shewey, K. (1994). New Evidence for the Middle School. Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association.

George, P., Stevenson, C., Thomason, J., & Beane, J. (1992). The Middle School -- and Beyond. Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. Alexandria, VA.

George, P., & Alexander, W. (1993). The Exemplary Middle School, 2^nd edition. Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace, Jovanovich.

Raebeck, B. (1992). Transforming Middle Schools: A Guide to Whole-School Change. Lancaster, PA: Technomic.

This We Believe. (1992) Columbus, OH: National Middle School Association.