The Master Schedule: Bridging Access to Opportunity for Each Student

The school master schedule is a structure that, when intentionally designed, can promote student access to opportunities. However, complex factors often promote the schedule as a technical process instead of one that is vital to school improvement and equity work. As student needs change, fostering leadership capacity in understanding the processes and structures that create inequality and minimize opportunity access is vital. This Action Research study examined how district-designed master scheduling interventions impacted the scheduling approach of college and career academy high school leaders. The findings from the study highlighted internal and external factors that impact the method local school leaders use for creating a master schedule, the need for collaborative master scheduling practices, the importance of using expert district voices to support data richness, and customized interventions to move learning from compliance to practical and applicable. These findings show the importance of collaboration between school and district leaders to prevent stagnant practices.