An investigation of the construction methods and procedures employed by selected Tennessee secondary-school master schedulers

The problem addressed by this descriptive research study was the paucity of research identifying what master schedulers do as a group to construct their best schedules. A further dimension of the problem was the lack of a viable survey instrument with which to conduct an investigation. The purpose of the study was to discover with a survey instrument, developed through a review of the literature and from the researcher's personal knowledge, what procedures secondary master schedulers in Tennessee public schools follow as a group to construct their best master schedules.

The survey instrument was composed of 30 statements relating to master-scheduling procedures and three items seeking demographic information and was validated by 13 master-scheduling experts identified through the National Association of Secondary School Principals. Survey statements were divided into three categories: Preliminary Organization, Building the Schedule, and Managing the Schedule. Responses to survey statements were obtained on a five point Likert-type scale: 1=Always, 2=Usually, 3=Sometimes, 4=Rarely, 5=Does Not Apply.

Using the Tennessee Directory of public schools, the researcher identified 456 secondary schools with grades 6 thru 12, of which 260 were included in the survey by random sampling procedure. Of 214 survey responses obtained (82.3 percent), 206 (79.2 percent of the original sample) were usable.

Results from the study showed that to some extent master scheduling procedures depended on the personal preferences of the schedulers, that scheduling responsibilities are not handled solely by school principals, and that source of scheduling know-how, type of school, and school location might affect scheduling procedures. These results were generally confirmed by a follow-up activity: the researcher conducted on-site interviews and inspected current master scheduls at six public secondary schools in Memphis, Tennessee.

Recommendations derived from the study were that (1) further research be done to establish criteria for evaluating scheduling procedures and (2) school districts consider providing for schedulers periodic in-service training and workshops on current trends in scheduling.