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Consulting

“Then God said: “Let there be light”, and there was light.

And God saw the light, that it was good;

and God divided the light from the darkness.

God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night.

So the evening and the morning were the first day. (Genesis 1: 4-5)

Scheduling is the stewardship of sacred Time, with all the dimensions that Time affords us: (1) the temporale, or the time marked by the liturgical calendar and its celebrations of the life of Christ, which is cyclical; (2) the sanctorale, or the time marked by the succession of the lives of saints, which is linear and historical; and (3) eschatological time, which in Christian belief represents the progress of time toward Judgment Day.

The Christian independent school schedule must pay attention to (1) the cyclical/repetitive nature of the schedule as it is repeated year to year which is cyclical; (2) the linear nature of time as each individual child progresses from year to year and through graduation which is linear; (3) the context of all of that in Christian eschatological time, the child’s development and movement towards the day when God comes in glory to renew the heavens and the earth.

We have worked in evangelical schools, Catholic schools, Episcopal schools, Christian Reformed schools and many others. In all of them, there are the same concerns:

  • How do children experience time in their daily and annual schedules?
  • Why does the day feel so rushed?
  • Is there a way to reduce the stress?
  • What does it mean to teach for 21st century colleges, careers, and life?
  • Is there a Christian schedule?
  • How can I increase enrollment and will a different schedule produce different results?
  • Where is joy in learning?
  • Is my schedule efficient and cost-effective?

Simon Jeynes, Executive Director of Christian School Management, is a leading scholar and practitioner of scheduling practices. Engage with him through an online process that will provide insight and exceptional child-centered advice and counsel that has the potential to transform the student experience at your school.

Please contact Simon at [email protected] to have a child-centered conversation with deep Christian / Biblical foundations. Construct the experience you would like to have to benefit your children. And click below on Option One or Option Two to see a couple of amazing ways in which Simon and your school can partner to bring joy into learning, excellence into academics, and satisfaction for your teachers.

Here is a list of questions that one Christian school had:

1)Are we flipping Linda and Kim?

2) Is 6th grade split?

3) Can Lauren Henry be middle school science primarily?

4) Can Dana Ingram be primarily high school science?

5) If we split 6th grade, who do we get to teach an extra high school science?

6) What math will we offer in high school?

7) Spanish only in high school?

8) Can we put middle school bible and phys ed up against each other with boy/girl split?

9) Does Bible need to be split by boy/girl?

10) Athletic Director? Plays into how many phys ed periods we can offer.

11) What are we doing about technology classes?

 

Do you have a list of questions that you want to answer? If it’s anything like this, you will have questions about your teachers and their assignments, how teachers want to teach their assignments, how curricula and graduation requirements can be delivered, how the school’s limited resources can support children/students to their satisfaction and pleasure.

The Process

  1. The school provides the CSM Consultant with many documents: the school’s Handbooks, examples of student and teacher schedules, the current master schedule, alternative schedules the school might be using, and a sheet outlining hoped for outcomes.
  2. The Consultant does preliminary analysis.
  3. The school and Consultant have their first online conference to discuss the preliminary analysis, school hopes, and digging deeper into the data. This is typically two hours.
  4. The Consultant considers the information and develops as many as three options for consideration.
  5. The school and Consultant have their second online conference to look at and discuss the options. This is typically between two and four hours.
  6. The school determines how it wants to go ahead.
  7. The Consultant does a 30 minute online presentation with time for questions to the faculty providing research background to the proposed changes.
  8. The Consultant does a 30 minute online with time for questions presentation to the Board providing some research background and focusing on the strategic benefit / implications of the changes.

The Cost

CSM charges .6 of one tuition for this service.

Example One

Your school’s average K-12 tuition is $7,800. The consulting cost is $7,800 * .6 = $4,680

Example Two

Your school’s average K-12 tuition is $7,800. The consulting cost is $7,800 * .6 = $4,680

Taking Action

You are interested in moving your school ahead in the dramatic way that scheduling change supports. You think CSM might be an exceptional partner with you on the journey. Fill out this form and we will get you a proposal within 96 hours for you to consider.

You as a Christian school together with CSM put together the formative questions for the consult. These are the key five questions that one school began with:

  • What might suggest that students’ full individual and collective potential are supported and/or hindered by the current schedule?
  • What data are you currently collecting that might help us understand stress points for students  e.g. student surveys, discipline patterns/records, stratification and/or stalling of student achievement
  • The annual calendar can have significant impact on the school’s ability to deliver a pedagogy and exceptional experience – in what ways has the annual calendar been brought to bear in the delivery of the school’s mission?
  • Assuming they are excellent, can the faculty deliver the mission optimally given the constraints they are under?
  • What do you want and why?

Do you have a list of questions that you want to answer? If it’s anything like this, you will have questions about your teachers and their assignments, how teachers want to teach their assignments, how curricula and graduation requirements can be delivered, how the school’s limited resources can support children/students to their satisfaction and pleasure, how your mission can be delivered with an even higher standard of excellence and, from the child’s perspective, a more joyful experience.

The Process

  1. The school provides the CSM Consultant with many documents including the school’s Handbooks, examples of student and teacher schedules, the current master schedule, alternative schedules the school might be using, floor plan for each building, any student / faculty surveys carried out in the last two years, Strategic Plan, latest accreditation document, any documents reflecting curriculum/pedagogy innovation over the past five years, and a Principal’s reflection outlining hoped for outcomes.
  2. The Consultant does preliminary analysis.
  3. The scheduler and the Consultant have an investigative meeting where the Consultant asks for clarification and the scheduler provides an inside look at the schedule’s implementation.
  4. The Consultant continues the analysis
  5. The school (Principal and academic leaders) and Consultant have an online conference to discuss the analysis, school hopes, and interrogate some initial conclusions held by the Consultant. This is typically three hours.
  6. The Consultant runs an online focus group with two groups of students and two groups of teachers.
  7. The Consultant continues the analysis.
  8. There is a conversation with the Principal to review progress.
  9. The Consultant considers the information and develops as many as three options for consideration including implications for staffing and space.
  10. The school and Consultant have their second online conference to look at and discuss the options. This is typically between two and four hours.
  11. The school determines how it wants to go ahead.
  12. The Consultant does a 60 minute online presentation with time for questions to the faculty providing research background to the proposed changes.
  13. The Consultant does a 60 minute online presentation with time for questions to the Board providing some research background and focusing on the strategic benefit / implications of the changes.
  14. The Consultant provides two follow-up coaching calls as the school implements.

The Cost

CSM charges 1.6 of one tuition for this service.

Your school’s average K-12 tuition is $7,800. The consulting cost is $7,800 *1.6 = $12,480

Taking Action

You are interested in moving your school ahead in the dramatic way that scheduling change supports. You think CSM might be an exceptional partner with you on the journey. Fill out this form and we will get you a proposal within 96 hours for you to consider.

Sacred Time Research

This bibliography is not comprehensive. It includes any authors or books mentioned in CSM’s upcoming publication (2021) on Christian School Scheduling. We have split the references up by topic which some will find enormously helpful and others somewhat frustrating – some references can clearly fit into more than one category. However, we felt that it might overall be more useful for the bibliography to be an aid to the reader and be more instructional rather than the typical long list without categories.

Children

American Dietetic Association Foundation (2010) Family Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey http://www.eatright.org/media/content.aspx?id=6442459600 accessed October 30th, 2012

Appleton M. (2000) A Free Range Childhood: Self-Regulation at Summerhill School The Foundation for Economic Renewal: Vermont

Baumeister R. F.  and Tierney J. (2011) Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength The Penguin Press: New York, NY

Boyd D. (2014) It’s Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens Yale University Press: New Haven

Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990) http://www2.ohchr.org/english/law/crc.htm accessed October 30, 2012

Article 31

  1. States Parties recognize the right of the child to rest and leisure, to engage in play and recreational activities appropriate to the age of the child and to participate freely in cultural life and the arts.
  2. States Parties shall respect and promote the right of the child to participate fully in cultural and artistic life and shall encourage the provision of appropriate and equal opportunities for cultural, artistic, recreational and leisure activity.

Damour L. (2016) Untangled: Guiding Teenage Girls Through the Seven Transitions into Adulthood Ballantine Books: New York

Dillow R.(2016) Mission Based Advisory 2nd Edition ISM: Wilmington, DE

Ginsburg, K.R. (2007) The Importance of Play in Promoting Healthy Child Development and Maintaining Strong Parent-Child Bonds Pediatrics Vol. 119 No. 1 January 1, 2007

Levine I. (2009) Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup With Your Best Friend Overlook

Luthar S. S., Barkin S.  H., and Crossman E. J. (2014) I Can; Therefore I Must: Fragility in the Upper Middle Classes New York: Columbia University

National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform http://www.middlegradesforum.org/ accessed September 30th, 2013

Meyer, P. (2010) The Middle School Mess http://educationnext.org/the-middle-school-mess/ accessed August 13th, 2013

Pellegrini, A.D., & Bohn-Gettler C. M. (2013). The Benefits of Recess in Primary School doi:10.4249/scholarpedia.30448

Thompson M. and Barker T. (2008) It’s a Boy: Understanding your Son’s Development from Birth to Age 18 Ballantine Books: New York, NY

Toshalis E. (2015) Make Me! Understanding and Engaging Student Resistance in School Harvard Education Press: Cambridge, MA

Twenge J. M. (2017) iGen: Why Today’s Super-Connected Kids are Growing up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy – and Completely Unprepared for Adulthood Atria Books: New York

Class Size

Chingos M. M. (2011) The False Promise of Class-Size Reduction The Center for American Progress: www.americanprogress.org

Word, E.R., Johnston, J., Bain, H.P., et al. (1994) The state of Tennessee’s Student/Teacher Achievement Ratio (STAR) Project: Technical report 1985–1990. Nashville: Tennessee State Department of Education

Curriculum

Barton C. (2018) How I Wish I’d Taught Maths: Lessons Learned from Research, Conversations with Experts, and 12 Years of Mistakes John Catt Educational Ltd.: Woodbridge, U.K.

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2010) The association between school based physical activity, including physical education, and academic performance. Atlanta, GA: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

IOM (Institute of Medicine) (2013) Educating the student body: Taking physical activity and physical education to school. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

Ratey J. R. (2008) Spark: the revolutionary new science of exercise and the brain Little, Brown and Company: New York, New York

Elementary School

Alexander R. ed. (2010) Children, their World, their Education: Final Report and Recommendations of the Cambridge Primary Review Routledge: London, UK

Kriet R. & Davis. C. (2016) The Morning Meeting Book (3rd Edition)  Center for Responsive Schools: Turner Falls, MA

Facilities

Cannon Design and VS Furniture and Bruce Mau Design (2010) The Third Teacher: 79 ways you can use design to transform teaching and learning Abrams: New York

Lippman P. C. (2010) Evidence Based Design of Elementary and Secondary Schools: A Responsive Approach to Creating Learning Environments John Wiley & Sons: Hoboken, New Jersey

Nair P., Fielding R. and Lackney J. (rev. 2009) The Language of School Design: Design Patterns for 21st Century Schools DesignShare.com

Nair P., Doctori R. Z., and Elmore R. F. (2019) Learning By Design: Live, Play, Engage, Create Education Design Architects

National Foundation for Education Research (NFER) (2008) The Effects of the School Environment on Young People’s Attitudes Towards Education and Learning Download the summary report at www.nfer.ac.uk/nfer/publications/BSY01/BSY01.pdf

General

Argyris, C., and D. Schon. (1978) Organizational Learning Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley

Goodlad, J.I. (1984) A Place Called School: Prospects for the Future New York: McGraw Hill

Hunter J. D. (2010) To Change the World: The Irony, Tragedy, and Possibility of Christianity in the Late Modern World New York: Oxford University Press

National Commission on Excellence in Education (1983) A Nation at Risk: The Imperative for Educational Reform Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office

National Education Commission on Time and Learning(1994) Prisoners of Time Washington, D.C.: United States Printing Office

Reinstein D. http://voices.yahoo.com/public-elementary-school-boston-1950s-better-433623.html?cat=4) accessed September 29th 2012

Schmidt, W. H., McKnight, C., Cogan, L. S., Jakwerth, P. M., & Houang, R. T. Dordrecht (1999) Facing the Consequences: Using TIMSS for a Closer Look at U.S. Mathematics and Science Education Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS). Netherlands: Kluwer

Willingham D. T. (2009) Why Don’t Students Like School: A Cognitive Scientist Answers Questions About How the Mind Works and What It Means for the Classroom San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Government and Other Agencies

Report of the National Education Commission on Time and Learning (1995) Prisoners of Time The Education Commission of the States Education Reform Reprint Series

Middle School

Kriet R. & Davis. C. (2016) The Morning Meeting Book (3rd Edition)  Center for Responsive Schools: Turner Falls, MA

Benson M., Clemente R., Doner N., Holenko J., Januszka D., and Searles A. (2018) The Responsive Advisory Meeting Book  Center for Responsive Schools: Turner Falls, MA

Physical Activity

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2018) Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans, 2nd edition Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Bass, Ronald & Brown, Dale & Laurson, Kelly & Coleman, Margaret. (2013). Physical fitness and academic performance in middle school students. Acta paediatrica (Oslo, Norway : 1992). 102. 10.1111/apa.12278.

Rest

Pang A. S. (2016) Rest: When you get More Done When you Work Less Basic Books: New York, NY

Swoboda A. J. (2018) Subversive Sabbath: the Surprising Power of Rest in a Non-stop World Brazos Press: Grand Rapids, MI

Scheduling

Carroll J. M. (1989) The Copernican Plan: Restructuring the American High School The Regional Laboratory for Educational Improvement of the Northeast and Islands: Andover, Massachusetts

Rettig M. D.  and Canady R. L. (1995) Block Scheduling: A Catalyst for Change in High Schools. Eye on Education: Princeton, N.J.

Rettig M. D.  and Canady R. L. (2008)  Scheduling: Enhancing Instruction for Student Achievement Eye on Education: Larchmont, New York

Rettig M. D.  and Canady R. L. (2000) Scheduling Strategies for Middle Schools Eye on Education: Larchmont, New York

Shortt T. L. and Thayer Y. V. (1999) The Complete Handbook of Block Scheduling: Success for Students and Teachers through Efficient Use of Time and Human Resources  Technos: Bloomington, Indiana

Teaching

Buckalew W. and Beachley B. (2013), Teaching Excellence II: a research based workbook for teachers. Independent School Management: Wilmington, DE

  1. Kirabo Jackson and Elias Bruegmann (2009)  Teaching Students and Teaching Each Other: The Importance of Peer Learning for Teachers NBER Working Paper 15202: National Bureau of Economic Research.

Hattie, J. (2018, March 28). Hattie effect size list - 256 Influences Related To Achievement . Retrieved May 11, 2020, from https://visible-learning.org/hattie-ranking-influences-effect-sizes-learning-achievement/

Housman, M., & Minor, D. (2016, July 07). Organizational Design and Space: The Good, the Bad, and the Productive. Retrieved May 11, 2020, from https://tinyurl.com/y85jq87n

Jones, B., Wuchty, S., & Uzzi, B. (2008, November 21). Multi-University Research Teams: Shifting Impact, Geography, and Stratification in Science. Retrieved May 11, 2020, from https://science.sciencemag.org/content/322/5905/1259/tab-pdf

Lemov D. and Atkins N. (2015) Teach Like a Champion 2.0  – 62 Techniques that put Students on the Path to College San Francisco: Jossey-Bass

Pashler H., McDaniel M., Rohrer D., and Bjork R. (2008) Learning Styles: Concepts and Evidence Psychological Science in the Public Interest, Vol. 9, No. 3

Schwerdt G. and Wuppermann A. C. (2010) Is traditional teaching really all that bad? A within-student between-subject approach Program on Education Policy and Governance Working Papers Series

Yazzie-Mintz E. (2010) Charting the Path from Engagement to Achievement: A Report on the 2009 High School Survey of Student Engagement Center for Evaluation & Education Policy: Indiana University see also the ongoing resources on student engagement published by Indiana University http://ceep.indiana.edu/hssse/resources.shtml

Theory

McMillan, D. W. and Chavis, D. M. (1986), Sense of community: A definition and theory. J. Community Psychol., 14: 6–23. doi: 10.1002/1520-6629(198601)14:13.0.CO;2-I

Time

Banks, Ron, Beth Atkinson. “What is the Best Time of Day for Student Learning?” Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting. 32 pgs. Aug. 2004 CEEP Popular Topics. (http://ceep.crc.uiuc.edu)

Silva, Elena, et al. “The Carnegie Unit: A Century-Old Standard in a Changing Education Landscape.” Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, Carnegie Foundation, 29 Jan. 2015, www.carnegiefoundation.org/resources/publications/carnegie-unit/.

Carroll, J. (1963). A model of school learning. Teachers College Record, 64, 723-733.

Loviglio, L. (1981) Teaching By The Body’s Clock The Massachusetts Teacher, February 1981

Foster R. G. and Kreitzman L (2005) Rhythms of Life: the Biological Clocks that Control the Daily Lives of Every Living Thing  Yale University Press: New Haven, MA

Foster R. G. and Kreitzman L (2009) Seasons of Life: the Biological Rhythms that Enable Living Things to Thrive and Survive Yale University Press: New Haven, MA

National Education Commission on Time and Learning (1994; reprinted 2005 with new introduction and examples) Prisoners of Time: Report of the National Education Commission on Time and Learning. Washington, D.C.: United States Printing Office

Pink D. (2018) When: the Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing Riverhead Books: New York, NY

Roenneberg T. (2012) Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You’re So Tired Harvard University Press: Cambridge, MA (from the German)

Silva, E. (2007) On the Clock: Rethinking the Way Schools Use Time Education Sector

Tracking

Cogan, L., Schmidt, W., & Wiley, D. (2001). Who Takes What Math and in Which Track? Using TIMSS to Characterize U.S. Students' Eighth-Grade Mathematics Learning Opportunities. Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, 23(4), 323-341. Retrieved April 23, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/3594133

Khan, S., 2020. Rethinking Education. [online] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z9JCpMCQ5qM&t=1831s. Available at: [Accessed 23 April 2020].

SCHEDULING in Christian schools is not just about the technicalities of slicing the day into bits of time. It is really about the way in which we think about children, their relationship to each other and the teachers who care for them, and their relationship to God, who created day and night.

Reading this book will teach you about how the school should steward time so that its children can participate in, experience, and benefit from the school's mission. And time is about light and dark. These are God-given gifts that have deep spiritual significance and we should treat them with great seriousness.

 

The first creative act of God was to say: "Let there be light!" This light was a contrast to the "darkness that was on the face of the deep." Light thus becomes, at the beginning of time, both a physical and metaphorical manifestation of God's grace as the "light of the world" (John 1:4-5, 8:12, 9:5). Jesus is the light of the world and we are members of Christ's Body (1 Corinthians 6:15). Jesus declares as part of the Beatitudes that we are the "light of the world" (Matthew 5:14), an echo of Isaiah's prophecy that we are to be a light to the Gentiles (Isaiah 42:6): "I, the Lord, have called you in righteousness; I will take hold of your hand. I will keep you and will make you to be a covenant for the people and a light for the Gentiles." Being a light to the Gentiles is, of course, soteriological, but it also calls us to an ethical life of "goodness, righteousness, and truth" (Ephesians 5:8-9).

The job of scheduling is as holy as any other kind of task. You might have thought of it as merely technical, maybe even bureaucratic. We think of scheduling as a foundation block of excellent education. Together with your budget, the schedule is the outward sign of your mission in practice. This book explores how to do that very well.

BUY NOW

Let us Partner with you

So what schedule is best for your school? A consult is a way for CSM to partner with you to find out. There is a unique schedule that works for your school. There are trillions of different schedules – no-one else’s is yours. Sure, there are maybe similarities and certainly there are common principles that run through them all. But only one works for you. What do we do?

We bring Scripture, research, and experience to bear in our partnership. After significant preparation, a five day analysis working together with your children, your teachers, and your school leaders results in options for the school to consider. The five days look like this:

Day One and Two: interviewing the adults and the students

Day Three: scheduling together with the Principals and Scheduling Committee

  • Examination of key beliefs about children
  • Consideration of the place of the school’s mission
  • Understanding of the basis for a Christian schedule
  • Research underpinnings of schedule design
  • Discussion of faculty hopes and fears
  • Development of ideas 

Day Four: development of ideas

Day Five: presentation of ideas

The final editing is done for where we are at that moment by the Scheduling Committee. There is a 3.5 hour presentation to the faculty about scheduling theory and practice and how it relates to your school by the consultant. At the end, the Scheduling Committee presents the “Journey” to the faculty in a 30 minute show and tell. Several options for the schedule as a whole and key features of schedules will be presented. 

Day Six: debrief and next steps (optional)

Seeing the schedule through the eyes of the child leads to the recognition that learning time is the most important time. What questions should your school be asking about your children and their connection to learning? The following list is important:

  • What do we know or believe about the developmental needs of students?
  • What is the capacity of our faculty to teach in a way that reflects content, pedagogy, and developmental understanding?
  • What does it mean to teach in a way that supports pace, preference, and passion?
  • Why do we have the design that we currently have? What other alternatives exist or could exist?
  • What is curriculum at our school? What does it mean to learn “a subject”?
  • What are or should be the connections between ‘subjects’?
  • What does it mean to succeed?
  • Who is the individual child?
  • What do we believe about our children?
  • How do we achieve joy, high academic success, balanced lives, and well-being?

Scheduling in Christian Schools is not just about the technicalities of scheduling. It is really about the way in which we think about children, their relationship to each other and the teachers who care for them, and their relationship to God who created day and night. Scheduling is about what happens in the day and night. It is about how the school stewards time so that its children can participate in, experience and benefit from the school’s mission. It is about ensuring your children can be their best. 

Let us Partner with yo u