Rites and Wrongs: Institutional Explanations for the Student Course-Scheduling Process in Urban High Schools

Urban high schools operating in complex social and organizational environments are likely to face high levels of uncertainty that may make it difficult to manage core organizational processes efficiently and that may lead to tensions among technical logics of action and institutionalized beliefs about schooling. Such tensions can be observed in the course-scheduling process, one of the most important administrative routines supporting the core instructional program of the school. Scheduling matches students with human and intellectual resources in the school and has the potential to sort students into different educational trajectories. This article reports on a study of course scheduling in five urban high schools. Although the scheduling process was enacted in all schools, and students and teachers had schedules in hand on the first day of the semester, many schedules were riddled with problems and inaccuracies that did not enable students and teachers to begin the academic term in an orderly and productive fashion. To explain why such a scenario can persist year after year, technical and institutional influences on the process were explored. In all five schools, the scheduling process reflected widely held beliefs and understandings about schools and students. These institutionalized understandings were frequently inconsistent with technical exigencies surrounding course scheduling, resulting in a dynamic process that was not always efficient or effective. Data on the volume, intensity, and timing of changes made to students' course schedules are used to illustrate the disruptive nature of the process.