Rites and wrongs: Institutional explanations for the student course-scheduling process in urban high schools

Urban high schools operating in complex social and organizational environme nts are likely to face high levels of uncertainty that may make it difficul t to manage core organizational processes efficiently and that may lead to tensions among technical logics of action and institutionalized beliefs abo ut schooling. Such tensions can be observed in the course-scheduling proces s, one of the most important administrative routines supporting the core in structional program of the school. Scheduling matches students with human a nd intellectual resources in the school and has the potential to sort stude nts into different educational trajectories. This article reports on a stud y 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 beg in the academic term in an orderly and productive fashion. To explain why s uch a scenario can persist year after year, technical and institutional inf luences on the process were explored. In all five schools, the scheduling p rocess reflected widely held beliefs and understandings about schools and s tudents. These institutionalized understandings were frequently inconsisten t with technical exigencies surrounding course scheduling, resulting in a d ynamic process that was not always efficient or effective. Data on the volu me, intensity, and timing of changes made to students' course schedules are used to illustrate the disruptive nature of the process.