Kate Clancy

Date of Award

August 2024

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Department

Educational Leadership

First Advisor

Julie Robinson

Abstract

Examining school-wide factors that can positively influence student and school success is especially crucial after the COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in a period of online learning that led to a decrease in student achievement scores across the nation. As a result, this study sought to assess how schedule design specifically affected teacher perceptions of engagement and behavior for middle school students as well as the impact of schedule design on teachers’ perceptions of their work environment. The purpose of the research was to explore the teachers’ perceptions of the impact of schedule design in 2022–2023 and 2023–2024 on their work environment as well as middle school students’ behavior and engagement in an urban charter middle school in the Northeast United States through inductive thematic analysis of open-ended questions asked in semi-structured interviews and focus groups. The goal was to identify how schedule design could maximize student engagement and minimize unwanted behaviors while improving teacher satisfaction. The following research questions guided the study: (1) How does schedule design impact middle school students’ engagement and behavior? (2) How does schedule design impact the engagement and behavior of middle school students with identified disabilities? (3) How does schedule design impact teachers’ perceptions of their work environment? The study identified these key themes: (1) student engagement, (2) student behavior, (3) school climate, (4) teacher wellness, and (5) student-teacher relationships. The results indicated that the most positive impact on student engagement and behavior was achieved using a 7-period, 50-minute waterfall rotation schedule with a daily homeroom, a daily intervention block, and an unassigned and administrative duty period. This schedule strongly and positively influenced the climate, culture, relationship building, teacher satisfaction, and teacher stress. The results showed that reducing periods from 70 to 50 minutes and shifting from a static to a rotating schedule had the most impact on all categories mentioned above. The study indicated that special education teachers who spent the daily 50-minute intervention block together with their caseload noticed dramatic impacts on their success in all classes. Finally, this study indicated that student behavior and engagement improved when teachers perceived their work environment more positively.

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