Staffing, Scheduling, & School Design
Schools run on people, time, and money. When leaders organize those resources well, students get the personalized, rigorous, and college- and career-connected experiences that prepare them for life after graduation. But many school and district leaders get stuck trying to layer new programs and supports onto rigid, one-size-fits-all schedules and staffing models that were never designed for innovation.
ERS helps school systems redesign structures—from individual school schedules and staffing plans to district-level processes, budgets, and policies—that enable sustainable and scalable change in student experiences.
Our Approach to Designing Innovative School Structures
Identify and Tackle Barriers to College and Career Readiness
We analyze student performance, course schedules, and transcript data to surface how students experience school—and how experiences vary across grade levels, schools, and student groups. We assess access to advanced coursework; college- and career-aligned pathways; academic preparation in early high school grades; and advising and relationships. Then, we help leaders make a concrete plan, informed by that data, to tackle those barriers and ensure all students have the opportunities they need.
The Goal: Design a doable high school strategy roadmap grounded in a data-driven understanding of what is—and isn’t—working.
Design and Implement College and Career Pathways
We support districts in developing, costing out, implementing, and continuously improving coherent college and career pathway models. We help districts align offerings to labor market demand and student interest; design the school and system conditions needed for strong pathway implementation; and build a portfolio strategy that makes high-quality pathways available equitably across schools.
The Goal: Give every student a coherent path from high school to what comes next.
Design Student-Centered Schedules and Staffing Models
We support schools and districts in redesigning schedules and staffing plans to actively enable the experiences that students need. We develop schedule prototypes that demonstrate what’s possible within current resource and policy contexts; work directly with school leadership teams to redesign their schedules and staffing plans; and collaborate with district leaders to elevate and address challenges that get in the way of school-level change.
The Goal: Reorganize time, people, and money around student needs.
Redesign Scheduling Processes
We help school systems diagnose challenges and implement solutions to improve scheduling processes. For example, we align budgeting and talent timelines with academic planning milestones; implement student-centered course request processes; and implement more collaborative systems of support to school leaders when designing their schedules.
The Goal: Align timelines, supports, and resources to help school leaders implement new school models.
How We Partner With School Systems
Elementary Schools
Middle Schools
High Schools
Districts
State Agencies
We help leaders connect their ambitious visions for student experiences to the concrete school and system conditions that shape those experiences—things like student time, teacher teaming structures, and group sizes, as well as state and local funding systems, collective bargaining agreement policies, and school support structures.
“We absolutely love the ERS team. They are brilliant, and they really challenge us. What we achieved in the end—looking at the impact for kids as the ROI—will guide us going forward.”
—Misty Reiber, CAO, Lubbock ISD
Building the Future of High School in Nashville
- Increased time in core courses by 20% for 15,000 students across all 12 academy high schools.
- Teed up shifts that reduce class sizes and ensure more effective teachers in foundational English and math 9th grade courses for 4,300 students so they are ready for advanced academic and career courses.
- Increased weekly student-teacher touchpoints in core subjects by 60%.
All while balancing the budget, even as post-pandemic federal funding expired.
How did they do it?
Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) is a shining example of what it looks like when a district commits to building a system that works for every student. The 2025 focus of our years-long work with MNPS centered on ensuring every student is known and prepared for college and career. That goal drove the innovative approaches to scheduling and staffing that are transforming MNPS high schools.
“Through our partnership, we were able to dig deeper into who we are as a district. We learned a lot about what we were doing well and about the opportunities we had to enhance and transform the high school experience.”
—Dr. Adrienne Battle, Superintendent of Metro Nashville Public Schools, TN
We supported school leaders with scheduling tools, staffing models, coaching, and a new strategic scheduling process to give students access to great teachers and impactful learning experiences. These investments were possible because we led a parallel process with the MNPS finance team to analyze the return on investment of new initiatives over the last five years and find strategic trade-offs.
“ERS takes the time to really understand what we’re trying to solve. In this case, they gave us the analytical clarity and practical support we needed,” said Jorge Robles, MNPS CFO.
In the last two years, MNPS has celebrated the first- and second-highest graduation rates in the district’s history. But the work isn’t done. The next phase of our partnership is strengthening college and career pathways to give more students the opportunity to explore their interests, build their skills, and attain impactful college credits and credentials in high wage and high demand fields.
Other School Design Partners
Let’s Work Together
Whether you need to redesign college and career pathways, or take a critical look at your scheduling and staffing models, we’re here to help! Fill out the form below to start the conversation.