ANALYSIS OF SELECTED FACTORS RELATIVE TO AUTOMATED SCHOOL SCHEDULING PROCESSES

PROJECT PASS (PROJECT IN AUTOMATED SCHOOL SCHEDULING) WAS SPONSORED IN 1965 BY THE WESTERN NEW YORK SCHOOL STUDY COUNCIL TO PROVIDE IN-SERVICE EDUCATION FOR SCHOOL PERSONNEL CONTEMPLATING THE USE OF AUTOMATED APPROACHES TO SCHOOL SCHEDULING. TWO TECHNIQUES WERE UTILIZED--CLASS LOADING AND STUDENT SELECTION (CLASS), AND GENERAL ACADEMIC SIMULATION PROGRAM (GASP). TWO PILOT SCHOOLS FROM NEW YORK, EACH USING BOTH TECHNIQUES, WERE SCHEDULED WITH BOTH PROCESSES. THE PROJECT YIELDED TWO SETS OF DATA TO PROVIDE PARTIAL ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING PROBLEMS--(1) THE COSTS INVOLVED IN SCHEDULING BY GASP AND CLASS IN EACH SCHOOL, (2) THE PERSONNEL COMMITMENT REQUIRED FOR THE TWO TECHNIQUES IN EACH SCHOOL, (3) THE SPECIAL COMPETENCIES REQUIRED OF PERSONNEL TO COLLECT AND PREPARE DATA FOR USE IN THE TWO TECHNIQUES, (4) THE ALTERATIONS IN THE SCHEDULING PROCEDURE NECESSARY WHEN CHANGING FROM CLASS TO GASP, AND (5) THE RELATIVE EFFICIENCY OF THE GASP-GENERATED MASTER SCHEDULE WHEN COMPARED TO THE CONVENTIONAL HAND-DEVELOPED SCHEDULE. THE ANALYSIS OF THE DATA SHOWED THAT CLASS AND GASP COULD NOT BE COMPARED IN TERMS OF THEIR ULTIMATE OBJECTIVES BECAUSE CLASS IS A "SECTIONING" TECHNIQUE, WHILE GASP DEVELOPS A MASTER SCHEDULE. THE PRINCIPAL CONCLUSIONS OF THE ANALYSIS ARE OFFERED AS AN AID TO THOSE SCHOOLS CONTEMPLATING AN IN-SERVICE PROGRAM IN AUTOMATED SCHEDULING. (HW)