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This paper proposes a new formulation for the school bus scheduling problem (SBSP), which optimizes school start times and bus operation times to minimize transportation cost. The goal is to minimize the number of buses to serve all bus routes such that each route arrives in a time window before school starts. We show that introducing context-specific features, common in many school districts, can lead to a new time-indexed integer linear programming (ILP) formulation. Based on a strengthened version of the linear relaxation of the ILP, we develop a dependent randomized rounding algorithm that yields near-optimal solutions for large-scale problem instances. The efficient formulation and solution approach enable quick generation of multiple solutions to facilitate strategic planning, which we demonstrate with data from two public school districts in the United States. We also generalize our methodologies to solve a robust version of the SBSP. 

The tutorial explores a series of questions related to the use of operations research (OR) and operations management (OM) to improve public education systems. These questions are: (i) In the past century, how have changes in education policy prompted new OR/OM areas of research? (ii) What are the current research areas of central importance in education operations? and (iii) How can researchers interested in studying education operations establish partnerships with districts, schools, or education companies? Drawing on key papers from the literature and our experiences, as well as experiences of other researchers and practitioners who have engaged in partnerships, we answer these questions and highlight emerging areas of research in public education. We trace the history of OR/OM research in education chronologically, starting from the 1950s, and discuss the legal, political, economic, technological, and social events that have marked major shifts in public education provision. Though still developing at the time of publication, we discuss COVID-19 and its tremendous impact on education provision. Our broad review explores the links between issues in education over time and OR/OM research interests, methods, and technology.