Assigning Student to Classes

To assign students to classes, select the Utilities Sheet and click on the "Assign Students" button. You will then be asked to make six decisions:

  1. Into how many classes do you want to place these students? – Enter an appropriate number;
  2. What is the maximum number of students in a friendship group? – Enter a number from 1 upwards. Choosing 1 means that friendships will not be considered. Choosing a very large number may result in poor balances;
  3. Is this maximum number rigid or flexible? – Answer Rigid or Flexible (R or F). Choosing Rigid means the program will never exceed this number. Choosing Flexible means the program will stick to it unless a student has named friends but can't be placed in any friendship group under this condition;
  4. What is the absolute maximum number of students in a friendship group? – This question will only be asked if you have answered Flexible to question 3. Enter a number within the given limits. The program will then try to stick to the previous maximum but use a little flexibility in "mopping up" students who have named friends but who remain alone;
  5. Shall I take into account the Keep-Away columns? – Answer Yes or No (Y or N). In some cases you may wish the program to ignore the “Keep-Aways” when assigning students to classes. If this is so, choose No;
  6. Do you wish to evenly distribute students from some feeder schools? – Answer Yes or No (Y or N);
  7. How many feeder schools do you wish to distribute evenly? – This question will only be asked if you have answered Yes to question 7. Enter a number that represents the number of MAIN feeders;
  8. Do you want a Standard(S), Quick(Q) or Complex(C) search? – Answer S, Q or C. “Standard” is slower than “Quick” but more often produces slightly better balances. “Quick” sometimes works better if tight restrictions are in force. “Complex” is the slowest search but can improve balances when you have many or large-sized friendship groups;
  9. How many cycles shall I use? – Enter a number from 1 to 10. Satisfactory balances can usually be reached within roughly 6 cycles.

The program will then begin to sort your students into classes. If you look at the bottom-left of your screen you will see a message telling you how far it is through the process. At the end of the routine you will receive a final pop-up message indicating how close it has come to achieving a perfect balance (an average percentage deviation of zero).

Have a look at the balances achieved shown on the Balance sheet. You can create a completely different distribution simply by:

  • running the "Assign Students" routine again immediately
  • changing the number of cycles
  • changing the maximum size of friendship group
  • changing the type of search (S, Q or C)
  • changing the number of balancing factors or categories (don't forget to rebuild after you finish editing the Factors sheet)
  • changing the weight of certain categories (don't forget to rebuild after you finish editing the Factors sheet)