Every site within my district sets up classes the same way: using pink and blue cards. Some sites assign teacher names to the piles of cards, and other sites—like mine, label the piles Teacher A, Teacher B, Teacher C, etc. Personally, I prefer when teachers form classes and submit the pink/blue cards with teachers’ names already assigned to each stack. My principal and I went ahead and assigned teacher names to the classes, but we’ve had to make quite a few changes due to things such as: certain students needing a male or female teacher, students with behavioral needs requiring a particular teacher, and certain classes getting most of the students with IEPs. Although we set guidelines for how each class should be set up (equally distribute behaviors, IEP students, high/low kids, and ELs), it seems as though certain grade-levels didn’t put very much thought into setting up next year’s classes!
We were told pink and blue were offensive and now have green and yellow papers. Fine, except no one can remember which is which . In previous years, when creating the class lists we already had teachers assigned to the new classes and purposely paired kids with teachers we thought they'd do well with. My new P didn't allow us to do that this year; she said it encouraged people to "make assumptions about colleagues that may not be true," and that we should have culture where we know every teacher is a "good teacher." Although I understand that part, people do have different strengths and not every personality is a good fit with every kid, and that doesn't make someone a "bad teacher." We were allowed to group the kids into classes, but admin assigned teachers to each group. In the past, I've seen that even with very careful consideration, many grade levels end up being "uneven" as far as needs in classes because our population is so transient. I know in one class this year, several of the would be "models" moved away during the summer, and the new students, who obviously no one knew anything about coming in, ended up being high needs.
Seriously, pink and blue are offensive? Oh good grief. What is the world coming to? Oh woe is me, a color is associated with my gender. The horror!
Our grade level team makes class lists. Each teacher uses a different color index card so we can see where our kids are as we lay out cards. Notes on cards include gender, services, high/med/low ‘ranking’, other anecdotal notes.
Since my students move on to middle school, I don’t have to participate in sorting students for their new classes. Our school does try to match teacher and student personalities though. There is a lot of politics involved in class placement as well, so this is one task I’m happy to sit out!
Sending teachers, ELL, SPED and Admin are all involved in class placements. Parent input (in regards to peers) is also a consideration. We work to build balanced classes, while recognizing that we can't think about specific teachers, as that can always change. I
Each grade level meets as a team with the principal, assistant principal, and ESOL/SPED teachers and we make next year's classes as a team. Teachers are given half day time to complete this during the school day. The cards also have students ESOL Level, SPED accommodations, and reading levels.
The pink/blue cards help quite a bit so classes don’t end up with 17 boys and 3 girls (or vice versa).
Our process is very organized and careful. We have placement cards on blue and pink cardstock (used throughout the child's time, so we can look back at previous placements/notes), and on each card we fill out all sorts of information: 4/3/2/1 on each academic behavior, an overall for behavior, and then a handful of other things, such as whether they are time intensive, etc... We then sort as a grade level, based on our current knowledge of next year's teachers. After sorting, we tally up the totals for each class and then often have to do some rearranging to even the classes out a bit. SPED/Admin/specialists all put in their input, too. Parents can give elements of a classroom they'd like their kid in (but no teacher names/genders) and can say if there's any kids they would prefer their kid not with. Teachers can request certain students/families, too -- for example, shockingly, I have about a dozen different repeat families possible next year. This has allowed us to have as equitable of classes as possible, while also allowing us to match students with the best possible fit. For example, students who need a more male role model or need a confidence boost often come to my classroom. Honestly, I find the placement process here to be extremely well done and thought out.
They are indeed placed in classes based on academics, though. On the pink/blue cards, we list their district benchmark scores, ORF, behavior, and other pertinent info. Also, there are some very gender neutral names, so the pink/blue cards help distinguish who is a boy and who’s a girl.
We use pink, blue, and red. The first two, genders. The red is for Big Issue kids. The former cards have behavior ratings on them, but the Red is for significance requiring extra special attention.
Sadly, ours is done by computer, a random assignation with gender and diversity as part of the mix, but not academic consideration. Teachers can give input as to whom they recommend NOT be in the same class, but that isn't always heeded. Parents can request that their child not be grouped with another child. I dislike the way my school approaches it. It is not a win, for sure.
