Two Schedule Group fields, stored in Student Data (STU table) and the Scheduling Master Schedule (SMS table), work together to create a scheduling restriction like the grade range and gender code fields do in the SMS table. These fields can be used to group students and/or sections so that a group of students can be scheduled into specific sections. These groups of students are sometimes called teams, houses, or academies. Both fields are a maximum of two characters in length.   


Applying Schedule Group to a Student

The Schedule Group (STU.SG) field is stored in the STU table. Filter pages by "demographics" or navigate to Student Data > Demographics > Student Data 1 tab. A student's Schedule Group is also displayed on the Classes and Course Requests pages.


Applying Schedule Group to a Section

The other Schedule Group (SMS.SG) field is stored in the SMS table. Filter pages by "scheduling master" or navigate to Scheduling Process > Scheduling Master.


Note:  the codes for the STU.SG and the SMS.SG fields can be added to the MST.SG field using the Update Code Table page. The Code Descriptions for the STU.SG and SMS.SG field are populated from the MST.SG field.



Using Schedule Groups

Students are flagged with a specific Schedule Group and sections are flagged with a matching Schedule Group (for example, group A).  When the scheduler runs, it schedules students flagged as group A into sections flagged with a matching Schedule Group of A or into sections with a blank Schedule Group.  All students with a blank Schedule Group are restricted from sections that have a Schedule Group. In other words, students with a blank Schedule Group will not be scheduled into sections with a Schedule Group.


As an example, a school wants to divide ALL 7th grade students into three GROUPS:  A, B, or C for English, Math, Social Studies and Science Courses, with PE and electives not grouped.  The following steps are performed:


1. All 7th grade students are assigned to group A, B or C by flagging them on the Student form in the Schedule Group field.



2. All sections of English, Math, Social Studies, and Science courses are to be flagged into groups. Sections of PE and electives are not flagged.

  • Group A – select sections for English, Math, Social Studies and Science. Flag with “A” in the Schedule Group field
  • Group B – select sections for English, Math, Social Studies and Science.  Flag with “B” in the Schedule Group field 
  • Group C – select sections for English, Math, Social Studies and Science.  Flag with “C” in the Schedule Group field
  • For the PE and elective sections, leave the Schedule Group field blank.

 


3. Run the scheduler. Group A sections will only have Group A students, Group B sections will only have Group B students, and Group C sections will only have Group C students. 



4. PE and elective courses will have a mixture of students from each of the three groups. Students with a blank in the SchedGrp field will not be scheduled into any “grouped” sections.