Mass Scheduling Tips & Tricks

1. Mass Scheduling Tips & Tricks GSIS Conference 2003

2. Overview • Mass Scheduling Cycle Review • Scheduling Files - How They Interact • Inputting Course Requests • Mass Assign/Remove Course Requests • Reports to Use Along the Way • Team Scheduling • Scheduling Tips • Troubleshooting Ideas

3. Mass Scheduling Cycle • New Year Rollover Completed • Gather Course Requests • Input Course Requests • Review Tallies • Create Scheduling Board • Create/Modify Scheduling Sections • Schedule Students • Resolve Conflicts • Update Classes to Basic Scheduling • Print Schedules • THREE PHASES OF SCHEDULING • TALLY • CONSTRUCTION • ANALYSIS

4. Scheduling Files Used

5. Inputting Course Requests • Scanning – course requests are a snap to print and scan (for all students, a grade level or a single student) • Mass assign/replace/remove course requests • Manual Entry • Drag and drop • Data atoms

6. Mass Assign Requests

7. Mass Replace Requests

8. Mass Remove Requests

9. Reports – Tally • SSS03 Course Request Tally • How many sections • Wrong grade level • Courses to combine • Courses not to offer • SSS04 Reverse Verification Listing • Distribute to Teachers/Department chair • SSS07 Course Request Verification Listing • Distribute to Counselors • SSS18 Less than N Requests • CHS12 Grad Status • Distribute to Counselors for next year’s seniors

10. Reports – Construction • SSS06 Potential Conflict Matrix • Singletons, doubletons • SSS17 PreSched Edit List • Potential Conflicts with Existing Master Schedule • SSS21 CLS Analysis – Per/Crs • Do I have the correct Master Schedule Input

11. Scheduling Options

12. Scheduling Success • Ignore class size maximums on first runs • Need enough seats every period; maintain seat counts per grade when moving sections on scheduling board • SMS09 – Can print for single period; sort by section or grand total • Don’t move singleton or doubleton sections • Run scheduler often as one change can affect many students • Save ASSS and ASMS files so you can go “back” if you change your mind! (Be sure to reorganize files if you restore)

13. Reports - Analysis • SSS08 Sched Reject Analysis • Students with Dropped Courses • SSS10 CLS Analysis Crs/Sec • SSS21 CLS Analysis Per/Crs

14. Transferring from Mass to Basic

15. Team Scheduling • Can assign teams manually • Can use teams to create blocked sections e.g. same students, same teacher, contiguous blocks • Students are ‘assigned’ to a team when they schedule into a section with a team designation; at that point they will schedule into sections of that team • Can use teams to allow different beginning periods in S1 and S2 while keeping the same teacher both semesters (e.g. Algebra, English)

16. Contiguous Block Schedules • Each section is ‘flagged’ with a Team • Students are scheduled into first class with a Team • Every other section scheduled for that student must be the same Team, if a Team is assigned to the section

17. Same Teacher, Different Periods

18. Scheduling Tricks • Need to ‘Lock in’ schedules while still in Mass Scheduling? • Logic: if a course is pre-scheduled, then the student is not open to scheduling in that period • Method: once the student schedules are set, run a mass change query: • CHANGE ASSS Preclslink = Classlink if Classlink <> “ “

19. Scheduling Tricks • Need to schedule by grade? • E.g. schedule 8th grade before 7th grade • Mass change all 7th grade High period/Low period fields in ASTU to 20/20 • CHANGE ASTU HighPeriod = 20 • CHANGE ASTU LowPeriod = 20 • Run the scheduler, all 7th graders will reject (period conflict) • Adjust 8th grade schedules and lock in • Mass change 7th grade High period/Low period to valid range • Run the scheduler, 7th graders will now schedule

20. Scheduling Tricks Scheduling Exploratory Wheels • Create a YR course for each exploratory wheel and assign students those course requests • Create sections for each period where these courses will be scheduled • Allow the scheduler to place the exploratory YR section on the student schedule with other classes • Update Classes (from Mass to Basic Scheduling) • After files are in Basic Scheduling, use Mass • Assign Classes to remove the year long sections and add the appropriate wheel sections

21. Mass Assign/Drop Classes

22. Helpful Queries • Print a list of student course requests by course/student with alternate requests: • PRINT ASSS ACRS ACRS ASTU \ CrsReq 2,Title LastName FirstName Grade AltCrsReq 3,Title SORT CrsReq Note: When you add ACRS the second time be sure to drag AltCrsReq to the top of the 3rd column so that the files link properly!

23. Helpful Queries • Want to Query the Meeting Days in ASMS and see them as M, T, W, H, F horizontally. (Example is for one section only) DISPLAY ASMS SectionID CrsTitle TchName {M=SplitBeg[0]} {T=SplitBeg[1]} {W=SplitBeg[2]} {R=SplitBeg[3]} {F=SplitBeg[4]} IF Course = "0406"

24. Helpful Queries • To total the students by ethnic codes in each section, include a numeric value for the dollar sign to total. The size of the numeric value inside the brackets must exceed the possible grand total. (For example, if your total could be 1000 you need to have this number be 0001.) PRINT ASTU ASSS ASMS \ EC $ {001} LN FN SectionID SORT SectionID EC

25. Troubleshooting • Can’t run Update Classes • Make sure all terms exist and are legal (e.g. cannot update M1, M2 etc.) • Large number of students rejected • Check High/Low periods! • Can’t change beginning/ending period in sections with students scheduled • Delete AMST, ACLS, ACLH (Always backup 1st) • Make changes to the sections • Rerun Update Classes

26. Get Ready, Set and… GO! GO! GO! GO!