Class Solver

Avantages

Simple to use, saves time for teachers and administrators.

Inconvénients

A couple of editing pieces take a few clicks.

Avantages

Class Solver saves time and creates balanced classes without much work. Set up the questions you want to ask teachers, the data you want to collect, and allow teachers to input students who should/should NOT be paired together and then let the software work its magic! If you feel like something is sub-optimal, or you need to make a change, click the "Boost" button to create the change without having to manually check to see if the change will throw something else out of whack.

Inconvénients

Nothing! Everything in Class Solver is great!

Avantages

Greatly reduced administration hours and allows us to track data across multiple years

Inconvénients

User interface needs more features like selecting multiple students to make changes and sorting students and solver according to different values e.g. names, gender

Avantages

Storage of data in a centralised place that enables the streamlined ability to make informed decisions about class placements. Oh, and the very fast turn around time from the helpdesk.

Inconvénients

Nothing at this stage. Last year I requested several upgrades, all of these have occurred. Although the ability to embed student photos might be the next step (especially for the sociogram). I work MS/SS but the JS still love to have photos of students.

Avantages

It saved countless hours for teachers, and gave them peace of mind that any last minute changes over the summer wouldn't destroy the carefully crafted class lists they'd created.

Inconvénients

Occasionally the website would be a bit slow to load. It also took a bit of setup the first time, especially training teachers on how to use it (it's very user friendly but teachers are busy people), but it will get easier every year. And it still saved tons of time.

Avantages

Once we put in all of the criteria, Class Solver provided a solution in seconds. We were able to clearly see which criteria were met and which weren't and the boost feature let us tweak the results. Class Solver is extremely flexible and we loved the way it let us set up our own characteristics to use to form the classes.

Inconvénients

As with any powerful software, there is a learning curve, but it really took us a very reasonable amount of time to be up and running.

Avantages

Class solver is easy to use, a huge time saver, balances classes in many ways with just the click of a button and makes it super easy to export class lists to then upload into PowerSchool or any other system.

Inconvénients

Wish it allowed us to keep the lists in the system all year.

Avantages

How easy it was to use, especially for teachers. If it was not friendly user for teachers, it would not have worked because I would have faced resistance among the staff. I loved that we took decisions with data/evidences.

Inconvénients

The email was sent to teachers in English, and there is no option to use it entirely in French. Additionally, I really wish I could export the sociogram. Another feature that could be adjustable is the 'weight' of characteristics in the puzzle. At times, I wish certain characteristics would all end up in the same group, while at other times, I prefer to balance them among the groups.

Avantages

The efficiently and organization of class lists.

Inconvénients

Though Class Solver is a wonderful program and there are not many things I don't like about the program, two characteristics I would change are the loading process and how student information is exited.

Avantages

I enjoyed the different characteristics and ability to keep track of total amount of students per class and as a whole.

Inconvénients

Connectivity issues- sometimes connecting takes awhile

Avantages

What I like most about Class Solver is the time it saves me in creating new classes at the start of the school year. I also like that I can use Class Solver to easily manage cabin allocations for camp.

Inconvénients

There is honestly nothing that I don't like about it. If my school didn't pay for it - I would pay for it myself as it is such a time-saving program.

Avantages

It is very user-friendly and it has saved so much time creating classlists. There are so many characteristics that can be used for each student to help place them in the ideal class grouping.

Inconvénients

I haven't found anything in Class Solver that was not useful for this work.

Avantages

Class Solver is easy to use and implement. It speaks with the other programs used by schools, which makes the process from beginning to end seamless. The algorithm allows teachers to balance the nuance of student characteristics and needs, which was never possible with the old pencil and sticky note method. I recommend this program to anyone wanting something that reduce workload and increases the likelihood of creating well-formed, considered and balanced classrooms.

Inconvénients

The videos are great and help a lot to work through the process. It would be great if the company added an additional check list document to support the process as well.

Avantages

Class Solver saved myself and my staff hours of time. It used the data we entered to make well-balanced cohorts in a matter of seconds. In the past, we spent hours studying various spreadsheets and moving names from cohort to cohort trying to create class lists that would set students and teachers up for success.

Inconvénients

There are no cons necessarily. Learning a new platform always has a learning curve.

Avantages

The ease of inputting information.
The sorting seemed to be very accurate.

Inconvénients

Duplicate names in classrooms
inputting parent requests and informaitn

Avantages

I really love the customer service. They are quick to reply and help with even the small stuff.

Inconvénients

I don't have one - and that is genuine.

Avantages

I love how easy it is to use, and how adaptable it is to our needs, and how much time it saves our teachers.

Inconvénients

I would like to see it work with Skyward more seamlessly, but that being said, it only took a few minutes to upload the necessary information. It has been great for our school.

Avantages

This software took the place of our antiquated self-created spreadsheet system and made student placement organized, efficient and successful. As one of the largest K-8 districts in Illinois, we were able to work collaboratively between grade levels and ensure that parent requests or other special requests were honored and archived for years to come. We usually spend months working on placement due to the spreadsheets not meeting our needs, this year, ClassSolver changed all of that, it was user friendly and our representative from the company customized it to meet our unique needs of being center schools. The best purchase I made all year!

Inconvénients

I honestly can't think of anything that we didn't like about using this tool. Any changes we needed to make due to the size of our building and district, our representative helped us think it through and then customized to meet our needs.

Avantages

Class Solver has allowed our school to have a platform that is reliable and easy to use as we manage shuffling hundreds of students as they progress from grade to grade. It stores the information requests from parents, teachers, and administrators so they are right in front of us as we are making the decisions.

It flags conflicts and helps us resolve them.

When we had issues or needs the customer support was excellent. They were timely and responsive. They helped us understand how to use the program better, and even uploaded files we needed to avoid lots of human error.

With 7 parallel classes per grade having a program available like this was excellent!

Inconvénients

We found some trouble with viewing all 7 classes at one time unless we resized the screen. We got used to it, but for a school with as many classes as we have it took getting used to.

We also value the neighborhood as a criterion and would have liked to see the ability to use some way to harness a better tool for letting us know how far away each girl lives from the others in her class...you could set this up as a criteria within the program and I do not know of a program that does this...the company listened to these issues and worked to help us resolve...but those were the issues we had.

Avantages

This program takes into consideration all data inputted into it, e.g. teacher requests, parent considerations, students with learning needs etc. The algorithm then works on this myriad of information and formulates the classes. Ultimately the user is still is control of the end result via the drag and drop facility. After classes have been sorted, at a glance the user can see instantly see how any manual changes made after this may overall affect class placements.

Inconvénients

There is absolutely nothing I disliked about Class Solver.

Avantages

It has provided us with a quick and systemic process to sort students into classes while still addressing their individual needs and friendship groups. It allows the people who know them well as a learner (their teachers) to have full input. Initial drafts can be shared and then further discussion, if needed, can be undertaken. Our school also asks for specific feedback from parents and students which can then be submitted using the categoreies.

Inconvénients

We haven't found any to date, however, it is important to walk staff through how it works and give them time to 'play' with it , to build their trust.

Avantages

I found that inputting student data was very easy. It is very intuitive and makes planning very easy. Having the opportunity to create your own categories encourages the team to have discussions about the criteria for placing students in classes.

Inconvénients

Honestly, it works so well, I have nothing else to add.

Avantages

What I like most about Class Solver is the ease of use. It is very easy to customize the program for your schools indivdual needs and wants. For instance we wanted to separate students who had birthdays early in the year and late in the year. We were able to easily add the birthday characteristic.

Inconvénients

There was only one minor con that I had with the program and that was how the class list were presented. Although the program listed the number of males and females in the class, I would have liked to see a total so that I could quickly see which classes were high or low in the number of students.

Avantages

Ease of implementation, customization options, time saver, has revolutionized thoughtful, intentional class placement of students

Inconvénients

Hard to think of anything. If there was to be one thing I would recommend time stamping 'requests' so that, when archived, you can remember what year the requests were submitted

Avantages

The product is easy to use. It's a great time saver and does most of the work for you as long as you input as much information as possible. It's great to have a record of all the selections that have been made by students, also great for anyone to pick up. Doesn't rely on "a keeper of information", the product is the keeper.

Inconvénients

We can't fault the product, it has been a perfect for our team!