Creating balanced class lists in elementary schools is a complex yet vital process that affects a child’s entire school year. Effective strategies include starting early, involving multiple staff perspectives, and utilizing digital tools like Class Composer to organize data and ensure thoughtful placements. Here’s how to make it happen.
The creation of balanced class lists in elementary schools can sometimes be the stuff of legends. With all of the pink and blue cards out on the conference table, some schools involve teachers, and the meetings can focus on just trying to figure out where to place certain students. Getting balanced class lists right is important! A child’s class placement often shapes an entire year for students and their teachers.
This post is sponsored by Class Composer.
Sign up now for your free trial of Class Composer. For elementary principals and guidance counselors responsible for making balanced class lists, this app is a must-use. All opinions are that of the author and quoted educators.
As I was researching this post, I was shocked at what one school administrator shared about what this process really looks like:
“We used to make ‘baseball cards’ on index cards for each student and then they would lay them out on the conference room table and try to figure it out. It was time consuming and I had to break up a few fights!!”
Fights over class placement?
Class placement matters. But there has to be an easier way and there is. Class Composer.
The Decision We Should Talk About
We talk endlessly about curriculum, about assessment, about instructional strategies. But the decision that arguably shapes a child’s entire school year (their class roster and teacher) are often made at the end of the school year when everyone is exhausted and rushed to get out the door for summer.
I recently interviewed principal Carrie Hetzel. She knows this tension.
As principal of Paradise Canyon Elementary School in California—a National Blue Ribbon School serving over 700 students—she’s been navigating the complex puzzle of class placement since 2018.
“It’s a very complicated process as you might imagine,” Carrie told me. “Having a big school and several classes per grade level, it’s important to set our students up for success and have really balanced classes for our teachers.”
But here’s what Carrie also told me that was so encouraging:
“Every year is like a fresh start. Every year is a new beginning.”
That reframe changes everything. Class placement isn’t just an administrative headache to survive. It’s the foundation of a fresh start for every child in your building.
So how do we get it right?
Listen to the Full Interview with Principal Carrie Hetzel
Want to hear Carrie share her class placement strategies in her own words? I sat down with her on the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast (Episode 926) to talk about how her school creates balanced class lists for over 700 students — and what she wishes she’d known as a first-year principal. It’s one of those conversations you’ll want to keep listening to, even after you’ve parked. (Also check out my Cool Cat Teacher Talk show on classroom management for more on setting your classroom up for success.)
Tip 1: Start Earlier Than You Think
When I asked Carrie what advice she’d give herself as a day-one principal, her answer was immediate: “Start early.”
“We end in June so we’re definitely in the process in May because it’s not something to rush. It’s really important,” she explained. “At the end of the school year it gets so busy with end of year activities and the teachers are…it’s so busy. So starting early and taking your time is really important.”
A 2017 study published in the Journal of Educational Administration (Park, St. John, Datnow, & Choi) found that while schools collect similar types of data for placement decisions, their analysis and decision-making processes vary dramatically based on their assumptions and goals. I just have to wonder if something more transparent than index cards on a conference room table for a few weeks is going to suit many of us better?
Starting the process early gives teams the time needed to create truly balanced class lists rather than rushing through placements in the final days of school.
Critical Question: When will you start your class list making process for the next school year?
Tip 2: Make It a Team Effort
While class placement is ultimately an administrative decision, in my experience the best placements happen when multiple people, including the teachers who have taught the students previously, are providing input.
Back to Carrie’s interview. She said, “it’s really a group effort here with the staff. Teachers, our counselor look at the classes…it goes through quite a process of teacher revision, principal revision, counselor revision.”
“I see a bigger picture because I’ve seen the students over several years,” Carrie said. “And so I have a different point of view. Our counselor has a different point of view.”
Often, teachers know the daily dynamics. Counselors often have a different picture of children’s social-emotional landscape. Principals know confidential information that can’t always be shared. When all perspectives are combined, you can get placements that work for the next school year. Multiple viewpoints are what make balanced class lists possible — no single person has the complete picture. (And strong classroom management starts with getting these placements right.)
Class Composer supports this team approach by giving everyone a shared digital data wall where they can see all students at once.
In a case study on her school, Laurel Jones, former principal at Rosedale Elementary in New York, echoes this. Her school’s process involved teachers, reading specialists, counselors, and administrators – each with a piece of the puzzle.
Critical Question: Are you including everyone in the process of deciding where students will be placed?
Tip 3: Balanced Class Lists Need More Than Just Numbers
When Carrie described a balanced classroom, she’s not just looking at numbers. As she makes her decisions, which are different at many schools, she says, “Boys, girls, student behaviors, IEPs, 504s, our EL learners – all of those things that go into making up a great class.”
In Class Composer, each student card tracks all of these factors — academics, behavior, IEPs, 504s, EL status — making them visible at a glance. It’s the kind of student placement software that keeps the data organized so you can focus on the human decisions.
But it isn’t just about data points. Kids are unique, and they are not numbers. So it is vital that we have to bring human nuance and emotional intelligence into the process.
“There are students that may click that should be together,” Carrie said. “There are students that may have had a conflict that should be separated that next year.”
This is where the art of emotional intelligence and the wisdom of working with children come into play. You need to see the data to get the big picture, but you need human wisdom here. Only a wise human might realize that two students had a falling out in February, or that one shy child has exactly one friend who helps her feel safe.
But as I reviewed case studies on placements, another concern came to light. Principal Laurel Jones pointed out that, “So often, what would happen is you’d have a teacher in the next grade level who was really good at handling behavior issues, and all the students with challenging behaviors would end up in that class.”
I’ve seen this happen! I’ve seen it burn out teachers. I’ve even seen this cause truly remarkable teachers to want to quit. And some of them do!
Without being intentional, this phenomenon “essentially tracked kids into certain pathways.” (And the teachers!)
And as a teacher who is pretty good in this area, what happens to the teacher? In some ways, we’re making a professional teacher who is very good at her job have a harder and harder year each year, without giving other teachers the chance to grow and learn, and also (sometimes in my observation) creating a firestorm of problems in one particular classroom.
Critical Question: Do some teachers in your school get overloaded with problems? How are you making your decisions of placements? Are there factors you wish you could consider but cannot?
Tip 4: Build in Safety Checks
We all know that when someone is juggling so many factors, mistakes happen.
Laurel Jones took one such mistake personally (as many administrators do.) “When I made a mistake and a student ended up in a class with someone they weren’t a good fit with, I took it very personally. Those experiences made me triple-check everything year after year.”
She used to triple check. By hand. Every year. That is exhausting and still error prone.
Class Composer, the tool both Carrie and Laurel use, has built in automatic safety checks. Carrie says, “If you had a kiddo that needed a break from another kiddo,” she explained, “it’s really nice to have a little extra safety check alert that says, you know, you’re going to make a change that you said shouldn’t be changed, so do you want to do it?”
I like this because the technology is not making the decision. The human is making the decision; however, the technology is doing what it does well. It is tracking the data humans put into it, advising them, and alerting them to their own notes on each child. This is much more respectful of each child and everyone involved. Kids aren’t numbers; they are unique human beings, and we need to value how we treat them.
Critical Question: How are you double checking placements to ensure you don’t have mistakes?
Tip 5: Protect Your Data (Because the Summer Will Change It!)
So many schools work to finalize class lists in May but then over the summer dozens of students move away and another couple of dozen transfer in. It can cause panic to set in and an overwhelm that you have to start over.
“Those were the worst,” Laurel Jones said, “If a new student arrived or someone moved away, ‘I’d have to reshuffle everything, and sometimes I’d miss an important detail, like two students who shouldn’t be together.’”
And imagine what happens if your principal goes to another school over the summer? You really are rolling the dice then!
The problem with paper systems like pink cards, blue cards, or sticky notes, is that institutional knowledge disappears. “With paper cards, you’d group them, build your classes, and by August that data was basically gone,” said Laurel.
When her school moved to Class Composer, everything changed. “All the information carries over and is available to teachers before the new school year starts.”
Continuity matters. Without a system to protect your work, those carefully balanced class lists you built in May can fall apart by August. New teachers shouldn’t have to start from scratch every September. The school shouldn’t be left scratching their heads when administrators or key teachers leave and the institutional knowledge has gone with them. (For more on setting your school year up right, see my back-to-school advice for principals and teachers.)
Critical Question: How are you protecting your institutional knowledge in order to keep placements effective?
The Technology Question About Creating Balanced Class Lists
I always vet the resources and companies that I recommend. When I first heard of Class Composer my teacher instincts kicked in. Can a computer program really understand the nuance of which students should be together?
Here’s what changed my mind. The principals I talked to as part of the class roster creation process were not using technology to replace or circumvent human judgement. They were using technology — and its digital data wall — to protect human judgment from human limitations.
“You can’t really just put things into a machine and press go,” Carrie emphasized on my show. The software “allows me to do everything I would have normally done on paper. The initial draft just starts the process. You’re still using your judgement and the knowledge that you have about your students to make better placement decisions.”
I found a review from Kristin Schroeder, an elementary principal at the American School of Doha, who reported going from 20 hours or so on placement tasks to three.
The time savings is real. But more importantly for kids (and teachers), the accuracy improves when you’re not manually tracking dozens of variables across hundreds of students on index cards. (That sounds like a nightmare to me!)
One educator on Capterra said, “We are able to make the best decisions for children in an organized way.”
Critical Question: Do you feel the system you’re using respects the human input while making it easier to manage the data?
Is It Time for a Fresh Start with a Method to Create Balanced Class Lists?
Class placement can be easier. In many ways it needs to be. It is a very human process (or why would we write all of their names on index cards and have the conversations that need to happen?)
Class placement can be a moment to pause and see how much students have grown and to set them up for success. When your elementary class lists are built with care, that first day back to school starts on the right foot for everyone.
“That’s why it’s so important to have great classes,” Carrie concluded. “So these students are starting off on the right foot in a great environment with peers that they can learn from and learn with.”
Every child deserves a fresh start.
Every teacher would benefit from a balanced classroom.
Every principal needs a process that doesn’t require index cards that fly away when someone slams the door. The process can be better. If you’re ready to move past index cards and sticky notes, take a look at Class Composer — a class placement tool built to help your school create balanced class lists that give every child a fresh start.
Ready to Create Balanced Class Lists Without the Index Cards?
Class Composer helps elementary principals build balanced, equitable class lists in a fraction of the time. Replace the pink and blue cards with a digital data wall that keeps your team’s knowledge organized and accessible — all while keeping human judgment at the center of every placement decision.
Frequently Asked Questions About Creating Balanced Class Lists
What are balanced class lists?
Balanced class lists are classroom rosters that distribute students equitably across classes based on multiple factors including academic levels, gender, behavior, IEPs, 504 plans, EL learners, gifted students, and social dynamics. The goal is to give every teacher a fair class composition and every student the best possible learning environment for the school year.
When should elementary schools start creating class lists for the next school year?
Experienced principals recommend starting the class list creation process in May for schools that end in June. Starting early gives teams the time needed to gather teacher input, review student data, and make thoughtful placement decisions rather than rushing through the process during the hectic final weeks of school.
Who should be involved in creating class placements?
The most effective class placements happen when multiple perspectives are included: classroom teachers who know the daily dynamics, school counselors who understand the social-emotional landscape, reading specialists and support staff, and administrators who may have confidential information. While the principal makes the final decision, collaborative input creates stronger balanced class lists.
What factors should be considered when creating balanced class lists?
Key factors include: gender balance, academic performance levels, student behaviors, IEPs and 504 plans, EL (English Learner) status, gifted identification, student separation requests, friendship dynamics, and parent placement requests. The key is to prioritize which factors matter most for your school rather than trying to balance everything equally.
How does student placement software like Class Composer help?
Class Composer replaces paper index cards with a digital data wall where principals can see all students across all classes at once. It tracks academic data, behavior, identifiers, and placement requests on digital student cards, includes built-in safety checks that alert you before violating separation requests, and preserves institutional knowledge from year to year. Principals report reducing placement time from 20+ hours to approximately 3 hours.
Disclosure of Material Connection: This is a “sponsored blog post.” The company who sponsored it compensated me via cash payment, gift, or something else of value to include a reference to their product. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I believe will be good for my readers and are from companies I can recommend. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
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