Grouping Students with the Rostering Workspace
The Rostering workspace is where you build the school’s groups for a subject, move students between them, and confirm the roster before students are assigned. In Spark you reach it from Students -> Rostering (the tab beside Students and Groups). Everything happens on one screen with a sticky footer that tracks unsaved changes.
The Layout
Across the top are subject chips - Reading and Math. Each chip shows how many students and how many groups are set up for that subject; clicking a chip switches the workspace to that subject.
Below that are two panels:
- Students (left) - the unassigned students for the current subject. Collapsible, sortable, and filterable. The default sort is last name. When everyone is assigned, the panel auto-collapses so the Groups panel gets the space.
- Groups (right) - a card per group. Each card lets you rename the group, delete it, edit its schedule line, and shows an oversize warning if you’ve added more than the recommended number of students. Every student row has a x on the right to unassign them, and each card has a + Move n students here action when you’ve selected students in the left panel.
Group Logic
Groups are created and re-shuffled through the Group Logic modal. You reach it from the create-groups action on an empty workspace and from the Change link in the Groups panel header. The modal offers three strategies:
- Skill Level & Grade (recommended, max 4 per group) - Spark groups students by their pre-assessment skill band first and their grade second.
- Grade - you pick how many students per group and Spark splits by grade only.
- Manual - Spark creates a number of empty group shells you fill by hand.
The modal shows a live result text below your selections (for example “12 students -> 3 groups of 4”) and warns you if any group would end up over 4 students. A collapsible How it works panel explains the strategy in more detail. Keep existing groups carries current groupings forward when you re-run Group Logic.
Saving Your Changes
The sticky footer runs across the bottom in a single row and carries everything you need:
- The program title on the left.
- Collapse All Groups to shrink every card to its header.
- A selection count with a Clear action when you have students selected.
- A short save flash message after a save lands.
- Unsaved changes appears whenever the workspace differs from the last saved state.
- Discard reverts everything back to the last save.
- Save Changes (or Create Groups on a first-time roster) lands the changes.
After you save, a dismissible Roster saved receipt drops in at the top with counts and a delta list - which groups changed, how many students moved, and any groups you created or deleted.
Leaving with Unsaved Changes
If you navigate away with unsaved changes, Spark asks whether to Discard, Cancel, or Save & continue before it lets you leave. This applies to every route change and to closing the tab.
Other Actions
Each Group card carries a kebab menu with:
- Delete group - removes the group and returns its students to the left panel.
- Delete all groups - resets the whole workspace for the subject.
- Revert to recommended - re-runs Group Logic on the current student set.
- Confirm Groups - marks the roster as done. The action is disabled while there are unsaved changes and shows “Marked done -