Quick Reference Card Searching for a Counselor s Student Finding your students is an important skill each counselor needs. For some searches, you can use the Browse Students section on the Start Page, but sometimes you need a more specific search. For example, you counsel students with the last names that begin with G-O, but you only want to work with the 11th graders. After you find your students, store your search command and store the group of students. 1. To find the 11th graders with last names that begin with G-O, enter Grade_level=11;Last_Name>G;Last_Name<P in the Search Students field 2. Click the Search icon The Student Selection page lists the students who match your search command. 3. Highlight the search command and choose Copy from the browser s Edit menu Rather than entering the search command each time you need these students, store the search. 4. Click the PowerSchool logo 5. Click Stored Searches > New 6. Enter 11th Graders G-O in the Name field 7. Click in the Search instructions field and choose Paste from the browser s Edit menu 8. Click Submit Now run the search again to verify the search is correct. Then, store the group of students. 9. Click Run Search > Save Stored Selection 10. Enter 11th Graders G-O in the Name of new selection field 11. Verify SAVE is selected and click Submit The page refreshes automatically and the stored selection appears in the Selections list. 12. To work with the group of students, click Go Functions For example, you need to review the course requests your students submitted. 13. Click Counselor s Screen 14. Choose Manage Requests from the screen menu and click Submit 15. Click the last name of the student you wish to view first Continuing clicking each student s last name until you finish. You can also search for students using search codes. For example, you need to find all the seniors with less than 20 cumulative credit hours. On the Start Page, enter *cumulative_credit_hours<20;grade_level=12. The search code is identified with an asterisk. Copyright 2009 Pearson Education. All rights reserved.
Creating a Custom Counselor Screen Track which counselors are assigned to each student with a custom counselor screen. Use the built-in Custom Fields and Screens generator to accomplish this task easily. 1. On the Start Page, click System > Custom Fields/Screens > Student Fields > New The first step to create the screen is to create the custom field. 2. Enter Students_Counselor as the Field Name Field names cannot contain spaces. 3. Enter Custom student counselor field in the Description field The Description field is optional. 4. Click Submit 5. Click Custom Fields/Screens in the breadcrumbs 6. Click Custom Student Screens > New 7. Enter Student s Counselor in the Name field This is the screen name users click to view or edit the counselor field. 8. Click Submit to save the screen name 9. Click Edit Fields next to the screen name and then click New 10. Enter Student s Counselor in the Label field This is the text that appears next to the field name. 11. Enter Students_Counselor in the Field Name field e. Radio Buttons - a selectable radio button f. Entry box - a multi-line text box for data entry For this example, choose Entry field. 14. Enter 25 in the Width field This limits a text entry to 25 characters. The Width field applies to Entry field and Entry box options only. 15. Leave the Height field blank If you choose Entry box from the Input Type menu, enter the number of lines available in the Height field. 16. Leave the Data for Popup or Radio Buttons field blank Use the Data for Popup or Radio Buttons field to enter options the user can choose from, like a list of counselor names. These names would then appear in the pop-up menu or as radio buttons. 17. Click Submit to save the field information. Mass Adding the Counselor You can complete the counselor field individually for each of your students or you can use a time-saving method called Student Field Value Group Function and populate the field for a group of students at once. 1. On the Start Page, search for and select your students 2. Choose Student Field Value from the Group Functions menu You can also click the Fields link to view and select the field name. 12. If you set up more than one field on this screen, enter a sort order value The larger the number, the lower the field s position on the screen. 13. Choose from the following Input Types: a. Entry Field - a single-line text field for data entry b. Static field - view-only data c. Checkbox - a selectable check box d. Pop-up menu - a menu that users can choose an option from 2
3. Click Fields next to Field to Change 4. Click the field name Students_Counselor from the Field List window 5. Enter the counselor s name in the New Field Value field Text you enter in this field is placed in the Student s Counselor field for each student. 6. If you want to clear a field for a group of students, select the Clear Field Value check box 7. If some of the students already have a field value and you don t want to replace it, select the Do not overwrite existing data check box 8. Click Submit > Submit Setting Up the Cumulative Info Page As a counselor, you need access to information such as a student s class rank, total credit hours, and GPAs. You can find all this information for an individual student in one place: the Cumulative Info student page. Your PowerSchool system administrator sets up the page with a PowerSchool Project Manager during your school s Implementation. If you want additional fields of information to appear on the Cumulative Info page, you can add them at any time. 1. On the Start Page, click School > GPA Student Screens 2. Use the Type of Current GPA menu to choose which GPA displays on the Quick Lookup page 3. Use the Row Title field to identify the data on the Cumulative Info page For example, if you want to add the new counselor field, enter Student s Counselor in Row 5. 4. The Data column contains the data access tags or fields needed to pull the data If you create a new GPA method, you could edit one of the other GPA method names or add the information to the next empty row. In this example, enter ^(Students_Counselor) in the Row 5 Data field. 5. Click Submit Once the changes are made, navigate to a student s Cumulative Info page and view the new information. 6. Click the PowerSchool logo 7. Search for and select a student 8. Click Cumulative Info under the Academics section If you haven t entered the counselor s name on the Student s Counselor custom screen, the value would be blank. Below is a portion of the page. 3
Tracking Graduation Progress Many schools track graduation progress by hand using a junior checklist and the Historical Grades student page. The Historical Grades page contains all the completed courses and the grades received for an individual student. Not only will PowerSchool replace those checklists, but you can report the progress easily to parents and students with Graduation Sets. For Graduation Sets to work, you need to format several pieces of information. 1. On the Start Page, click School > Graduation Sets > New 2. Enter High School Diploma in the Name field and click Submit If you have different graduation requirements for certain grade levels, create multiple graduation sets. 3. Click Edit Requirements Graduation sets are divided into requirements. 4. Click New 5. Enter the subject area the requirement applies to in the Subject Area field For example, if this requirement is for English credits, enter English. 6. Enter English in the Requirement Name field The Subject Area and Requirement Name fields are often identical. 7. Enter the number of credits a student must earn to satisfy the graduation requirement in the Prerequisite Hours field 8. Courses fulfill the graduation requirements, and you can select one of the following four methods to use when defining which courses fulfill this requirement: a. These course numbers - enter all the course numbers by hand, separated with a comma and no spaces b. Courses with these credit types - enter the credit types, such as ENG. If you need multiple credit types, separate with a comma and no spaces. c. Courses in this group - choose the course group d. Any course at all - any course a student takes fulfills this requirement. Use this option for an Electives requirement. 9. Enter 1 in the Sort Order field The lower the number, the higher priority. For example, the core requirements English and Math should have lower sort orders than Practical Arts and Fine Arts. Additionally, use the sort order to define how the requirements are listed on the page. The lower the number, the higher the placement on the page. 10. Click Submit and then click Course Groups below the requirements 11. Click New to create a new course group 12. Enter English in the Name field You can alleviate confusion by matching the course group names to the graduation requirement names. 13. Choose Graduation Set Only from the Type menu 14. Select Apple Grove High School from the Applies to options Only students at Apple Grove High School will have this graduation set available for graduation progress. 15. Check each course that is part of this group You can place courses in multiple groups. If a course could count for multiple requirements, PowerSchool evaluates the course by the first requirement on the list. If the first requirement is fulfilled, the course goes to the next requirement in the sort order, and so on. Any course that is not in a group won t count towards graduation progress. Therefore, any time you add a new course to PowerSchool, don t forget to add that course to the appropriate course group. 16. Click Submit 17. Click School Setup in the breadcrumbs Go back to the English graduation requirement and assign the course group. 18. Click Graduation Sets > Edit Requirements > English 19. Select Courses in this group and choose English from the menu 20. Click Submit Continue creating requirements and course groups until your graduation set is complete. When you finish, view the graduation progress for one student. 21. Click the PowerSchool logo 22. Search for and select a student 4
23. Click Graduation Progress under the Academics section 24. Choose the requirements set, such as High School Diploma, from the Graduation Requirement Set menu The Graduation Progress page refreshes automatically and shows the requirements you defined. You can see the English requirement and how many credits are required. The next two columns list the English classes that are completed and current. Finally, you see how many credits the student needs to fulfill the requirement. The current English class credits don t subtract from the needed credit until you store grades and credit. Running the Graduation Progress Report You can navigate to a student and use the browser s File menu to print the Graduation Progress page for one student. PowerSchool also has a report to print graduation progress for groups of students. 1. On the Start Page, click Reports > Graduation Progress Report (PDF) 2. Select which students you want to print Graduation Progress reports for You can select all students, the last selected group of students, or specific grade levels. 3. Click Submit to run the report 4. On Report Queue-My Jobs page, click Refresh located next to My Jobs 5. When the report status shows Completed, click View to see the completed report Below is a portion of the report. 5
Modifying the Transcript Create transcripts using the Object Reports template. PowerSchool has a sample transcript. However, you need to make some modifications to personalize the transcript for your school. It is a best practice to export the sample report as a template before making changes. That way you have an original to refer back to in case you need to start over. 1. On the Start Page, click Reports > Setup > Object Reports 2. Click Sample - High School Transcript An object report is a report made up of objects. Every line, word, and picture is considered an object on the report. You can choose to add any of the New Object items you see at the top of the page. Below is a portion of the object report. Recording Information for Students As a counselor, you ll focus on four specific student pages when recording and viewing student information: Other Information - contains miscellaneous information including the Other Alert fields. Use the Other Alert Text field to enter information such as a link to the student s IEP file or special instructions for a teacher to follow. Log Entries - record contact that you have with students. Use the Search Log Entries special function to report the contact information. SEOP (Student Education Occupation Plan) Review - record a variety of educational data, including 504 information, IEP information, extracurricular activities, and awards Test Scores - enter student test scores 3. Click Text next to # 13 4. Delete Example High School and enter Apple Grove High School 5. Click Submit to save the changes 6