PowerSchool Counselor Skills

PowerSchool Counselor Skills As a counselor, you manage and work with students on a daily basis. You provide important information to and communicate with parents, teachers, and students; and you monitor student academic progress and adjust schedules. Explore some of the most important tasks you will need to master as a counselor to ensure student success. In this course, learn a variety of counselor skills, including: Creating, editing, and using GPA calculations Searching for student data using search codes Working with historical grades Creating a graduation set and graduation planner Working with schedules GPA Overview A student s GPA gives you an overall picture of how he or she is performing academically. You use this one value for several purposes: honor roll, class rank, transcripts, and graduation progress. To set up GPAs, you must understand and perform several tasks. Grades, whether current or historical, are the first piece of information used to determine the GPA that a student receives. Each letter grade has a GPA value. Define the values when setting up the grade scale, and identify the overall GPA value by formatting a calculation method. Finally, use GPA data access tags (DATs) to display GPAs on reports. Create and edit GPA calculations at the district level. PowerSchool has four default GPA formulas: Simple Simple Percent Weighted Weighted Percent GPA Formulas GPA formulas contain four parts: the total sum, the divide by function, the number of decimal places, and the rounding function. The formula is like an algebraic equation; the parentheses operate the same way. For example, the formula for a simple GPA calculation is round((sum(gpa_gpapoints())/gpa_count()),4). The sum function totals up the GPA points. The count function defines what the total is divided by. The 4 is the number of decimal places the GPA is calculated out to. Round means the resulting GPA will be rounded. Look at the simple GPA formula below, and think of it in terms of mathematical operations: round((sum(gpa_gpapoints())/gpa_count()),4) 1. Calculate the sum of the GPA points 2. Count the number of grades 3. Divide the sum of the GPA points by the grade count Copyright 2015 1

4. Round the result to 4 decimal places Write each part of the GPA formula with a function. Functions fall into five categories: numerical, logical, statistical, text, and GPA. Begin writing a formula by following these guidelines: Write the calculation in common English, such as total GPA points divided by the number of grades Convert common terms into GPA functions, and add () to the end of the functions Add PowerSchool operators Add mathematical operators When you complete a formula, use it to help you create additional formulas. GPA Codes A data access tag, or DAT, is a kind of code you use to pull information from PowerSchool onto reports. Use GPA DATs to pull students GPAs onto report cards, transcripts, or other PowerSchool reports. A GPA DAT contains several elements, but the most common elements are method, type, and term. The first part of a GPA DAT is the name of the calculation method, which must match the method name at the district level (such as Simple or Weighted). The second part is the type of GPA (such as cumulative). The third part is the term element, which shows GPAs for different time periods, rather than the whole history (such as Q1 or S2). Here is an example of a GPA DAT for a simple cumulative GPA for Semester 1: ^(*gpa method= simple type= cumulative term= S1 ) Although calculation method, GPA type, and term are the most common elements in a GPA DAT, you can be even more specific by using more DAT elements such as grade, year, credit type, and grade scale. When using GPA DATs, remember that anything specified in the calculation method always overrides options identified in the GPA DAT. For example, if your weighted GPA is set up with the cumulative calculation type, you cannot print a current weighted GPA on the student s report card. For this reason, schools often create additional calculation methods. Advanced Searching Almost every task you perform will begin with finding the right students. For many searches, you can use the search links on the Start Page. But as a counselor, you may want to search by: Search codes Grades/Attendance GPA Search Codes Search for students using search codes. A search code performs a calculation instead of simply searching a field. Each search code begins with an asterisk. For example, find all the seniors with fewer than 20 cumulative credit hours. You could look at each student s historical grades, but that would take time. Instead, use a search code. Copyright 2015 2

Begin on the Start Page, and enter *cumulative_credit_hours<20;grade_level=12 in the search field. The asterisk indicates it is a search code. Using this search code, you ll get a list of students in grade 12 who have fewer than 20 cumulative credit hours. To view a list of all search codes currently available, click View Field List on the Start Page. Enter an asterisk in the filter to scroll to the Students Search Code list automatically. Then, click a search code to add it to the search field and complete the search statement. Search By Grades/Attendance Use the Search By Grades/Attendance group function to find students with grade or attendance problems. This search generates a list of students and sections that match your search criteria. Use this function to find students with failing grades or students with several unexcused absences. Activity 1 Searching for Failing Grades Use the Search By Grades/Attendance group function to find students at risk of failing their current classes. 1. On the Start Page, select a group of students 2. Click the Select Function arrow and choose Search By Grades/Attendance 3. Select which students to include 4. Verify that the correct term is displayed If the term is incorrect, choose the correct term from the Term menu in the navigation toolbar. 5. Enter a value for the minimum number of classes a student is in danger of failing 6. Check Scan for this final grade, and choose Any = from the comparator menu 7. Enter the grades D+,D,D-,F Also, select Scan for attendance to search for students with failing grades and attendance problems. Choose the codes to scan, enter the number of occurrences, and choose to scan all attendance records or scan a specific date range. 8. From the Scan for grades in menu, choose Current grades and enter the final grade code of the grades to search Choose to search historical grades if grades have been stored already for the term. 9. Select to scan for all classes enrolled as of a certain date or any time during the term 10. Choose to make this the current selection of students 11. Click Submit The Group Functions page appears, showing the number of students who fit the search criteria. Then you can choose another group function for your group of at-risk students, such as Print Reports or List Students. To see which students are on the list, click the number at the top of the page. From the Student Selection page, choose a particular student and use the student pages menu to navigate to the Quick Lookup page or Historical Grades page and view relevant data. Copyright 2015 3

Search By GPA Use the Search By GPA group function to search for students with a particular cumulative, term, or current grade point average. What if your school recognizes students who have a GPA of 3.0 or higher? Find all the students with a Semester 1 GPA of 3.0 or higher. The Search Results After you perform a search, view the results using one of three group functions: Student Screens, List Students, or Quick Export. Student Screens Use the Student Screens group function to view a specific student page for a group of students. For example, the end of the school year is a month away, and you want to verify that your 9th graders have submitted course requests. Using the Student Screens group function, select Manage Requests and click Submit. Then view each student s Request Management page by clicking his or her last name. List Students Use the List Students group function to view, print, or export information for a selection of students. For example, use the function to create a quick list of names and phone numbers for students who are going on a field trip. Quick Export Use Quick Export to view and analyze student data in a list or to work with the data in another application. For example, track seniors who are at risk of failing. Keep a list of their names and parent contact information handy by exporting the data out of PowerSchool. Honor Roll Students Several times a year you will need to determine and report who has made the honor roll. Once your school calculates the honor roll, run the Honor Roll report to see which students made the honor roll. Navigate to System Reports, and click Honor Roll. Select the students for whom you want to run the report, such as all currently enrolled students. Then give the report a title, such as Semester 2 Honor Roll. The generated report shows all students who met your school s honor roll requirements for Semester 2. Use the information to print honor roll messages on report cards or report the information to your local newspaper. You can also copy the text and work with it in a spreadsheet. Historical Grades Entering student data is an ongoing process, and processing new student information requires some manual entry when entering data from student transcripts. Recording transcript information may not be needed for all grade levels, but if you want a historical grade to print on a transcript, enter the grade on the student s Historical Grades page. Copyright 2015 4

Historical grades are not current grades. Historical grades are final grades and are permanently stored in a student s record after the term is finished. The Historical Grades screen is view only for most users. Only those with access, such as a school counselor or the registrar, can modify historical grades. Enter grades from a student s transcript using two methods: Single New Entry or Multiple New Entries. Single New Entry On the Historical Grades student page, click Single New Entry to record a grade a student earned at another school. For example, a student is enrolled at your school, but goes to another school to take a course that is not offered at your school. To record the student s grade for that course, enter the grade information on the student s Single New Entry page. Before entering information, answer these questions: How was a student given credit for his or her performance in a past class? How are classes that don t match the school s current offerings added to historical grades? At times, a counselor must work closely with the registrar to determine how to apply credit or categorize a course. Once you determine that, enter a new single historical grade. Activity 2 Entering a Historical Grade Enter a historical grade for a new student. 1. Search for and select a new student 2. Click Historical Grades > Single New Entry 3. Enter the school name 4. Enter the school year, such as 2015 5. Enter the store code, such as S1 6. Enter the historical grade level 7. Enter the course number and section number that corresponds to a course and section in your school schedule The course number must match a course in your current catalog to be counted toward graduation progress. If your district doesn t have a similar course, enter the course name. However, the course will not fulfill any graduation requirements you set up in PowerSchool. 8. Enter the letter grade earned, such as A or C 9. Enter the GPA points received for the grade, such as 3 10. Enter the percent 11. Enter the citizenship code for the term (optional) 12. Enter the earned credit hours for the course if credit was awarded 13. Enter the potential credit hours the student could have earned If the student earned credit, the potential credit should be equal to or greater than the earned credit. Copyright 2015 5

14. Enter the credit type that this course fulfills, such as PE 15. Choose to either include or exclude this grade from GPA calculations, class rankings, and honor roll calculations 16. Choose whether or not to display this grade on student transcripts 17. Click Submit Multiple New Entries Use Multiple New Entries to record a new student s grades from a previous school outside of your district. Add historical grades from a previous school so you can add the grades to a student s transcript and make the grades part of the student s permanent record. The Academic Record Entry page accommodates up to eight courses and multiple terms, making it more efficient to record a student s grades for a term or a year. Repeat Course Grade Suppression When a student chooses to retake a class to try to achieve a higher grade, the previous grade will be overwritten, or suppressed, if the grade suppression policy is enabled. The grade suppression policy suppresses the previous grade and replaces it with another historical grade for the same course. Your PowerSchool administrator enables grade suppression with the grade scale at the district level. Once enabled, you can suppress repeated course grades automatically or manually. When the grades are stored, the previous grade is automatically overwritten when course numbers match or course equivalencies are identified. To suppress repeated grades manually, first verify that the previous grade is associated with the grade suppression policy. Then, when you add the new grade and associate it with the grade suppression policy, the new grade will overwrite the previous grade and become the grade you print on transcripts and count toward graduation requirements. For the previous grade, click Repeated Course Grade Details to see which grade replaced this course grade. Repeated course grades are one part of the policy, but what if the student earned credit for both of those grades? The R marks a grade that is being replaced, but the credit is still being counted towards graduation if credit was earned. To keep the extra credit from counting, set a maximum credit hour for each course on the Edit Course District Information page. Then, when a grade is being replaced and the student has reached the maximum credit, you will see the M grade suppression code. The M suppresses the grade and the earned credit. Importing Historical Grades Although the Multiple New Entries method is fast, there is one other method that is even faster. You can import your historical grades. Before performing the import, be sure to back up your data file. Then, using a spreadsheet, complete the import file. The following fields are required for the import: Course name Grade Grade level School ID Store code Copyright 2015 6

Student number Term ID You are not limited to just these fields; you can also include course number, credit type, or GPA points. Most districts import historical grades during implementation. Therefore, the grades are not linked to a section and cannot be printed on a report card. If the school year has already begun and you re using PowerSchool, provide the course name and a section number for the grades. Each grade associated with those sections will print on a report card. When you finish, save the import file as a tab-delimited text file. If you are importing grades from a term prior to the current year, set up those prior terms in Years & Terms on the School Setup page. If you don t know the actual date range, use a logical date range for the year. Graduation Sets Your students grades are in PowerSchool, but as a counselor you need to know more than just the letter grade. You need to know if your students are on track to graduate. Many schools track graduation progress manually using a junior checklist and the Historical Grades student page. Not only will PowerSchool replace checklists, but you can report progress to parents and students using graduation sets. For graduation sets to work, first set up graduation requirements. Create a graduation requirement for each academic area. For example, if your district requires four credits each for English and Science, create one graduation requirement for the English credits and one for the Science credits. Format which courses fulfill each requirement by choosing one of the following options: Specific course numbers enter the course numbers that meet the requirement Specific credit types enter the credit types that meet the requirement Course groups choose a course group that meets the requirement Any course at all any course the student completes meets the requirement When a student completes a course and earns a passing grade, the course and the credits earned appear on the Graduation Progress student page under the appropriate requirement. Activity 3 Creating a Course Group Create course groups as an option to make creating graduation sets easier. Course groups create clusters of similar courses that can be used to meet a requirement that is part of a graduation set. 1. On the Start Page, click School > Course Groups > New 2. Enter a name for the course group followed by your assigned number Avoid confusion by matching the course group names with the graduation requirement names. 3. From the Type menu, select Graduation Set Only Selecting Scheduling Only will affect how the courses appear during the scheduling request process. Selecting Graduation Set Only creates groups strictly for the graduation set. Copyright 2015 7

4. From the Applies to options, select the school 5. Check each course that is part of this group You can place courses in multiple groups. If a course can count toward multiple requirements, PowerSchool evaluates the course by the requirement with the highest priority. 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 will not count toward graduation progress. Therefore, any time you add a new course to PowerSchool, do not forget to add that course to the appropriate course group. 6. Click Submit Activity 4 Creating a Graduation Set Create a new graduation set for your school. 1. On the Start Page, click School > Graduation Sets > New 2. Enter a name for the graduation set followed by your assigned number If you have different graduation requirements for different grade levels, create multiple graduation sets. 3. Click Submit 4. Click Edit Requirements > New 5. Enter a subject name and a requirement name The Subject Area and Requirement Name fields are often the same. 6. In the Prerequisite Hours field, enter the number of credits a student must earn to satisfy the graduation requirement 7. Select Courses in this group and choose your course group 8. In the Sort Order field, enter 1 The lower the number, the higher the 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. 9. Click Submit Continue to create each course group and requirement until your graduation set is complete. The Graduation Progress Page The Graduation Progress page shows how close a student is to completing the graduation requirements you just set up. Based on those requirements, the page shows how many credits the student completed, what classes the student completed for each department, and how many credits the student still needs to graduate. To view the page, search for and select a student. Then, click Graduation Progress. Choose a graduation set and the page displays the student s progress. Copyright 2015 8

The Graduation Progress Report The student pages are ideal for checking on one student, but sometimes you want to check an entire grade level of students. The Graduation Progress Report contains the same information as the Graduation Progress page. The report is a PDF file that you can print and distribute to parents or students. Use the printed report to make notes regarding classes a student still needs, or to help with scheduling. To run the Graduation Progress Report: 1. On the Start Page, select a grade level 2. Click the Select Function arrow and choose Reports Menu 3. In the Grades and Gradebooks section, click Graduation Progress Report (PDF) 4. Choose The selected [xx] students only 5. Click Submit to run the report 6. On the Report Queue (System) - My Jobs page, click Refresh 7. When the report status is Completed, click View to see the report Graduation Planner Setup Graduation Planner is another tool you can use to track a student s progress. Graduation Planner functions differently from Graduation Sets. Set up the plans at the district level so several schools can share graduation plans. Since you created your graduation set already, you don t have to start over. Click School > Graduation Sets, and select the name of the graduation set. Then, click Convert to Graduation Plan. The conversion process occurs automatically. Click Select Students In Plan to make the students associated with that set your current selection. Since you set up graduation plans at the district level, change to the district office and click District. Then, click Graduation Planner Setup. Your graduation set will be listed under the Graduation Contracts. Leave the graduation plan as is, or make changes. To take graduation plans a step further, use the Post-Secondary Preparation Plans. These plans explain what requirements a student must meet to apply to certain colleges. Identify a graduation plan as post-secondary by checking Is Post-Secondary on the Edit Graduation Plan page. Version Edits One graduation plan may have several versions because you can copy a version and then modify it. To do this, click District > Graduation Planner Setup. Locate the graduation plan version and click the + sign below it, or select a version and copy it to create a new version. Versions can apply to certain school years or to all years. Copyright 2015 9

The Graduation Plan Selection Student Page Use the Graduation Plan Selection student page to choose one graduation plan, multiple graduation plans, and/or a post-secondary plan. Enter the year the student entered the graduation plan. Then select a graduation plan. Assign as many existing graduation plans to a student as needed. If you don t want that version, click the - sign. Then select the correct version from the list by clicking the name of the requirements set in the Graduation Contracts field. Click Submit to save your changes. Graduation Progress Parents and students view graduation progress and choose post-secondary plans using the PowerSchool Student and Parent Portals. Enable access, on the School Setup page, for parents and student to see the plans on the Graduation Planner Setup page. The two pages that display the View Graduation Progress link are Grades History and Class Registration. On the View Graduation Progress page, parents and students click Select Post-Secondary Plan to select a plan. They must have access rights or the links don t appear. School administrators must select a plan for the student or the View Graduation Progress page will be blank. If you customized the parent portal to show the Graduation Progress page, be sure to edit your customizations. Graduation Planner Group Functions In addition, you have three functions related to the planner: Graduation Plan Selection, the Graduation Progress Report, and the Graduation Progress Summary. Use Graduation Plan Selection to add a graduation plan to a group of students. This is a quick way to mass populate the Graduation Plan Progress page with the appropriate plan for a large group. You can use the selection function to remove a plan or to replace a plan. Use the Graduation Progress Report to print the Graduation Plan Progress student page. Don t confuse this function with the Graduation Progress Report found under System Reports. Keep in mind that the system report applies to graduation sets and not to plans. Use the Graduation Progress Summary to view the overall progress for a group of students. Run the group function for small groups or it may take some time to generate the results. The Cumulative Info Page Setup Tracking graduation progress is only part of your job. As a counselor, you want access to information such as a student s class rank, total credit hours, and GPA. You can find this information on the Cumulative Info student page. Your PowerSchool administrator sets up this page along with a project manager during your school s implementation process. The Cumulative Info page contains much of the academic information you need, but sometimes counselors add a custom or default PowerSchool field to the page to save time. To add a field, locate the field name and add it to the Cumulative Info page by defining a new row or modifying an existing row on the GPA Student Screens page. Once you finish, navigate to a student page to view the updated page. Copyright 2015 10

Object Reports Sometimes you want to print and view academic data. Use PowerSchool s Object Reports to generate a report that pulls information from PowerSchool data fields. The report is called an object report because you build the report by placing data objects (or fields) on the page. The types of objects you can place are: Text Line Box Circle Transcript Standard Fee list Picture Sequence Object reports accommodate multiple students per page or multiple pages per student. You can customize the layout and also include graphics. High School Transcripts Because a transcript is complex, much of the work has been done for you and is available as one of the types of objects that you can place in a report. Besides defining the invisible box for the transcript information and the columns, you need to create an overflow box for historical grades that will not fit in the transcript box. You can use the transcript object to create a report card as well. Rather than creating a transcript from scratch, modify the sample transcript by adding your school s grade scale, a logo, or other student fields. Edit the sample transcript with your district s information as needed. Standards Report Cards Much like a high school transcript, a standards report card is complex and contains many different pieces of information. To make these reports easier to create, a Standard object type is available and works the same way as a Transcript object. Be sure to define the invisible box and columns for the standards information just as you would for a transcript. Course Setup for Walk-In Scheduling Besides monitoring your students progress, another important part of your job will involve creating school and student schedules. Use PowerSchool s Automated Walk-in Scheduler to save you time and effort by quickly creating the best schedule for each student. If the master schedule is active, all the scheduling setup is done on the live side. Define settings if you did not use PowerScheduler. If you used PowerScheduler, the settings will carry over, but it is important that you review them to make sure they are set properly. Copyright 2015 11

Before you can use the Automated Schedule function, you must have the following items and tasks completed in advance: Install the scheduling engine Set up a scheduling scenario Designate course preferences Define scheduling parameters Set up current year term and scheduling year in PowerSchool Course Information Enter or review course information by navigating to School > Courses and selecting a course. Use the following tabs at the top of the Edit Course District Information page. District Use to change course information. Any changes to course information on this page will change the information district wide. Fees Use to assess certain fees automatically when a student enrolls in a course. Only fee types with the fee category of Course are available to choose in the Fee Type menu. Prerequisites Use to define course requirements a student must meet before requesting a specific course. When students use the request form in the PowerSchool Student Portal, they cannot request a course if they have not met the prerequisites. If you add the request manually, the engine could enroll the student in the course even though prerequisites have not been met. Availability View the school years this course has been made available for scheduling. Your PowerSchool administrator makes courses available at the district level. Relationships Use to define related courses. If you define a relationship between two courses, you do not have to define the same relationship in both courses. Scheduling Use to edit course-specific scheduling information used by the engine when building student schedules. Equivalencies Use to identify courses that are equivalent to this course and can replace stored grades when the repeated course grade suppression policy is enabled. New Courses Every time you offer a new course, enter the course into PowerSchool. If you are unsure if someone else added the course and made it available, navigate to School > Courses > Manage Courses for this school. The available course list will appear listing every course made available at your school, whether active or inactive. Scroll through the list looking for the course. If you find the course, select it and click Submit to make the course active. For a course to be listed on the available course list, it must be made available at the district level specifically for that school. Contact your district administrator if a course does not appear in the list of available courses and verify that you need to create a new course. Copyright 2015 12

Activity 5 Adding a New Course You could not find a course you need on the master course list and your administrator verified that it does not exist in PowerSchool. Add the new course. 1. On the Start Page, click School > Courses > New Course If you don t have permission to add courses, your PowerSchool administrator will have to give you access or add the course at the district level. 2. Enter the course name 3. Enter the course number 4. Select the school year(s) the course is available 5. Enter 1 credit hour 6. Use the default values for the remaining fields 7. Click Submit Constraints for Automated Walk-In Scheduling If you use the Automated Schedule function, add limitations to keep PowerSchool from scheduling certain courses, students, and teachers. Constraints restrict the way the system loads students into courses that have been scheduled already. Use the fewest number of constraints required to accomplish your scheduling goals. There are five types of load constraints: Student Avoid Specify that two selected students cannot be scheduled into any of the same course sections If there is only one section of the course available for scheduling, then the engine will ignore this constraint because the student cannot be scheduled anywhere else. Teacher Avoid Specify that a student and teacher cannot be scheduled into any of the same course sections Student Free Specify periods when a student must be free, such as when taking a course at another school Section Link Specify that if students are enrolled in one course section, they must also be enrolled in another specific course section, such as Biology and Biology Lab Student Preference Schedule a student into a particular course section, in a specific term, with a specific teacher Student Scheduling There are two ways to maintain student schedules: scheduling manually or using Automated Walk-In Scheduling. Manual scheduling is section specific. You pick specific sections in which to enroll the student, overriding the system-defined schedule if one exists. Copyright 2015 13

Automated Walk-In Scheduling is course specific. You enter a student's requests for specific courses. Then the system schedules the student automatically for the sections that best fit his or her schedule. Student scheduling information is exported to the scheduling engine, which then creates the best schedule for the student based on the student s course requests, load constraints, course relationships, and applicable scheduling parameters. Then the results are imported from the scheduling engine. The Modify Schedule Student Page After you build a student s schedule, the Modify Schedule page lists the student s section enrollments for the current year. You can add and drop sections on this page. To add a class to the student s schedule manually, choose the period that needs scheduled and click Find. A list of available classes appears. Click the course name to add the course to the student s schedule. To drop a class, select Drop next to the class. Then click Drop Selected. When dropping a class, be sure the exit date is set to the day after the last day the student attended class. Activity 6 Scheduling a Student Manually Schedule a student into classes manually. 1. On the Start Page, search for and select the student 2. Click Modify Schedule 3. From the Period menu, choose 1 and then click Find 4. Click the name of the course 5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the student s schedule is complete Activity 7 Using Automated Walk-In Scheduling Use the Automated Walk-In Scheduling function to schedule a new student in to classes. 1. On the Start Page, search for and select a student 2. Click Modify Schedule > Requests 3. Click New 4. Click View Courses 5. Hold down the Command key (Mac) or Ctrl key (Windows), and choose the student s classes 6. Click Okay > Submit 7. Select the Enrollments tab 8. Click Automated Schedule When the engine completes the student s schedule, the Automated Schedule Results page appears. Click the arrow button on the Status link to display any error messages or warnings regarding this scheduling run. The student is not enrolled yet in any of these courses; this is a proposed schedule generated by the engine. 9. Accept the student schedule 10. Click Matrix View to look for missing classes Copyright 2015 14

11. Click Modify Schedule to add missing classes 12. Under Search Available Classes, choose the period that is missing 13. Click Find 14. Click a course title to add it to the schedule 15. Repeat until the schedule is complete Automated Walk-In Scheduling for Existing Students Use the Automated Schedule feature to modify an existing schedule. When altering a schedule for an existing student, lock the classes you want to leave unchanged on the Modify Schedule page. Remove the requests for the classes the student no longer wants by clicking Yes next to each request. Then, click New > View Courses to add the new requests. Finally, click Automated Schedule again. PowerScheduler Overview Your school year is half over, and it is time to start thinking about next year s master schedule. Use PowerScheduler to build your master schedule from scratch, load students requests into the schedule, or make minor modifications to an existing schedule. Before you begin, review the basic steps. The Steps In PowerScheduler, enter data elements defining the parameters around which a master schedule is built. While several people may be scheduling students, only one person should perform Step A: Auto Scheduler Setup. While completing the scheduling process, the PowerSchool Help menu is another great source of information. Keep in mind that PowerScheduler and the active (or live) side share three items: courses, teachers, and students. Each step of the Prepare to Build process is described below. However, before you begin, verify that the future year has been created at the district office and at each school. Then, verify that courses have been made available for scheduling at your school. Step A: Perform the Auto. Scheduler Setup Enter information for days, periods, and terms. Define terms sequentially from largest to smallest. You cannot change the dates once the schedule is committed. While you can create several scenarios, only one can be active at a time in each school. Step B: Create a Course Catalog Create the list of courses your school will offer the next school year. The courses are based on the list of courses available at your school. Step C: Define Schedule Parameters Each of the parameters you define is a link under the Scheduling Setup heading. Copyright 2015 15

Step D: Define Rooms Define rooms one at a time, auto create with predefined criteria, auto generate from the existing master schedule, or update as a group. Step E: Define Student Information Enter or update student scheduling preferences manually, using Auto-Fill, or using Update Selections. Step F: Enter Student Course Requests Any course a student wants to take is recorded using a student request. Use these requests to build the master schedule and load student schedules. Step G: Define Course Information Define preferences for scheduling each course. Step H: Define Teacher Information Enter information and assignments for teachers being scheduled next year. Step I: Define Constraints Use constraints to restrict how you want to build and load your schedule. Step J: Build Course Rank Define the order in which PowerScheduler puts courses into the master schedule. Step K: Validate and Build Perform a validation to find problems with data. After correcting those problems, perform a build. The Visual Scheduler After you have built your master schedule, you will have to make some manual changes. Make those changes with the Visual Scheduler. The Visual Scheduler is a digital whiteboard that provides an overall view of your master schedule. The scheduler is an adaptable grid organized by period and teacher. You can zoom in and zoom out the section tiles, and undo and redo schedule changes. Even if you do not use PowerScheduler to build your master schedule, you can use the Visual Scheduler. Complete your scheduling setup, then access the Visual Scheduler to create your master schedule from scratch or make master schedule changes manually. The Sides of PowerSchool You will work with the new master schedule on what is called the PowerScheduler side of PowerSchool. This is where you define parameters for next year s schedule. You will also work on the active or live side of PowerSchool, which is the portion of PowerSchool where you and your staff work each day. A successful master schedule requires work on both sides. Copyright 2015 16

Common Terms To accomplish each of the steps, review the common scheduling terms listed below. Term Period Day Term Course Section Singleton Doubleton Example Your school schedule has six periods in the day, plus any other bonus periods such as Homeroom, Lunch, or after-school period Your school schedule has two days, every course meets for one or two of those days Your school has quarter-long, semester-long, or year-long courses Your school offers Algebra or World History Algebra class, period 1 in room 345 is taught by Mrs. Smith Your school offers one section of Jazz Band Your school offers two sections of Advanced Writing Multi-Section Course Your school offers six sections of PE 9 Constraint Prescheduled Balance Conflict Common Schedule Types There are three common schedule types: Traditional schedule Block schedule Rotating schedule The chorus teacher is only available in the morning Marching Band must be offered last period All sections of World History have between 20 25 students Marching Band and Yearbook are only offered last period, so John cannot take both of these classes Each one is constructed similarly. Think of your schedule construction as a cube. The height of your cube indicates the number of periods, the width of your cube indicates the number of days in your cycle, and the depth of your cube indicates the number of terms in the school year. Requests Requests play a huge role in the building and loading processes. The engine uses requests to determine student schedules. Students must request each course they want to take. Course Request Entry Before you begin entering students course requests in PowerScheduler for next year, you must perform the Auto. Scheduler Setup process, create a build scenario, complete the course catalog, and enter student schedule information. Additionally, if your school uses course prerequisites and recommendations, you must set up and add those as well. Copyright 2015 17

You can enter students course requests for the future scheduling year in PowerScheduler using three different methods: Enter requests for students one at a time manually Mass add requests for student groups Add requests online using the course request form, provided you create and activate the request screens Each method handles prerequisites differently. If you enter course requests manually or using the Mass Add Requests functions, prerequisites are not taken into account. Investigate prerequisites using the Notes icon when using these methods. If you use the request screens, prerequisites limit the requests a student can select. Activity 8 Entering a Course Request for Several Students Enter a course request for a group of students in PowerScheduler. 1. On the Start Page, click PowerScheduler 2. Below Resources, click Students 3. Select a group of students, such as the 9th grade 4. Click Functions > Mass Add Requests 5. Click Associate, and select the course 6. Click Submit 7. Choose the type of request, such as Required or Elective 8. Click Submit 9. In the breadcrumbs, click PowerScheduler 10. Below Resources, click Students 11. Click a student s name, and click Requests 12. Click the Note icon to view any prerequisite information Course Request Reviews Before beginning your scheduling, address a few last items. First, verify that the student course requests are satisfied. This involves offering the correct courses. Next, make sure the sections are balanced. This includes offering enough sections as well as making sure one section is not overloaded with students. Finally, teacher assignments must fit the staff requirements. For example, you cannot offer French classes if you do not have a qualified teacher. Finally, you need a master schedule that promotes student success. PowerScheduler contains a valuable report to help review course requests the Course Request Tally report. This report lists the primary requests, alternate requests, and total requests. You can also use the Calculate Target Number of Sections to Offer function in PowerScheduler to help determine the number of sections needed based on the number of course requests and maximum enrollment per section. Copyright 2015 18

Recommendations Teacher recommendations are another part of the request process. Certain courses require a teacher s recommendation prior to submitting the request. Teachers submit their recommendations in PowerTeacher. (You can edit and delete recommendations that teachers have submitted.) Administrative staff submits recommendations on the Request Management student page on the active side. Before teachers can enter recommendations, create the future school year and scheduling scenario. Navigate to School > Years & Terms to add the future school year. Navigate to PowerScheduler > Scenarios to add a scheduling scenario. Complete the following steps to add a student recommendation. 1. On the Start Page, search for and select a student 2. Click Request Management > Manage Recommendations 3. Click Create New Recommendation 4. In the Course Number field, enter the beginning of the course number, such as MAT 5. Choose the correct class from the list of possible courses 6. Choose the correct scheduling year 7. Enter your recommendation comments 8. Click Submit Copyright 2015 19