PowerSchool+for+Guidance

PowerSchool Guidance IPT : July 8, 2008 or July9, 2008 (3 hours)


 * Guidance PowerSchool IPT**


 * AGENDA**

1. Overview: Janet Spiceland Home Button Bread Crumbs Understanding Views

2. Dealing with students: Hank Ballew Search Syntax Selecting Groups Hand Selecting Group Functions Stored Selections Stored Searches

3. School Setup/ Master Schedule: Dot is investigating (Dot, Hank, Janet) School Items vs. District Items Editing teachers Editing sections Editing the Master Schedule

4. Data entry for enrolling:Dot Eads (15 minutes) Enrolling Students Transfer - In Transfer Out

5. Dealing with Historical Data: Janet Spiceland (10 minutes)

6. Generating Reports: Hank Ballew and Dot Eads Printing student schedules Printing the master schedule Stored Searches Object Reports Form letters Direct Data Export (for mail merge)


 * Guidance PowerSchool IPT**


 * Section 1: Overview**

You are not alone. People who are more experienced can log in from anywhere to offer assistance or fix things from another account. Focus on learning the very basics and being comfortable navigating the interface. PowerSchool staff will be on site at Central Office to solve problems.

Access the PowerSchool test server through your web browser at: http://pstest.cmcss.net/admin fake logins setup

Identify the person at your school that will be the lead PowerSchool person - probably the person in the school that does the master schedule. This is not the same as the two building coordinators for training teachers.


 * Guidance PowerSchool IPT**

• The simplest search is when you know a student's last name. You can type a whole last name, or only the first few letters. • Try the following: • Jones • Jo • J • A typical search is done using "fields". You can see the field list by clicking on "view field list" from the main screen. • These searches have 3 parts: • [field name] [comparator] [argument] • These are fancy terms for simple ideas. • The field name is any searchable field (see examples). • The comparator is a symbol like > ("greater than"), < ("less than"), = ("equal to"), contains ("has this in it"), or in ("this is within"). • The argument is the standard you are searching against (a name, a date, etc.) • These take awhile to get used to. Refer to the "How to search" page from the main screen until you get comfortable searching. • Get used to using a "wildcard" in your search. "@" is the wildcard in PowerSchool. This will become natural to you very soon! • Some common fields with examples: • Last_name • Last_name = p@s (searches for any name that begins with a "p" and ends with an "s", like "Phillips") • First_name • First_name contains ll (searches for students that have "ll" anywhere in their first name, like "William") • Zip • Zip > 37042 (searches for students that have a zip code higher than 37042, like 37043) • DOB • DOB > 12/01/1993 (DOB requires mm/dd/yyyy, this demonstrates the need to know the type of data a field stores.) • Classof • ClassOf = 2013 (Shows all of the students who will graduate in 2013)
 * Section 2: Dealing with Students**
 * 1. Search Syntax - Searching is the easiest way to find one student or a group of students.**

• A group is the result of any search that returns more than one student. You can save this group, or do group functions on it. • Try a search like: grade = 7 • The number in parenthesis beside matches is your current selection (group). • Anywhere you go in PowerSchool will refer to your current selection. • You can save this selection for later reference by choosing "save stored selection" from the drop-down menu on the search screen. • After performing a search, you can use the "Select Students By Hand" from the drop-down menu to choose fewer students. You can then perform operations on this group, or save it for later use. • Group functions will let you perform an operation on a group of students, like printing a report, or exporting information. • Group functions can save you from doing repetitive tasks when you become proficient with them. • Example: After you have created a selection, use the drop down menu to choose "Print Report", on the next screen you will see the available reports. • Stored selections are accessible from the main screen. • You access stored selections when you know that you will need future access to the same group of students. For example, a group of students who need to be closely monitored. • You create stored selections by creating a selection and choosing "save stored selection" from the drop down menu. You can create a new selection, or add the current group to an existing selection. • Stored searches are useful when the criteria changes on a frequent basis, like students who are failing 4 or more classes. • Stored searches are available to everyone in the system, so be SURE to name your stored selection with your school initials first: "NPMS Students who scored 36 on the ACT" • Do not make frivolous stored searches - as the list becomes longer, it will become more difficult to find what you're looking for. (Remember templates folders?)
 * 2. Selecting Groups**
 * 3. Hand Selecting**
 * 4. Group Functions**
 * 5. Stored Selections**
 * 6. Stored Searches**


 * Section 3: School Setup & Master Schedule**

School Items vs. District Items Editing teachers Editing sections Editing the Master Schedule


 * Section 4: Data Entry for Enrolling**

Enrolling Students Transfer - In Transfer Out

Guidance PowerSchool IPT

Section 5: Dealing with Historical Data

Section 6: Generating Reports

1. Printing student schedules • Use Internet Explorer on a Windows Computer (It pains me to say this). • Select the group of students for whom you want to print schedules (preferably ~100 students) • In the drop-down menu, select "Mass Student Screens" (only shows up on IE!) • Choose Bell Schedule and follow the remaining on-screen directions. • Be sure to print "all linked documents" in the print options. 2. Printing the master schedule • Begin by setting the term. To print the complete master schedule, choose the current year in term (as opposed to the current 9 weeks). • Go to PowerSchool ->Master Schedule -> and make selections. • Press Submit. • Consider changing your print settings to landscape for better viewing. 3. Stored Searches 4. Object Reports 5. Form letters 6. Direct Data Export (for mail merge) • Direct Data Export allows you to pull data out of PowerSchool for use in mail merges, and other uses in Excel. (More on mail merge on another day!) • This can be the simplest most effective way of distributing personalized letters. • Create a selection. • PowerSchool -> Special Functions -> Importing & Exporting -> Quick Export -> ... • Enter fields in this box, separated by "Enter": Student_Number (Enter) First_Name (Enter) Last_Name (Enter) DOB (Enter) • Submit, and save the resulting file for import into a spreadsheet or database.