CASE MaTtErS!!!
November 2nd, 2009
We keep preaching about case mattering in this new version of PS….We have found another case where CASE matters! Be sure to enter the correct final grade name when storing grades. This final grade name HAS TO MATCH what you have set up in the final grade setup. So for example…if you have Q1 has a final grade in final grade setup, you cannot enter in q1 in the final grade box on the storing grades screen or the grades will not store!!! Just one more thing to keep us on our toes!!
Posted by Melissa Bitz in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Still not seeing standards in the Gradebook
October 21st, 2009
It’s your lucky week…2 blog posts in one week! I just wanted to add another post to Josh’s previous post. This was sent out to the listserv a couple of weeks ago from Janet and we are seeing alot of schools having issues with the uppercase/lowercase alpha characters used in course numbers tied to standards so I thought I would post here as well.
In the past we’ve told you that many things are not case sensitive in PowerSchool, but in this recent version – we’ve discovered many things are case sensitive. Here’s some examples:
If a school’s standards are tied to a class that is in uppercase or lowercase letters – they have to match exactly or they won’t show in the gradebook.
One School had standards tied to these courses… am1,am2,am3
They wouldn’t show in the gradebook until they matched the course information like such …. AM1,AM2,AM3 – once we changed the course numbers to match the case that was used when the course was created, they showed up fine.
Along the same lines today… Another School and I discovered that case sensitivity comes into place in the sort order of assignments in the scoresheet, which many teachers have asked about this fall!
If you enter Test Chapter 3… It will actually come before review sheet in the gradebook – as soon as we switched it to lowercase like this: test chapter 3 – it switched the order???
The moral of the story is this… Be “case sensitive” when entering information into PowerSchool, and if assistance is needed – call the helpdesk.
Janet
EduTech
Posted by Melissa Bitz in Grading | No Comments »
Standards… Standards… Standards…
October 20th, 2009
With the new version of the Web Gradebook comes a new way to enter standards. In the Gradebook from the Scoresheet tab there is a button called Final Grades. When you click the button you will see the Standards related to that Section. As you move through the Sections on the left you may see different Standards tied to them. The advantage to entering standards in the Gradebook is that you can “fill scores” like you can with other grades.
For the admins reading this it is important to know what standards are tied to what sections. If a standard isn’t showing up on the report cards, or in the teacher’s gradebook, the first thing to check is the sections that the standard is tied to. To check this you would go to District at the top of the admin screen, then District on the left menu. Then click Standards, Followed by List Standards and Expand All. Once you find the standard in question click that. You will see a field on the screen named Course Number. This is the field that tells PowerSchool where that standard belongs in the gradebooks and the standard Identifier defines where it will be on the report card. Useful troubleshooting information!
Remember to contact the Help Desk if you are having troubles with your end of year processes.
Posted by Joshua Ternes in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Did you know…
October 14th, 2009
There’s a new feature in PS version 6.0 that will make searching easier. This new feature is called “Smart Search”. Once you turn this feature on, as you enter your search in the browse students field, PowerSchool will automatically list a drop-down list of suggestions that you may choose from, including students, staff, stored searches, fields, and PowerSchool page names.
How to enable Smart Search:
1. On the start page, choose Personalize from the main menu.
2. Click Interface.
3. Select the Enable Smart Search checkbox.
4. Select the Include Page Results checkbox to make those PowerSchool pages that are accessible to you searchable. Otherwise, leave the checkbox blank.
5. Select the Include Inactive Student/Staff Results checkbox to make inactive students and staff searchable. Otherwise, leave the checkbox blank.
6. Click Submit to save your changes.
Posted by Janet O'Hara in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Error Running Report Cards?? Get Rid of the Dashes—–
October 7th, 2009
Quarter 1 is coming to an end and soon many of you will be printing report cards! I would highly recommend printing them prior to needing them to make sure they look correct! There is an issue with the report name containing consecutive dashes. We have had several help desk tickets coming in with the following error.
Alert: Error encountered while accessing database
The system encountered an error while accessing the database. Please contact your system administrator.
Show - Alert Message Details
——————————————————————————–
Report Not Queued: The report was not found
I searched on PowerSource and found the following information.
Reports With Two Consecutive Dashes in Title Return “Error encountered while accessing database”
Issue:
Two consecutive dashes in the name of any user defined report (Object report, Report Card, Mailing Label or Form Letter) causes the report to fail and the following alert to display in the browser:
Workaround:
Remove the two consecutive dashes.
To change the name click on reports, setup, object reports, the report name and choose edit main report paramaters!
Posted by Melissa Bitz in Reports | No Comments »
What is the source of your report?
October 2nd, 2009
A question that came up this week that seemed interesting enough to write about is transcripts and other reports coming up without grades for this or that…
The common result is that the report settings were for terms other than the first reporting term. (Y1, or S1 instead of Q1) Depending on the way the class is setup or the grade book even, you might miss some grades on that report if your reporting term is set for a term with a hole in it. S1 for instance at this point is still missing Q2.
Just something to keep in mind. Go look at the setup for the report you are trying to run and see what you are actually grabbing.
josh
Posted by Joshua Ternes in Reports | No Comments »
Overlapping Enrollments…
September 22nd, 2009
With the rush of a new school year, we often quickly enroll students into classes without verifying their entry date into school, which often leads to Overlapping enrollments. These often don’t catch up to us until the end of year workshop when we run an audit report to verify our dates. Well… I think there’s no better time to run the report than once your fall rush has settled down and you have a little time to peek at the report.
How do you run the report?
From the start page, select reports
Scroll down the screen to Membership and Enrollment
Click on Section Enrollment Audit
Did you have any students show up on the report? If the results said no students match the selection, give yourself a pat on the back!! If a student or two show up - you simply need to verify the entry date into school on the “Transfer Info” screen with the entry dates into classes on the all enrollments screen. The entry date into classes on the all enrollments screen can NOT be prior to the first entry date of school. How do you fix them… Click on the edit link of each enrollment and modify the entry date into class, or set the entry date on the transfer info screen to match the students entry dates into their classes.
Posted by Janet O'Hara in Reports | No Comments »
Final Grades Not Showing????
September 15th, 2009
Along with updates come new cool stuff….but goofy things too come along with the good! So here we are on PowerSchool 6 and here is my “goofy” issue for the week! With this version it is known that the final grade may not to show in the teacher’s gradebook. This may be because there is no gradescale associated with their course,therefor, the final grade will not show on the quick lookup either! To fix this, log into the admin side and click on school and courses. Choose the course experiencing the problem. Choose the gradescale and submit. Have the teacher open their gradebook and go to tools and recalculate final grades. If this does not fix the problem, the gradescale may need to be re-submitted in the section as well. To do this click on school and sections.
Posted by Melissa Bitz in Uncategorized | Comments Off
Excluding Courses from Storing a Final Grade
April 7th, 2009
Dashes dashes and more dashes!!! This is what is stored when a student is enrolled in a course that does not contain a grade. Examples of this type of course may be a Study Hall or a Title course. There is now a spot in the section where you can Exclude From Storing Final Grades. Use this feature for Sections that are not graded so blank records are not stored with final grades! To check this option click on school and sections. Click on the section number and check the box next to Exclude From Storing Final Grades. There is also a spot in the course to exclude the course from appearing on report cards/transcripts. This works well unless you are printing the class on a schedule or using the period info DAT tag. If your report card pulls stored grades I highly encourage you to check the Exclude From Storing Final Grades in the section and leave the course to appear on report cards/transcripts. This way the grade will not pull on the report card because the report card is pulling historical and there would not be a historical grade and at the same time it would appear on other reports such as student schedules! Enjoy!
Posted by Melissa Bitz in Grading | Comments Off
Calendar and Storm Days
January 20th, 2009
If you have had a storm day you will need to be sure to change your calendar!
Follow the steps below!
1) From your start page, click on School under setup.
2) Click on Calendar Setup.
3) Find the storm day, and remove the day type, schedule, In session checkbox, Membership Value, and Type. (Make is look like a Saturday/Sunday)
4) Click Submit on the botttom right hand corner of the page to save your changes.
5) You now have 179 membership days.
6) Find the date you’ll make up the storm day with and mark it like the other school days in your calendar setup.
7) Membership will be back to 180 once the make up day is entered into your calendar. 
To refresh student attendance click on special functions, attendance functions and Refresh Attendance Views Data. Be sure to run this for the whole year and for every student.
9) Double check that students have 180 by running the ADA/ADM report….Go to reports, run reports and ADA/ADM by student
Repeat this for each school on your server!!
Posted by Melissa Bitz in Attendance | Comments Off