2015

Humboldt High School

1/15/2015

The PowerTeacher Gradebook

TABLE OF CONTENTS

I. Accessing the Gradebook ……………………………….……………………….………………………………………….………….. page 2

II. Defining Grade Categories (test, quiz, etc.) ……………………………….……………………………………….………….. page 2

III A. Grade Setup (Q1, Q2, E1, etc.) ……………………….……………………………………………………………….…………. page 3

III B. Setting Q1 calculations (weighting test, quiz, daily, etc.) …………………….…………………………………….. page 4

III C. Copying the Grade Setup to other classes (and semesters) ………………………………………….…………… page 5

IV. Defining Assignments …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… page 6

V. Entering Grades …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. page 6

VI. Exams …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… page 7

VII. Honors Classes (adding 3 points) …………………………………………………………………………………………………. page 8

APPENDIX A: TIPS AND TRICKS

i. Manually sorting students in the grade book …………………………………………………………………………………. page 9

ii. Adding assignments from the Scoresheet window ………………………………………………………………………... page 9

iii. Marking grades exempt (and other tricks) ……………………………………………………………………………..…….. page 9

iv. Printing Student Progress Reports ………………………………………………………………………………………………... page 10

v. Printing Progress Reports for a single student ……………………………………………………………………………….. page 11

vi. Editing grades from previous grading periods ……………………………………………………………………………….. page 12

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I. Accessing the Gradebook

I hope you’re ready to get started and discover why everyone is saying “Powerschool is COOL!” When possible, I’ve tried to number the illustrations with corresponding numerical steps as close as possible.

1. Log in to Powerschool! 2. Select the blue Launch button or use the old launch link on the left side of the screen. This opens a

new window that may take a minute to initialize. If prompted choose options that allow the program to continue.

II. Defining Grade Categories

Let’s get started with the fun! First, we’ll set our grade categories. In the illustration you’ll see four: Daily Work, Participation, Quiz, and Test.

1. In the bottom left hand corner of the window you should find a Categories box with default categories. Select a category (homework, project, etc.) and click on the minus sign (-) at the bottom of the categories box to delete this default category. Repeat for the rest of the categories. Next we’ll create our own.

2. To create a new grade category, click the plus sign (+) in the categories box. 3. The plus sign brings up a new box. Name your category, give it an abbreviation, and select a color

for the category. You’ll see what the color does when you enter the grades.

4. In the Points Possible, enter 100. Extra points can be assigned on individual assignments later, or you can go ahead and enter them now if you regularly offer extra points. For instance, maybe your quizzes always have a 10 point bonus problem. Now is the perfect time to make that the default setting. This can always be changed for an individual assignment.

5. Set the Score Type as Points and make sure the check box is marked next to Include in Final Grade.

6. Click Ok. To add more Categories, use the plus sign (+) as needed.

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III. Grade Setup

A. Setting S1 calculations

Note: If this is a single quarter class, skip this step.

First, we’ll set the percentages for each quarter and exam. This should be the same for every teacher. Everything we do to set up S1, Q1, Q2, and E1 can be copied to other classes if the weightings are the same for all of your classes. For the few teachers that have a single quarter class (i.e., Economics and Government) it will probably be easier to just repeat this process for the single 9 weeks and then copy it to the rest of the year, quarter by quarter. For those few classes, you only need to define the Q1, Q2, etc. grades. Let’s go, this is where the fun really starts!

1. Select the Grade Setup tab at the top of the main window. 2. Double click S1 under the heading Reporting Term. 3. In the lower window pane, select Term weights. 4. Select the Weight column and use the following values, as shown: Q1 – 37.5, Q2 – 37.5, E1 – 25. 5. Select Save in the lower right hand corner. See, I told ya this was fun!

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B. Setting Q1 calculations

Now we tell the gradebook how to use those grade categories. In the old days of Star, this is where we set our Category Weighting Table… yuck, Star. In the example shown Daily Average and Participation count for 15% each, Quiz Average is 45%, and Test Average is 25% of the final grade. 1. Select the Grade Setup tab at the top of the main window. 2. Double click the Q1 row. 3. In the pane below, select the button Category weights. 4. Next, click the small plus sign (+) next to add category. 5. In the pop-up box that appears (not pictured), select all the categories you created. Click OK. 6. In the weight column, enter the weight you want associated with each category. 7. Click Save. 8. Back at the top, right click Q1 under Reporting Term. Select Copy Grade Setup – Q1 only. 9. In the pop-up window (not shown), check the box next to Q2. This copies the Category weights

from Q1 to Q2. If this is a single quarter class, copy the Q1 (or Q2) setup to S1.

You’re probably wondering about E1. Since it will only be a single grade, we don’t need to set up a system for averaging E1. Notice the dates that appear next to E1 in this window (in the picture above they are 12/19/13 to 12/20/13). We only need to be sure that when we create an assignment for E1 that it uses this date range.

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C. Copying the Grade Setup to other classes.

Now that the hard part is done, let’s let the magic of Powerschool take care of our other classes!

1. Select the Grade Setup tab at the top of the main window (not shown). 2. Right click on S1 and select Copy Grade Setup – Entire Class (not shown). 3. In the box that appears, select Semester 1 in the drop down box. 4. Next, put a check mark next to all the classes that use the same calculations you just created in

parts A and B. Ensure that the proper items will be copied to the appropriate locations and select Confirm.

5. Select Next, then Finish. If you want to take care of the grade setup for the rest of the year, just repeat this process and select Semester 2 in step 3.

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IV. Defining Assignments

Now that the gradebook knows how to calculate our grades, let’s give it some assignments to get started!

1. Select the Assignments tab at the top of the main window. 2. Make sure the Reporting Term shows the correct setting (S1, S2, E1, etc.). 3. To add an assignment, use the plus sign (+) found at the bottom of the main window (not shown). 4. Enter a name for the assignment, select the category, and enter a date for the assignment in the

date due box. If everything was set up correctly in the previous steps, this should be all you need. You can adjust anything you need though. For instance, you can make extra points available on a single assignment here.

5. Select Save to save the assignment. 6. If you want to add more assignments, just click the plus sign (+) again. Assignments can also be

deleted using the minus sign (-).

V. Entering grades

The final step is almost complete…

1. Select the Scoresheet tab at the top of the main window. 2. Make sure the Reporting Term shows the correct setting (S1, S2, E1, etc.). 3. Enter grades in the correct column (not shown). 4. When finished, select Save and rejoice! You’ve just mastered Powerschool’s gradebook!

Note: If you don’t enter a grade and leave a cell blank, the grade does NOT count as zero and does not factor into the final average (See Appendix A.iii for more info).

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VI. Exams

When the glorious end of the semester rolls around, we’ll need to record an exam grade. Here’s how to close the semester without a hitch!

1. Select the Assignments tab. 2. Select the Reporting Term E1. 3. Create an assignment per the directions in section IV. Defining Assignments. You must use the date

range defined for the exam as mentioned in Section III B. It doesn’t matter what category you use since there is only one grade to be averaged. If that’s still confusing, just use Test as the category!

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VII. Honors classes (adding 3 points)

I’ve got good news and bad news...

The bad news is that there seems to be no one-step process to add three points to all the averages at once. If you find a way, please let me know. The good news is that it’s not too terribly problematic to manually override the final averages. Here’s how:

1. Select the Scoresheet tab. 2. Make sure the Reporting Term shows the correct setting (Q1, Q2, E1, etc.). 3. Double click a value under the Final Average column. 4. In the pop-up box under the score tab check the box for Manual Override. 5. Enter the current average plus the three extra points for the Honors bonus. Also, change the letter

grade if necessary and select Close. 6. Repeat steps 3 through 5 for the rest of the class.

If an average needs to be recalculated just double click the average and uncheck the Manual Override box.

Powerschool does so much more than just average our grades. Have fun learning new things and share them with all of us! Hope these directions help you discover the wonder that is Powerschool!

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Appendix A: Tips and Tricks i. Manually sorting students in the grade book If you’re like me, your written grade book isn’t always in alphabetical order when new students come (and go) after school starts. This makes it very tedious to enter grades from the written book to the online grade book. Powerschool allows you to set the order of student listing in your online grade book to alleviate this problem. Here’s how…

1. In the gradebook select Tools – Preferences. 2. In the window that pops up select the STUDENT tab. 3. In the drop down box next SORT STUDENTS BY select TEACHER DEFINED ORDER, then click OK. 4. Select the STUDENT INFO tab. 5. Drag and drop student names to the order that you need and select SAVE when finished.

ii. Adding assignments from the Scoresheet window

Rather than adding Assignments through the Assignment tab and then entering the scores in Scoresheet, you can do all this from the Scoresheet page. Check it out!

1. From the Scoresheet page locate the +/- sign to the left of the assignment details. 2. Add a new assignment using the plus sign!

iii. Marking grades exempt (and other tricks)

Grades can be marked exempt, missing, late, or you can even fill a grade column with the same grade all at once using this trick. In the cells where you usually enter grades just right click on a cell to see the available options. Note that marking grades as exempt, missing, or late does NOT affect the final average. It’s just a visual reminder that helps you remember when students owe you assignments.

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iv. Printing Student Progress Reports

You probably know how to print progress reports already. These instructions will also give you the option of printing multiple progress reports per page, saving lots of paper. Depending on which browser is used the details may differ slightly. The illustration above used Internet Explorer.

1. From the gradebook window, select the Reports tab, then double click on Individual Student Report. 2. In the window pane that appears below, click on Run Report. 3. Select OK in the pop-up box to open the report in a web browser. 4. When the report appears right click on Print… If you want to print one report per page, just select

OK. If you want multiple reports per page, proceed with step 5. 5. In the page scaling setting, choose Multiple or Multiple pages per sheet. 6. In the pages per sheet setting, choose the setting you prefer, shown is a 2 by 2 sheet. The preview

will update to reflect your settings. 7. Click OK.

The settings you used may be saved by the browser. So, the next time you print a PDF file, you may want to make sure that you change the multiple page setting back to the single page setting. Again, this may not be an issue with some browsers but I’ve run into this problem before and freaked out for a minute.

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v. Printing Progress Reports for a single student

1. From the gradebook window, select the Reports tab, then double click on Individual Student Report.

2. Next to Students choose Selected Groups and/or Students.

3. Choose the Date Range that you wish to include in the progress report.

4. On the left side of the window select the Class in the Classes pane. Then select the student in the Student Groups pane. It may be necessary to choose between Active and Dropped students.

5. To finish, just run the report as usual.

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vi. Editing grades from previous grading periods

1. Launch Gradebook

2. Under the Classes pane, select the grading period that you need to edit.

3. In the main window, select the Reporting Term that you need to edit.

4. Edit the grades as needed, then select Save.

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