Beginning with the 2009-2010 school year Grant Wood AEA will support 254 private and parochial Iowa schools and over 80,000 Iowa PK-12 students with PowerSchool Premier and PowerTeacher Gradebook.  This support includes hardware hosting and support, training, consultation, and help desk services. A list of those schools and links to their websites are available by clicking on the GWAEA PS Schools link on the left menu.

As the end of this school year nears there is a process each and every school will need to work through to get ready for the next year.  At a recent Tech. Directors meeting each of your districts were given details on what that process is and when it should start.

If you have questions about this process and the steps you will need to complete,  you should contact your district's Tech Director.

PerSTORING GRADES AGAIN!!!

Don't forget it is time to store your end of term grades again.

Click here to go to the Task page to see what else you need to be thinking about.

At the end of each term your school's grading terms you may use the Permanently Store Grades function to copy and store the students' current grades as historical grades. This process is used as the foundation for Reports, GPA's, Class Rank, and Honor Roll.

Understanding this process is critical and should only be completed by administrators who have been trained in the process. Grades can only be stored within a 30 day window after the end of a term.

Documentation is available in the GWAEA Documents area of this page. Search for Store Grades. Also, click on the Task tab on the left to see all the processes you need to consider at the end of the term.

Transcript Downloads

Nine new transcript reports have been added to the Reports & Labels tab for you to download to your site.  Each has a preview of what the transcript will look like. Once you have decided on the one you want, load it to your site using the download instructions on that page for .pst files.

We can work with you to customize these so they are more toward your liking.  Additionally, they may have to be tweaked for the GPA and Class Ranking methods that you use.

New Task Tab

On the right tab bar you will notice a new tab called Tasks has been added. Clicking on this tab will provide you with a page that lists nine different tasks someone at each school will want to review at the end of each term. Many of those tasks have links to documents that explain how to accomplish the listed task.

On the same page are links to other documents that provide instructions on various tasks that you will be performing at various times of the year.

Two New Report Card Docs

Two new documents have been put on the site that explain how to setup a new report card and how to use historical grades in your report card. the documents can be found by clicking on the GWAEA Documents tab on the left or by clicking on these links:

Tutorial Report Card Setup.pdf

Report Card Tutorial- Historical Grades.pdf

How to Clear Java Cache

Mac OS X 10.4 and many OS X 10.5 operating systems will now prompt to install a new version of Java (1.5.0_16).  The same Java version was also previously offered in a Windows update.

There are issues inherent in this version of Java that prevent PowerTeacher Gradebook from functioning properly and, in some cases, from launching.

Workaround:

A patch file is now being applied to all sites. Please contact us before proceeding with the following at the user workstation.

Mac

1. On the client workstation, exit PowerTeacher Gradebook.
2. Navigate to Applications > Utilities > Java.
3. Open Java Web Start.app. The Java Application Cache Viewer appears.
4. Select the User tab.
5. In the Application column, select all PowerTeacher Gradebook listings.
6. Click Remove Selected Application.
7. Close the Java Application Cache Viewer.
8. Launch PowerTeacher Gradebook.

Enrollment Summary Graphs

You might not know that the Enrollment Summary page has some pretty cool charts that you can easily access.

Click on the Enrollment Summary then click on any of the blue title links along the title row on top or on the grade level column on the side.  A graph of enrollment by ethnicity or an enrollment by grade level will appear. This can be view both by individual school levels or by the district level for a complete summary graph of all your schools.

Keep Elementary Parents from Seeing Gradebook Details

If your elementary schools only want parents to login to PowerSchool to see attendance, bulletins, and teacher comments, but no grades from the grade book, simply do not fill out the Current Grade Display which is found under the Grading category under the school menu.

By leaving these settings blank the parent quick lookup screen shows only this week and last weeks attendance, email link to parents, and attendance totals. No grade book information is shown.

Sort Quick Lookup Screen

by Periods

An example Quick Lookup screen could show a listing like the following:

1. (A-F) English I

2. (A-F) Earth Science

3. (A,C,E) Fitness for Living

5. (A-F) Algebra I

6. (A-F) Lunch

3. (B,D,F) Photography

4. (B,D,F) Spanish

Gary Olsen, Cartoon College

There are several things you need to do to get PowerSchool setup for your parents to view their students' grades, attendance, teacher comments, and other information. Here is a starter list for you to consider. Click on each link to see documentation about each subject.

1. Set all parents to receive weekly summary of grades and attendance. Click Here

2. Set all parent and or students logins and passwords.  Click Here

3. Using Quick Export of Student/Parent Logins and PWs to merge into documents you create for parent notification.       Click Here

4. Send Parents form letter with login and passwords as well as instructions on using PowerSchool. Change this sample to your own settings.   Click Here

Before sending your letters to parents or finishing your web page with parent logon information please contact us and let us review your settings.

PowerSchool© users in Iowa have put together a very useful Users Group where they exchange ideas, comments, questions, reports, and organize their state Users Group meetings.  Grant Wood AEA participates in this Users Group and encourages you to sign up too.