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
- On the client workstation, exit
PowerTeacher Gradebook.
- Navigate to Applications
> Utilities > Java.
- Open Java Web Start.app.
The Java Application Cache Viewer appears.
- Select the User
tab.
- In the Application column, select
all PowerTeacher Gradebook listings.
- Click Remove Selected
Application.
- Close the Java Application Cache
Viewer.
- Launch PowerTeacher Gradebook.
Windows
- On the client workstation,
exit PowerTeacher Gradebook.
- Navigate to Control
Panel > Java. The Java Control Panel
appears.
- Select the General
tab.
- Click Settings
under the Temporary Internet Files section. The
Temporary Files Settings dialog appears.
- Click Delete Files.
The Delete Temporary Files dialog appears.
- Select both checkboxes, and
click OK.
- Close the Java Control Panel.
- 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
If your school is
expecting the Quick Lookup screen to list the
classes in order by period, but they are not, this
could be due to the Day and Period Precedence
setting in the Scheduling Preferences.
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
In this example, the
Quick Lookup screen is sorting the classes by day,
and not by period. To resolve this, change the sort
order to Period then day:
- Navigate to
School > Scheduling Preferences.
- Under Class
Sorting, change the Day and Period Precedence to
Period then Day.
- Click the Submit
button.


Gary
Olsen, Cartoon College