Power School Set-Up Ideas
The hardest part of setting up our PowerSchool grade book was our desire to show mastery on individual goals/standards and the grade books core set-up of presenting users with an average grade.
To work around this, I had to change the way I thought of assignments. I started by changing the way I created 'Categories'. Before SBG I used categories like: homework, quizzes, tests, in class, participation, etc. While shifting to SBG I changed my categories to my goals/standards (and included more information than ever before, such as explanations, examples and links to more- I love that it is so easy to do this with SBG!!)- click the picture to enlarge
The hardest part of setting up our PowerSchool grade book was our desire to show mastery on individual goals/standards and the grade books core set-up of presenting users with an average grade.
To work around this, I had to change the way I thought of assignments. I started by changing the way I created 'Categories'. Before SBG I used categories like: homework, quizzes, tests, in class, participation, etc. While shifting to SBG I changed my categories to my goals/standards (and included more information than ever before, such as explanations, examples and links to more- I love that it is so easy to do this with SBG!!)- click the picture to enlarge
After setting up my categories, I then set about finding a 'standardized way to report the goals/standards that are attached to every assignment we do. Practice assignments, I created a 'Practice' category that is not included in the class grade figuring. I always grade and return all work (I even try to do this during the next class time, so we can see the growth or make corrections during instruction). When entering in the grade book, I record the # correct, out of the # possible (just as I did before SBG), but now i only do this to show progress and readiness to assess. It has also lead to great conversations between students, parents and educators (Click Here to enlarge photo).
I made this practice change during the year, because the Parent View of PowerSchool is different than the Teacher View. In the Teacher View, all assignments not included in the grade are 'grayed out'. This makes my grade book super easy to see the assessments and the practice grades building up to them. (Click here to see an example- I really like this!!) By adding 'Practice' to all practice assignments it prints that category on the parent view, as well as a 'Comment' stating that the assignment is not included in the grade. |
For every assignment added to the grade book, I included the Standard, a brief description, and often an example problem to add further information for parents or other stakeholders view the grade or assignment (Click here to see examples). The ultimate goal is to give a clear picture of what the Leaner has mastered or needs more work on.
To fulfill our school board's policy (listed under 'Grade books IK' ) I included daily assignments, but did not include them in the final grade (shown below). At least this way, parents could have a quick view how their student(s) were doing in between assessments (just as we used the homework tracking sheet in class).
While entering Assessment scores, our district/school, has started a policy of retesting which can be furthered with SBG. By using SBG I have created a classroom policy that allows students to only work on reteaching, relearning and retesting over the objectives that skill require mastery. This has stream-lined my retesting time and effort.
I would add every standard in an assessment separately in the grade book, as well as list each score separately on the score sheet given to a student (see Data Notebook Examples). I then create a separate 'Retest' entry for each standard (using the 'excuse' code till a grade is entered, upon entry of a 'retest score' an 'excuse' code is entered over original score)- click on the picture to see an enlarged example.
I would add every standard in an assessment separately in the grade book, as well as list each score separately on the score sheet given to a student (see Data Notebook Examples). I then create a separate 'Retest' entry for each standard (using the 'excuse' code till a grade is entered, upon entry of a 'retest score' an 'excuse' code is entered over original score)- click on the picture to see an enlarged example.