Score Inspector Will Not Open or Other Weird Gradebook Preference Issues?

Sometimes the Gradebook properties file seems to get corrupted and it causes a glitch with the Score Inspector or other preferences you have in your Gradebook. For example, you click to open the Score Inspector and it doesn't.

Here is the solution:

1. Save you work and close your Gradebook
2. Open windows explorer
3. Click on you C:/ drive
4. In the search bar on the top right of this window, search for powerschool_gradebook.properties
5. Once found, delete this file.
6. Open Gradebook again and your score inspector will be working. It will also regenerate the properties file.

Printing and Viewing Object Reports, Form Letters and Mailing Labels

When you print a object report, form letter or mailing label in PowerSchool it is rendered in PDF format. It is important to remember that you should save this document to your computer before viewing it. 

This is particularly important when you are printing a report that must line up (like labels) or keep the same formatting. Left clicking on the view in your print queue opens the document in the web browser which does not render the pdf in the intended format. You will find sometimes labels will no longer line up, fonts will not print correctly or other formatting issues.

Instead, right click on the "View" in the print queue and select "save link as" in Firefox or Chrome or "save target as" in Internet Explorer to save it on your computer. Then find the file on your computer and open it with adobe reader, etc.

Half Day Bell Schedule

In the AVRSB, we have both "Regular Day" and "Half Day" Bell schedules. PowerSchool should reflect this but in many cases I am not seeing that both have been created. If you create one, it will mean your teachers don't have to take attendance for classes that actually aren't occurring that day (e.g. Homeroom Attendance PM or afternoon classes in High School). This will lead to more accurate attendance.

If you go to Startpage --> School --> Bell Schedules, this is what we should see.

The number of periods in your half day should reflect the number of periods you have before the dismissal.

For example, compare the Half Day and Regular Day bell schedules for a school.

Once created you need to go into your calendar to set it up correctly to reflect your Half Day bell schedule on the half days.

Startpage --> School --> Calendar Setup

Using Preferred Name In Gradebook

Many times teachers wish they could display the preferred name of a student in their Gradebook, on Gradebook reports and in Report Card Comments.

There are a couple of set-up items first:

• In all your classes enter the Preferred Name of the students in the appropriate column of the Student Info Tab in Gradebook.

• Under Tools --> Preferences --> Student Tab make sure to check both boxes that make the Preferred Name now active in Gradebook and on all Gradebook Reports.

Once you have them entered using the <preferred name> Smart Text in your comments will make them appear on report cards.

Searching for Student Percent Grades

There are a couple ways to search for percent grades. The first is a Pearson developed report and the second is one I created. In either case, you can make the results the current selection to print a letter of concern, run other reports, etc.

Search By Grades/Attendance

After you select the group of student go to Special Functions on the StartPage. Then click Search By Grades/Attendance. Highlighted below are the setting you want to change. You can make the results your current selection or have the results displayed.

Search Current Percent Grades

After you select the group of student go to System Reports on the StartPage. Then click SQLReports --> Grading --> Search Current Percent Grades. Select the terms and percentage range you want to search. After the results are displayed you can make the resulting students the current selection. 

Family Rep and Linking Family Members

Too often we send home multiple copies of the same notice, newsletter, etc with siblings. Also, there are times when we may want to contact home and know each household is only receiving one phone call (e.g. unexpected early closures, etc)

We can pull lists or create reports from PowerSchool if you enter Family Reps and link Family Members.

Family Rep

The check box is found on the Modify Info page for each student.

To enter them for your school, you can check each of the students separately...but I would recommend selecting all your students and using the Student Field Value Function to change the field family_rep to a value of 1. Then you can go back and remove just the older siblings' check mark by hand.

Linking Family Members

To link siblings, go to one of the students' Family page.

Click on the Search for Additional Family Members link.

Ensure the Include Student's Last Name in Search checkbox is checked and hit submit. If the sibling has a different last name, enter it in the field before hitting submit.

You will get a list of possible siblings based on the last name. Click the related checkbox for each sibling and hit submit. Note: At this time, please do not use the copy function!

Reports that I have created for you:

1. Number of family reps in each homeroom.
2. Emergency contact list with the family info only listed once for the family rep.

Please take a look at the available reports on http://psreportdepot.blogspot.ca and send me an email if you would like any others.

Attendance Reports

From time to time you may be asked to provide teachers, parents, the Board, etc with the attendance year-to-date or another specific range. I have created several reports that will give you this information if various forms. (Go to my other blog http://psreportdepot.blogspot.ca/ for sql code.)

They all work by first selecting the group of students for which you want the attendance information (e.g. homeroom, grade level, etc.). Here are the steps:

1. Select the student(s).
2. From the Start Page click System Reports.
3. Select the SQL Reports4 Tab.
4. Select Attendance
5. Choose the Report and enter the required Parameters.

Here are the report Samples:


Monthly Absent Totals (NLY) or (LY)

Note: NLY - used when the school year does not contain a leap year.
         LY - used when the school year contains a leap year

NLY - https://sisavrsb.ednet.ns.ca/admin/sqlReports4/params.html?frn=0069323&lrn=005779
LY - https://sisavrsb.ednet.ns.ca/admin/sqlReports4/params.html?frn=0069324&lrn=005779

Present and Absent Totals

https://sisavrsb.ednet.ns.ca/admin/sqlReports4/params.html?frn=0069224&lrn=005779

Full Attendance Report (With Comments)

https://sisavrsb.ednet.ns.ca/admin/sqlReports4/params.html?frn=0066273&lrn=005779

Attendance Comment Report

 https://sisavrsb.ednet.ns.ca/admin/sqlReports4/params.html?frn=0065474&lrn=005779

Searching For Students

Using the search bar in PowerSchool to search for students will greatly simplify your life! Below is the provincial guide.

Inschool Search Guide

If you feel good using search bar, here are some common searches for the AVRSB. Remember compound searches (when you want more than one thing to be true in the selected group) are separated by a semi-colon.

Common Search Examples:

Home_Room contains Jack

• Will find all students with Jack in their homeroom name. Great if you don't remember how you set-up your homeroom names, especially with split classes. For example 1/2 Jackson or Jackson1/2 or Jackson

NS_SSW=1

• Finds the students in the Student Support Worker Program

NS_NSA=1

• Finds the students in the Native Student Advisor Program

Grade_Level>5;Grade_Level<9

• Finds students in grade 6, 7 and 8. Wonderful for separating your middle school students from other students in your school.

Grade_Level=2;Gender=f

• Finds the female students in grade 2.

Grade_Level=10;NS_Program=S015

• Finds the students in grade 10 that are in the Early French Immersion Program. Great search for separating student to print report cards.

CurrentIPP=Y

• Finds the students with a current IPP.

CurrentAdap=Y

• Finds the students with current adaptations.

***If you have a specific search and you would like me to give you the code, leave me a comment below.***

String Key Errors

Sometimes when you are working in PowerSchool or PowerTeacher you will start to see "String key was not found" errors.

These occur when the appnode you are connected to needs to be restarted. We have 5 appnodes in the AVRSB, they are the access points to our PowerSchool Server...sorta like the on ramps to the highway to our server.

What do you do when you get them?

The province gets an automatic notification when they occurs so you don't need to let anyone know. They will reset the appnode to fix the issue. However, they can be a real pain if you still have work to do.....so what do you do to keep working?

• Logout of PowerSchool/PowerTeacher so you can see the login screen. 

• On the login screen make note of what appnode you are currently on. See below you will see a number between 01 and 05.

• Close out your web browser completely (i.e. exit all windows in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc.).

• Open to the PowerSchool/PowerTeacher login screen again. Check the appnode you are on. If it is the same, close all the windows again, repeat until you are on a different appnode.

• If it different, login and you should be able to work without issue.

Student Activities

For each student you can indicate what activities they take part in.

Unfortunately, this list of activities often does not contain all the activities needed for you school, in particular, ones specific to your school. As a result, here is a new suggested method to allow you to record any activities for a student or even their parents. You can then make them the current selection to print reports, change attendance, contact with Alert, etc...

Record the Activity in the Custom_Text3 Field 

Method 1

1. Select the student 
2. Click Custom Screens --> School Use Only 

Method 2

1. Select the group of students
2. Choose "Student Field Value"
3. In the top line enter Custom_Text3 and in the bottom line the activity.

Note: You should use the exact same wording and case for each student. Also, you can add more than 1 activity for each student.

Student Activity Listing Report

Once you have recorded the student activities in Custom_Text3, you can run the Student Activity Listing Report. Make sure you search with the same wording and case you used when you entered the activities.

Start Page --> System Reports --> SQL Reports --> Demographics --> Student Activity Listing

Once you run the report, you can click the "Make Current Selection" to work with the students. 

Student Log Entries

Log Entries are a great way to record non-discipline related information on a student (e.g. conversations or meetings with the student or parents, when attendance letters are sent home, record of injuries that happened at school, record of when parents pick-up portal access, etc). Log entries can be entered by all staff in either PowerSchool and PowerTeacher. Teachers only see log entries they have added on a student while administrators can see all the log entries entered on a student.

How to enter Log Entries

The screen to enter the new log entry is the same in both PowerSchool and PowerTeacher.

Getting to that screen:

PowerSchool

Select the student --> Select Log Entries on the left under Administration --> Click New

PowerTeacher

1. Click on the backpack for the class containing the student.

2. Select the student --> Choose New Log Entry from the screen selection drop-down --> Click New

Viewing Log Entries:

1. You can select the student and navigate to the Log Entries screen.

2. Office staff, you can select a student or a group of students and run a new sqlreport I created.

Startpage --> Select Student(s) --> System Reports --> SQLReports --> School Level Reports --> Log Entry Summary (https://sisavrsb.ednet.ns.ca/admin/sqlReports4/params.html?frn=00611076&lrn=005779)

Envelope Report

I have created an envelope report - "Envelop (Size 10) - To the Parents of". Please give it a try to see if it would work in your school. If you need the orientation changed, the report modified or you have another envelope report you would like created, please let me know.

To print the report select the student(s) and hit print a report. You will find the report in the list.

Attendance Comments

Anytime you enter a non-present attendance code on the Enter Attendance screen for a student you are provided with a place to enter a comment. Click on the speech balloon and a pop-up window will open. These comments could be reasons for the absence or the time the student arrived late for classes.

I have created 2 reports to pull these comments.

1. Attendance Comments Report (Current Selection) - For the current student selection from the startpage this report lists the student number, first name, last name, attendance date, course number, period, attendance code and attendance comment for only those students who have an attendance comment. (https://sisavrsb.ednet.ns.ca/admin/sqlReports4/params.html?frn=0065474&lrn=005779)

Code: Here

2. Full Attendance Report (Current Selection) - For the current student selection from the startpage this report lists all attendance information for the students including attendance date, course number, period, attendance codes and the attendance comments. (https://sisavrsb.ednet.ns.ca/admin/sqlReports4/params.html?frn=0066273&lrn=005779)

Code: Here