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PowerSchool provides online modules in Learning Paths for different roles. Submit a HelpDesk ticket to request a learning path be assigned to you.
1. Learning Paths
1.1. PowerSchool SIS: Counselor
This learning path includes recommended courses for school counselors who use PowerSchool SIS. Taking additional courses that aren't included in this learning path is also recommended.
PowerSchool Training modules are found at https://training.powerschool.com. Submit a MAISD PS HelpDesk ticket to request access to a learning path or module in the PowerSchool Training site.
| Module | Description |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 1 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users or experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 1 of this three-part course, you will learn about the different groups who use PowerSchool SIS, how someone from each of the user groups signs in to PowerSchool SIS, and how to navigate the PowerSchool SIS Start Page. You will also explore common PowerSchool SIS tasks, run basic reports, and use group actions. Although some of the tasks demonstrated in this course may not pertain to your role, you can use the course to learn how to navigate PowerSchool SIS and perform basic functions. |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 2 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users or experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 2 of this three-part course, you will learn how to search for students and how to use student pages. You will explore individual student information, such as alerts and demographics, and look at student reports that you can print. |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 3 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users and experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 3 of this three-part course, you will learn how to perform basic field-level searches in PowerSchool SIS, print reports, use group actions, perform compound searches, and use other methods to obtain the appropriate selection of students. |
| Counselor and Administrative Skills | This course is intended for both counselors and administrators. Participants will learn how to manage contact records, conduct and save student searches, enroll and review students in student programs, and record student information. |
| High School Counselor and Administrative Skills | This course is intended for counselors and administrators in high schools. Participants will learn how to review and update GPA calculations, track students’ progress toward graduation using graduation plans, and how to modify transcripts. |
| Assigning a Counselor to Students | Learn how to mass assign a counselor to a group of students, as well as how to assign a counselor to an individual student. |
| Working with Student Contacts | This course is intended for PowerSchool SIS admin users at the school and district level. Administrators will learn how to manage student contacts by adding new contacts, importing contacts, modifying contact information, consolidating duplicate contacts, and by using the contacts data access tags to generate quick reports. |
| During the School Year Scheduling - Elementary | School administrative staff responsible for managing elementary schedules during the school year will learn how to perform several scheduling-related tasks, including how to review and modify the master course schedule, add courses, create dependent sections, manually schedule students, mass register students in a class, and enroll students in student programs. |
| During the School Year Scheduling - Secondary | In this course, you will learn how to use the master course schedule to manage course offerings and schedules for the current school year. Learn how to change the display preferences, add a new course, create a new section of a course, delete a section, mass enroll students into a section, and enroll a student in a course at another school. |
| Enrolling and Transferring Students | This course is intended for administrators who enroll and transfer students in your district and schools. You will learn how to enroll new students and their siblings, transfer students in and out of schools, and pre-enroll students for the next school year. |
| Setting Up Graduation Planner | Use Graduation Planner at the District Office in PowerSchool SIS to create graduation plans so that you can monitor students’ progress toward completing the defined graduation requirements. Each district and/or school may have distinct requirements that students must achieve to meet this goal. Fortunately, you can use PowerSchool SIS to create as many plans as necessary and assign multiple plans to individual students for varied purposes. |
| Setting Up Graduation Plan Waivers | Learn how to set up graduation plan waivers at the district level and how to apply a waiver to a student’s record. |
| Managing Grades and Academic Data Part 1 | This is part one of a two-part course intended for administrative and office staff who are responsible for entering and editing student academic data. Administrators and office staff will learn how to create tests and their score categories in PowerSchool SIS, as well as how to enter single test scores and import groups of scores. In addition, learn how to add information to transcripts manually for students who transfer into your school or district, how to add historical information for a single course, and how to edit historical course grades. |
| Managing Grades and Academic Data Part 2 | This second part of a two-part course is intended for administrative and office staff who are responsible for retrieving student academic data. Administrators and office staff will learn how to review a student’s overall academic status and progress towards graduation, how to search for students based on their grades or GPA, and how to run the At Risk report to discover which students are in danger of not graduating. |
| Communication Tools Part 1 | When it comes to communication, use a variety of tools in PowerSchool SIS to share information effectively with students, parents or guardians, and staff members. In part one of this course, explore these tools and learn how to create your own form letters, customize mailing labels, and print reports for students. |
| Communication Tools Part 2 | PowerSchool SIS provides a variety of communication tools that school administrative staff can use to share information effectively with students, parents or guardians, and staff members. In this final part of the course, learn how to create your own report cards, progress reports, PDFs of student schedules, and attendance letters. Then learn how to import and export report templates, set up class roster reports, and enter and edit items in the daily bulletin. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 1 (Not Recommended) | Explore Enterprise Reports, a set of interactive reports in PowerSchool SIS built using Application Express (APEX), Oracle's rapid application development tool. Learn how to grant access to Enterprise Reports, then explore the published reports and the reporting features available. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 2 (Not Recommended) | Learn how to customize Enterprise Reports by adding aggregate calculations and conditional formatting, creating pivot tables and charts, and adding calculated columns. Then learn about the Flashback and Set Current Selection features, and how to manage Enterprise Reports. |
1.2. PowerSchool SIS: Curriculum Director
This learning path includes recommended courses for department heads, curriculum leaders, and curriculum directors who use PowerSchool SIS. Taking additional courses that aren't included in this learning path is also recommended.
PowerSchool Training modules are found at https://training.powerschool.com. Submit a MAISD PS HelpDesk ticket to request access to a learning path or module in the PowerSchool Training site.
| Module | Description |
| Setting Up District Grading Preferences | In this course, district administrators learn how to set up both traditional and standards-based grading preferences at the district level in PowerSchool SIS. Administrators will learn how to apply the grading settings to schools to provide grading consistency and to save teachers time when using PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook. |
| Setting Up School Grading Preferences | This course is intended for technical staff or anyone who is responsible for system setup. Participants will learn how to review and update school-level settings in PowerSchool SIS that impact the use of PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook after district-level setup is complete. Learn how to set the default gradebook, review categories and calculations, update grade preferences, assign administrative access to teachers' gradebooks, assign an alternate grade scale to a student, run the Section Readiness report, and lock reporting terms. |
| Setting Up Standards-Based Grading | This course is intended for both technical and instructional administrators in your district and individual schools. Technical administrators will learn how to set up standards in PowerSchool SIS for a school or district, import standards into PowerSchool SIS, set calculation methods for PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, and use reports related to standards scores. |
| PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook Part 1: Setup, Assignments, and Grading | PowerSchool's HTML-based gradebook, PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, is a robust tool for managing the classroom and includes features that support both standards-based and traditional grading. In this course, teachers will learn how to access PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, add a class description, customize a class name, set up gradebook display preferences, use student grade scales, and work with class grade scales. Teachers will also learn how to work with student groups, categories, assignments, scoring, and final grades. |
| PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook Part 1: Analysis, Reporting, and More | In this course, teachers will learn how to analyze individual student performance in PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, as well as how to analyze class progress on both traditional and standards grades. Teachers will also learn how to email students and contacts, as well as how to record student observations and track assets and textbooks. Then, teachers will learn how to run some of the PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook reports. |
| Setting Up Graduation Planner | Use Graduation Planner at the District Office in PowerSchool SIS to create graduation plans so that you can monitor students’ progress toward completing the defined graduation requirements. Each district and/or school may have distinct requirements that students must achieve to meet this goal. Fortunately, you can use PowerSchool SIS to create as many plans as necessary and assign multiple plans to individual students for varied purposes. |
| Setting Up Graduation Plan Waivers | Learn how to set up graduation plan waivers at the district level and how to apply a waiver to a student’s record. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 1 (Not Recommended) | Explore Enterprise Reports, a set of interactive reports in PowerSchool SIS built using Application Express (APEX), Oracle's rapid application development tool. Learn how to grant access to Enterprise Reports, then explore the published reports and the reporting features available. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 2 (Not Recommended) | Learn how to customize Enterprise Reports by adding aggregate calculations and conditional formatting, creating pivot tables and charts, and adding calculated columns. Then learn about the Flashback and Set Current Selection features, and how to manage Enterprise Reports. |
1.3. PowerSchool SIS: Office/Administrative Staff
This learning path includes recommended courses for front office and administrative staff who use PowerSchool SIS. Taking additional courses that aren't included in this learning path is also recommended.
PowerSchool Training modules are found at https://training.powerschool.com. Submit a MAISD PS HelpDesk ticket to request access to a learning path or module in the PowerSchool Training site.
| Module | Description |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 1 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users or experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 1 of this three-part course, you will learn about the different groups who use PowerSchool SIS, how someone from each of the user groups signs in to PowerSchool SIS, and how to navigate the PowerSchool SIS Start Page. You will also explore common PowerSchool SIS tasks, run basic reports, and use group actions. Although some of the tasks demonstrated in this course may not pertain to your role, you can use the course to learn how to navigate PowerSchool SIS and perform basic functions. |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 2 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users or experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 2 of this three-part course, you will learn how to search for students and how to use student pages. You will explore individual student information, such as alerts and demographics, and look at student reports that you can print. |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 3 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users and experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 3 of this three-part course, you will learn how to perform basic field-level searches in PowerSchool SIS, print reports, use group actions, perform compound searches, and use other methods to obtain the appropriate selection of students. |
| Enrolling and Transferring Students | This course is intended for administrators who enroll and transfer students in your district and schools. You will learn how to enroll new students and their siblings, transfer students in and out of schools, and pre-enroll students for the next school year. |
| Working with Student Contacts | This course is intended for PowerSchool SIS admin users at the school and district level. Administrators will learn how to manage student contacts by adding new contacts, importing contacts, modifying contact information, consolidating duplicate contacts, and by using the contacts data access tags to generate quick reports. |
| During the School Year Scheduling - Elementary | School administrative staff responsible for managing elementary schedules during the school year will learn how to perform several scheduling-related tasks, including how to review and modify the master course schedule, add courses, create dependent sections, manually schedule students, mass register students in a class, and enroll students in student programs. |
| During the School Year Scheduling - Secondary | In this course, you will learn how to use the master course schedule to manage course offerings and schedules for the current school year. Learn how to change the display preferences, add a new course, create a new section of a course, delete a section, mass enroll students into a section, and enroll a student in a course at another school. |
| Enrolling and Transferring Students | This course is intended for administrators who enroll and transfer students in your district and schools. You will learn how to enroll new students and their siblings, transfer students in and out of schools, and pre-enroll students for the next school year. |
| Managing Staff | Explore how to add, edit, and inactivate staff from your current PowerSchool SIS records. Then, learn how to gather staff email addresses, access teacher schedules, and designate a staff member as a school counselor. |
| Managing Students | Learn how to search for at-risk students, manage student contacts, review student academic records, and use the Teacher Gradebooks, Parental Access Statistics, and Grades Distribution reports. |
| Managing Student Behavior and Discipline (Not Recommended) | In this course, learn how to document student behavior-based events in PowerSchool SIS in two ways. First, check out how to record detailed or quick incidents about an event that involves multiple people, such as victims, offenders, reporters, and witnesses. Second, learn how to submit log entries about an individual student. Then, investigate ways to print out records created through both methods. Finally, explore how to export incident data into a spreadsheet for regional regulatory compliance reporting. |
| Communication Tools Part 1 | When it comes to communication, use a variety of tools in PowerSchool SIS to share information effectively with students, parents or guardians, and staff members. In part one of this course, explore these tools and learn how to create your own form letters, customize mailing labels, and print reports for students. |
| Communication Tools Part 2 | PowerSchool SIS provides a variety of communication tools that school administrative staff can use to share information effectively with students, parents or guardians, and staff members. In this final part of the course, learn how to create your own report cards, progress reports, PDFs of student schedules, and attendance letters. Then learn how to import and export report templates, set up class roster reports, and enter and edit items in the daily bulletin. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 1 (Not Recommended) | Explore Enterprise Reports, a set of interactive reports in PowerSchool SIS built using Application Express (APEX), Oracle's rapid application development tool. Learn how to grant access to Enterprise Reports, then explore the published reports and the reporting features available. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 2 (Not Recommended) | Learn how to customize Enterprise Reports by adding aggregate calculations and conditional formatting, creating pivot tables and charts, and adding calculated columns. Then learn about the Flashback and Set Current Selection features, and how to manage Enterprise Reports. |
| Managing Meeting Attendance | This course is intended for staff at schools that record meeting attendance. Learn how to use the Meeting Attendance page to enter attendance, filter students, and create a current selection of students so that you can then modify their attendance using group actions and the student attendance pages. Also learn how teachers take attendance and how to verify attendance records. |
| Managing Daily Attendance (Not Recommended) | For office administrative staff who work in schools where teachers record attendance once per day or take daily attendance, learn how to use the Daily Attendance page to enter attendance, clock students in or out, identify absent students, and update attendance codes. Learn how to take attendance in the PowerSchool SIS Teacher Portal and to run reports to find out which teachers have not taken attendance. Additionally, learn how to update attendance for a group of students and for future dates, and how to run reports to verify attendance. |
| Attendance Reports | This course is intended for administrative and office staff who are responsible for verifying the accuracy of attendance records, running attendance audits, and reporting attendance to the district, province, and/or state. Learn how to set up, use, and analyze the reports you’ll use most often on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. |
| End of Term Part 1 - Verifying Grades | School administrative staff responsible for the End of Term process will learn what elements to include in their End of Term process plan and how to verify teacher grades. |
| End of Term Part 2 - Storing Grades (Not Recommended) | School administrative staff responsible for the End of Term process will learn how to use the Store Grades page to store grades in PowerSchool SIS. |
| End of Term Part 3 - Reporting Grades | School administrative staff responsible for the End of Term process will learn how to calculate honor roll, run the Honor Roll Report, and print report cards. |
1.4. PowerSchool SIS: Scheduler
This learning path includes recommended courses for district or school staff who are responsible for building and managing master course schedules in PowerSchool SIS. Taking additional courses that aren't included in this learning path is also recommended.
PowerSchool Training modules are found at https://training.powerschool.com. Submit a MAISD PS HelpDesk ticket to request access to a learning path or module in the PowerSchool Training site.
| Module | Description |
| Prepare to Build 1 | In this first chapter of the PowerSchool SIS PowerScheduler: Prepare to Build series, learn how to begin building your master schedule in PowerScheduler by managing scheduling information on the live side of PowerSchool SIS and on the scheduling side in PowerScheduler. Create the years and terms for next year and then use Auto. Scheduler Setup to create a build scenario and set the scheduling year. |
| Prepare to Build 2 | In the second part of the Prepare to Build series, define course and scheduling parameters. Add new courses at your school or district and learn how to set prerequisite rules for new and existing courses. Learn how to create the scheduling course catalog for next year. Define optional scheduling parameters, including periods, days, departments, facilities, section types, teams, houses, and buildings. |
| Prepare to Build 3 | In the third part of the PowerSchool SIS PowerScheduler: Prepare to Build series, define room and student information. Define rooms manually, with the Auto Create Rooms, Auto Generate Rooms, and Update Selections functions. Learn how to move student information to PowerScheduler. Define student information manually, and with the Auto Fill Student Information and Update Selections functions. |
| Prepare to Build 4 | In the fourth part of the PowerSchool SIS PowerScheduler: Prepare to Build series, learn how to manage student course requests. First, learn how to enter course recommendations in the PowerSchool SIS Teacher Portal and PowerSchool SIS. Then create course groups and course requirements to set up course request screens. Preview and activate the course request screens and learn three ways to enter student course requests. Finally, learn how to override prerequisites and use course request reports and tools. |
| Prepare to Build 5 | In the fifth part of the Prepare to Build series, learn how to define course and teacher information, both manually and with the auto-fill function. First, learn how to define course information and preferences. Then define course relationships. Next, learn how to move teacher information into PowerScheduler and define teacher information. Finally, learn how to create teacher assignments. |
| Prepare to Build 6 | In the sixth and final part of the Prepare to Build series, learn how to define build constraints, build the course rank, and validate your build. First, learn how to define build constraints to customize your schedule. Then learn how to build, change, update, and rebuild the course rank prior to building your schedule. Next, learn how download the PowerScheduler engine and validate your build. Finally, learn how to locate and interpret your validation results and determine your next steps for finalizing your master schedule. |
| The Load Process 1 | In this first chapter of the Load Process series, learn how to create the future year and terms on the live side of PowerSchool SIS. Then perform the Auto. Scheduler Setup to create a scheduling scenario. Edit the years and terms, set the scheduling year, and copy a previous master schedule. Create a new scheduling course catalog and verify or update scheduling preferences. |
| The Load Process 2 | In this second chapter of the Load Process series, learn how to define course preferences. Next, add new courses for the upcoming school year and create prerequisite rules and relationships for new and existing courses. Then learn how to define room information manually and/or by using functions. |
| The Load Process 3 | In this third chapter of the Load Process series, learn how to prepare student and teacher information for scheduling. First, learn how to update student scheduling preferences manually, or by using the Auto Fill Student Information and Update Selections functions. Then learn how to prepare teacher information both manually and by using the Auto Fill Teacher Information function. |
| The Load Process 4 | In the fourth part of the Load Process series, learn how to manage student course requests. First, learn how to enter course recommendations in the PowerSchool SIS Teacher Portal and PowerSchool SIS. Then create course groups and course requirements to set up course request screens. Preview and activate the course request screens and learn three ways to enter student course requests. Finally, learn how to override prerequisites and use course request reports and tools. |
| The Load Process 5 | In this fifth and final chapter of the PowerSchool SIS PowerScheduler: The Load Process series, learn how to make manual adjustments to the master schedule and by using the Visual Scheduler. Next, define load constraints. Then load students into the schedule, evaluate the results of the load, and explore post-load options. |
| Automated Walk-In Scheduler | Learn how to complete the scheduling setup for the Automated Walk-In Scheduler by setting your school's scheduling preferences, modifying student information, defining course and section preferences, and formatting schedule constraints in PowerSchool SIS. Also learn how to run the Automated Walk-In Scheduler, manually enter a student's course requests, and manually modify a student's schedule. |
| During the School Year Scheduling - Elementary | School administrative staff responsible for managing elementary schedules during the school year will learn how to perform several scheduling-related tasks, including how to review and modify the master course schedule, add courses, create dependent sections, manually schedule students, mass register students in a class, and enroll students in student programs. |
| During the School Year Scheduling - Secondary | In this course, you will learn how to use the master course schedule to manage course offerings and schedules for the current school year. Learn how to change the display preferences, add a new course, create a new section of a course, delete a section, mass enroll students into a section, and enroll a student in a course at another school. |
1.5. PowerSchool SIS: School/District Administrator
This learning path includes recommended courses for school and district administrators who use PowerSchool SIS. Taking additional courses that aren't included in this learning path is also recommended.
PowerSchool Training modules are found at https://training.powerschool.com. Submit a MAISD PS HelpDesk ticket to request access to a learning path or module in the PowerSchool Training site.
| Module | Description |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 1 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users or experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 1 of this three-part course, you will learn about the different groups who use PowerSchool SIS, how someone from each of the user groups signs in to PowerSchool SIS, and how to navigate the PowerSchool SIS Start Page. You will also explore common PowerSchool SIS tasks, run basic reports, and use group actions. Although some of the tasks demonstrated in this course may not pertain to your role, you can use the course to learn how to navigate PowerSchool SIS and perform basic functions. |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 2 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users or experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 2 of this three-part course, you will learn how to search for students and how to use student pages. You will explore individual student information, such as alerts and demographics, and look at student reports that you can print. |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 3 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users and experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 3 of this three-part course, you will learn how to perform basic field-level searches in PowerSchool SIS, print reports, use group actions, perform compound searches, and use other methods to obtain the appropriate selection of students. |
| Administration and Management (Not Recommended) | This course is intended for both technical and administrative staff. Learn how to add new staff members and assign their system access. Then learn how to manage the report queue. This course also covers how to work directly with PowerSchool SIS data using Direct Database Export (DDE) and Direct Database Access (DDA). Use DDE to search for specific data, export the data, and make match selections from multiple tables. Use DDA to modify or delete data in your PowerSchool SIS database. |
| Security Part 1 | This course is intended for both technical and instructional administrators. In the first part of this two-part course, learn how to use a dual security approach using security groups and user roles to assign and control users’ access at each school in your district. Then learn how to add security settings, assign security groups to users, modify user roles, and layer security groups and user roles to further control what users can access. |
| Security Part 2 | This course is intended for both technical and instructional administrators. In the second part of this two-part course, learn how to add field level security and modify page permissions to manage system access for staff members. Then explore how to use IP restrictions and system passwords to control how users access PowerSchool SIS. |
| Setting Up District Grading Preferences | In this course, district administrators learn how to set up both traditional and standards-based grading preferences at the district level in PowerSchool SIS. Administrators will learn how to apply the grading settings to schools to provide grading consistency and to save teachers time when using PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook. |
| Setting Up Building Grading Preferences | This course is intended for technical staff or anyone who is responsible for system setup. Participants will learn how to review and update school-level settings in PowerSchool SIS that impact the use of PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook after district-level setup is complete. Learn how to set the default gradebook, review categories and calculations, update grade preferences, assign administrative access to teachers' gradebooks, assign an alternate grade scale to a student, run the Section Readiness report, and lock reporting terms. |
| Setting Up Standards-Based Grading | This course is intended for both technical and instructional administrators in your district and individual schools. Technical administrators will learn how to set up standards in PowerSchool SIS for a school or district, import standards into PowerSchool SIS, set calculation methods for PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, and use reports related to standards scores. |
| Enrolling and Transferring Students | This course is intended for administrators who enroll and transfer students in your district and schools. You will learn how to enroll new students and their siblings, transfer students in and out of schools, and pre-enroll students for the next school year. |
| Working with Student Contacts | This course is intended for PowerSchool SIS admin users at the school and district level. Administrators will learn how to manage student contacts by adding new contacts, importing contacts, modifying contact information, consolidating duplicate contacts, and by using the contacts data access tags to generate quick reports. |
| Managing Grades and Academic Data Part 1 | This is part one of a two-part course intended for administrative and office staff who are responsible for entering and editing student academic data. Administrators and office staff will learn how to create tests and their score categories in PowerSchool SIS, as well as how to enter single test scores and import groups of scores. In addition, learn how to add information to transcripts manually for students who transfer into your school or district, how to add historical information for a single course, and how to edit historical course grades. |
| Managing Grades and Academic Data Part 2 | This second part of a two-part course is intended for administrative and office staff who are responsible for retrieving student academic data. Administrators and office staff will learn how to review a student’s overall academic status and progress towards graduation, how to search for students based on their grades or GPA, and how to run the At Risk report to discover which students are in danger of not graduating. |
| Managing Staff | Explore how to add, edit, and inactivate staff from your current PowerSchool SIS records. Then, learn how to gather staff email addresses, access teacher schedules, and designate a staff member as a school counselor. |
| Managing Students | Learn how to search for at-risk students, manage student contacts, review student academic records, and use the Teacher Gradebooks, Parental Access Statistics, and Grades Distribution reports. |
| Managing Student Behavior and Discipline (Not Recommended) | In this course, learn how to document student behavior-based events in PowerSchool SIS in two ways. First, check out how to record detailed or quick incidents about an event that involves multiple people, such as victims, offenders, reporters, and witnesses. Second, learn how to submit log entries about an individual student. Then, investigate ways to print out records created through both methods. Finally, explore how to export incident data into a spreadsheet for regional regulatory compliance reporting. |
| Communication Tools Part 1 | When it comes to communication, use a variety of tools in PowerSchool SIS to share information effectively with students, parents or guardians, and staff members. In part one of this course, explore these tools and learn how to create your own form letters, customize mailing labels, and print reports for students. |
| Communication Tools Part 2 | PowerSchool SIS provides a variety of communication tools that school administrative staff can use to share information effectively with students, parents or guardians, and staff members. In this final part of the course, learn how to create your own report cards, progress reports, PDFs of student schedules, and attendance letters. Then learn how to import and export report templates, set up class roster reports, and enter and edit items in the daily bulletin. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 1 (Not Recommended) | Explore Enterprise Reports, a set of interactive reports in PowerSchool SIS built using Application Express (APEX), Oracle's rapid application development tool. Learn how to grant access to Enterprise Reports, then explore the published reports and the reporting features available. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 2 (Not Recommended) | Learn how to customize Enterprise Reports by adding aggregate calculations and conditional formatting, creating pivot tables and charts, and adding calculated columns. Then learn about the Flashback and Set Current Selection features, and how to manage Enterprise Reports. |
| Student and Parent Portals | This course is for school and system administrators responsible for teaching students and contacts, like parents and guardians, how to use the PowerSchool SIS Student and Parent Portals. Administrators learn how students and contacts sign in to the portals and to PowerSchool Mobile. Learn how students and contacts locate grade, assignment, and attendance information, how contacts receive email reports, and how students and contacts review teachers’ comments. Also, learn how to check the school bulletin, how students register for classes, and how contacts add students to their single sign-on accounts. |
| Setting Up Student and Parent Access | This course is for school system administrators responsible for setting up the PowerSchool SIS Student and Parent Portals, PowerSchool Mobile, and student, parent, and guardian access. System administrators will learn how to activate settings, add web account access for contacts, and add students to a contact's account. |
| End of Term Part 1 - Verifying Grades | School administrative staff responsible for the End of Term process will learn what elements to include in their End of Term process plan and how to verify teacher grades. |
| End of Term Part 2 - Storing Grades (Not Recommended) | School administrative staff responsible for the End of Term process will learn how to use the Store Grades page to store grades in PowerSchool SIS. |
| End of Term Part 3 - Reporting Grades | School administrative staff responsible for the End of Term process will learn how to calculate honor roll, run the Honor Roll Report, and print report cards. |
| Start of Year Part 1 - District and School Administration | Get a head start on your Start of Year setup. This course is the first of a four-part series and covers the district and school administrative settings that you need to review and update in PowerSchool SIS before the upcoming school year begins. |
| Start of Year Part 2 - Scheduling and Attendance | Get a head start on your Start of Year setup. This course is the second of a four-part series and covers the settings that affect scheduling and attendance that you need to review and update during the Start of Year process. |
| Start of Year Part 3 - Grading, Assessment, and Reports | Get a head start on your Start of Year setup. This course is the third of a four-part series and covers the settings that affect grading, assessment, and reports that you need to review and update in PowerSchool SIS before the new school year begins. |
| Start of Year Part 4 - Student Information and Parent Access | Get a head start on your Start of Year setup. This course is the fourth of a four-part series and covers the settings that affect student information, how to assign access IDs and passwords for students and parents, and how to enable access to the PowerSchool SIS Student and Parent Portals. |
| Lesson Planner: Getting Started for Teachers | Lesson Planner, a customizable digital planner that enables teachers to streamline lesson planning and instructional delivery, is available to all Schoology Learning and PowerSchool SIS customers. In this course, learn how to set up Lesson Planner by adding classes and scheduling them on your timetable. Then, create and organize lesson plans and templates aligned to standards. Next, share lessons and receive lesson feedback. Finally, reuse content from previous years. |
1.6. PowerSchool SIS: Teacher
This learning path includes recommended courses for teachers who use PowerTeacher Pro in a school or district that uses PowerSchool SIS. Taking additional courses that aren't included in this learning path is also recommended.
PowerSchool Training modules are found at https://training.powerschool.com. Submit a MAISD PS HelpDesk ticket to request access to a learning path or module in the PowerSchool Training site.
| Module | Description |
| Teacher Portal | This course is intended for teachers and instructional administrators. Learn how to use the PowerSchool SIS Teacher Portal to take attendance, submit lunch counts, review student information and grades, use teacher support tools, run reports, and access PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook. |
| PowerTeacher Seating Charts | This course is intended for teachers who want to learn how to design and modify classroom seating charts in PowerTeacher. Teachers will also learn how use seating charts to take attendance and how to use them to pick students at random for activities like class discussions. |
| PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook Part 1: Setup, Assignments, and Grading | PowerSchool's HTML-based gradebook, PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, is a robust tool for managing the classroom and includes features that support both standards-based and traditional grading. In this course, teachers will learn how to access PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, add a class description, customize a class name, set up gradebook display preferences, use student grade scales, and work with class grade scales. Teachers will also learn how to work with student groups, categories, assignments, scoring, and final grades. |
| PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook Part 2: Analysis, Reporting, and More | In this course, teachers will learn how to analyze individual student performance in PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, as well as how to analyze class progress on both traditional and standards grades. Teachers will also learn how to email students and contacts, as well as how to record student observations and track assets and textbooks. Then, teachers will learn how to run some of the PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook reports. |
| Lesson Planner: Getting Started for Teachers | Lesson Planner, a customizable digital planner that enables teachers to streamline lesson planning and instructional delivery, is available to all Schoology Learning and PowerSchool SIS customers. In this course, learn how to set up Lesson Planner by adding classes and scheduling them on your timetable. Then, create and organize lesson plans and templates aligned to standards. Next, share lessons and receive lesson feedback. Finally, reuse content from previous years. |
1.7. PowerSchool SIS: Technical Staff
This learning path includes recommended courses for technical staff and system administrators who use PowerSchool SIS. Taking additional courses that aren't included in this learning path is also recommended.
PowerSchool Training modules are found at https://training.powerschool.com. Submit a MAISD PS HelpDesk ticket to request access to a learning path or module in the PowerSchool Training site.
| Module | Description |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 1 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users or experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 1 of this three-part course, you will learn about the different groups who use PowerSchool SIS, how someone from each of the user groups signs in to PowerSchool SIS, and how to navigate the PowerSchool SIS Start Page. You will also explore common PowerSchool SIS tasks, run basic reports, and use group actions. Although some of the tasks demonstrated in this course may not pertain to your role, you can use the course to learn how to navigate PowerSchool SIS and perform basic functions. |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 2 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users or experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 2 of this three-part course, you will learn how to search for students and how to use student pages. You will explore individual student information, such as alerts and demographics, and look at student reports that you can print. |
| Basics for Admin Users Part 3 | This course is intended for new PowerSchool SIS admin users and experienced users who would like to brush up on the basics. In Part 3 of this three-part course, you will learn how to perform basic field-level searches in PowerSchool SIS, print reports, use group actions, perform compound searches, and use other methods to obtain the appropriate selection of students. |
| The SIS Management Cycle | This course is intended for administrators who manage PowerSchool Student Information System (SIS) for their districts or schools. Learn how to plan for the significant processes that take place throughout each school year, such as running the current End of Year process, preparing for the start of the new school year, running the End of Term process, managing regional regulatory compliance reporting, scheduling students and teachers, managing summer school, and preparing for the next End of Year process. |
| Administration and Management (Not Recommended) | This course is intended for both technical and administrative staff. Learn how to add new staff members and assign their system access. Then learn how to manage the report queue. This course also covers how to work directly with PowerSchool SIS data using Direct Database Export (DDE) and Direct Database Access (DDA). Use DDE to search for specific data, export the data, and make match selections from multiple tables. Use DDA to modify or delete data in your PowerSchool SIS database. |
| Security Part 1 | This course is intended for both technical and instructional administrators. In the first part of this two-part course, learn how to use a dual security approach using security groups and user roles to assign and control users’ access at each school in your district. Then learn how to add security settings, assign security groups to users, modify user roles, and layer security groups and user roles to further control what users can access. |
| Security Part 2 | This course is intended for both technical and instructional administrators. In the second part of this two-part course, learn how to add field level security and modify page permissions to manage system access for staff members. Then explore how to use IP restrictions and system passwords to control how users access PowerSchool SIS. |
| Setting Up District Grading Preferences | In this course, district administrators learn how to set up both traditional and standards-based grading preferences at the district level in PowerSchool SIS. Administrators will learn how to apply the grading settings to schools to provide grading consistency and to save teachers time when using PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook. |
| Setting Up Building Grading Preferences | This course is intended for technical staff or anyone who is responsible for system setup. Participants will learn how to review and update school-level settings in PowerSchool SIS that impact the use of PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook after district-level setup is complete. Learn how to set the default gradebook, review categories and calculations, update grade preferences, assign administrative access to teachers' gradebooks, assign an alternate grade scale to a student, run the Section Readiness report, and lock reporting terms. |
| Setting Up Standards-Based Grading | This course is intended for both technical and instructional administrators in your district and individual schools. Technical administrators will learn how to set up standards in PowerSchool SIS for a school or district, import standards into PowerSchool SIS, set calculation methods for PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, and use reports related to standards scores. |
| Data Manager | Learn how to export and import data within the PowerSchool SIS database using the Data Export Manager and Data Import Manager pages. |
| Managing Staff | Explore how to add, edit, and inactivate staff from your current PowerSchool SIS records. Then, learn how to gather staff email addresses, access teacher schedules, and designate a staff member as a school counselor. |
| Managing Student Behavior and Discipline (Not Recommended) | In this course, learn how to document student behavior-based events in PowerSchool SIS in two ways. First, check out how to record detailed or quick incidents about an event that involves multiple people, such as victims, offenders, reporters, and witnesses. Second, learn how to submit log entries about an individual student. Then, investigate ways to print out records created through both methods. Finally, explore how to export incident data into a spreadsheet for regional regulatory compliance reporting. |
| Communication Tools Part 1 | When it comes to communication, use a variety of tools in PowerSchool SIS to share information effectively with students, parents or guardians, and staff members. In part one of this course, explore these tools and learn how to create your own form letters, customize mailing labels, and print reports for students. |
| Communication Tools Part 2 | PowerSchool SIS provides a variety of communication tools that school administrative staff can use to share information effectively with students, parents or guardians, and staff members. In this final part of the course, learn how to create your own report cards, progress reports, PDFs of student schedules, and attendance letters. Then learn how to import and export report templates, set up class roster reports, and enter and edit items in the daily bulletin. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 1 (Not Recommended) | Explore Enterprise Reports, a set of interactive reports in PowerSchool SIS built using Application Express (APEX), Oracle's rapid application development tool. Learn how to grant access to Enterprise Reports, then explore the published reports and the reporting features available. |
| Enterprise Reports for Report Users Part 2 (Not Recommended) | Learn how to customize Enterprise Reports by adding aggregate calculations and conditional formatting, creating pivot tables and charts, and adding calculated columns. Then learn about the Flashback and Set Current Selection features, and how to manage Enterprise Reports. |
| Student and Parent Portals | This course is for school and system administrators responsible for teaching students and contacts, like parents and guardians, how to use the PowerSchool SIS Student and Parent Portals. Administrators learn how students and contacts sign in to the portals and to PowerSchool Mobile. Learn how students and contacts locate grade, assignment, and attendance information, how contacts receive email reports, and how students and contacts review teachers’ comments. Also, learn how to check the school bulletin, how students register for classes, and how contacts add students to their single sign-on accounts. |
| Setting Up Student and Parent Access | This course is for school system administrators responsible for setting up the PowerSchool SIS Student and Parent Portals, PowerSchool Mobile, and student, parent, and guardian access. System administrators will learn how to activate settings, add web account access for contacts, and add students to a contact's account. |
| Setting Up Graduation Plan Waivers | Learn how to set up graduation plan waivers at the district level and how to apply a waiver to a student’s record. |
| Setting Up Graduation Planner | Use Graduation Planner at the District Office in PowerSchool SIS to create graduation plans so that you can monitor students’ progress toward completing the defined graduation requirements. Each district and/or school may have distinct requirements that students must achieve to meet this goal. Fortunately, you can use PowerSchool SIS to create as many plans as necessary and assign multiple plans to individual students for varied purposes. |
| PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook Part 1: Setup, Assignments, and Grading | PowerSchool's HTML-based gradebook, PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, is a robust tool for managing the classroom and includes features that support both standards-based and traditional grading. In this course, teachers will learn how to access PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, add a class description, customize a class name, set up gradebook display preferences, use student grade scales, and work with class grade scales. Teachers will also learn how to work with student groups, categories, assignments, scoring, and final grades. |
| PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook Part 2: Analysis, Reporting, and More | In this course, teachers will learn how to analyze individual student performance in PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook, as well as how to analyze class progress on both traditional and standards grades. Teachers will also learn how to email students and contacts, as well as how to record student observations and track assets and textbooks. Then, teachers will learn how to run some of the PowerTeacher Pro Gradebook reports. |
| Health Management - Defining District Settings | Use the PowerSchool SIS Health management tool to record and track the student health information you need for enrollment purposes and regional regulatory compliance reporting. In this course, learn how to set up the Health feature in PowerSchool SIS to be used by school healthcare professionals when entering and monitoring student data. |
| Working with Student Contacts | This course is intended for PowerSchool SIS admin users at the school and district level. Administrators will learn how to manage student contacts by adding new contacts, importing contacts, modifying contact information, consolidating duplicate contacts, and by using the contacts data access tags to generate quick reports. |
| During the School Year Scheduling - Elementary | School administrative staff responsible for managing elementary schedules during the school year will learn how to perform several scheduling-related tasks, including how to review and modify the master course schedule, add courses, create dependent sections, manually schedule students, mass register students in a class, and enroll students in student programs. |
| During the School Year Scheduling - Secondary | In this course, you will learn how to use the master course schedule to manage course offerings and schedules for the current school year. Learn how to change the display preferences, add a new course, create a new section of a course, delete a section, mass enroll students into a section, and enroll a student in a course at another school. |
| End of Term Part 1 - Verifying Grades | School administrative staff responsible for the End of Term process will learn what elements to include in their End of Term process plan and how to verify teacher grades. |
| End of Term Part 2 - Storing Grades (Not Recommended) | School administrative staff responsible for the End of Term process will learn how to use the Store Grades page to store grades in PowerSchool SIS. |
| End of Term Part 3 - Reporting Grades | School administrative staff responsible for the End of Term process will learn how to calculate honor roll, run the Honor Roll Report, and print report cards. |
| Start of Year Part 1 - District and School Administration | Get a head start on your Start of Year setup. This course is the first of a four-part series and covers the district and school administrative settings that you need to review and update in PowerSchool SIS before the upcoming school year begins. |
| Start of Year Part 2 - Scheduling and Attendance | Get a head start on your Start of Year setup. This course is the second of a four-part series and covers the settings that affect scheduling and attendance that you need to review and update during the Start of Year process. |
| Start of Year Part 3 - Grading, Assessment, and Reports | Get a head start on your Start of Year setup. This course is the third of a four-part series and covers the settings that affect grading, assessment, and reports that you need to review and update in PowerSchool SIS before the new school year begins. |
| Start of Year Part 4 - Student Information and Parent Access | Get a head start on your Start of Year setup. This course is the fourth of a four-part series and covers the settings that affect student information, how to assign access IDs and passwords for students and parents, and how to enable access to the PowerSchool SIS Student and Parent Portals. |
| Lesson Planner: Getting Started for Teachers | Lesson Planner, a customizable digital planner that enables teachers to streamline lesson planning and instructional delivery, is available to all Schoology Learning and PowerSchool SIS customers. In this course, learn how to set up Lesson Planner by adding classes and scheduling them on your timetable. Then, create and organize lesson plans and templates aligned to standards. Next, share lessons and receive lesson feedback. Finally, reuse content from previous years. |