Handling Historical Grades and Marks with PASI

Introduction

PASI Direct Connect works with the currently supported Permanently Store Grades process in PowerSchool. This section provides a list of resources, along with information about direct integration with PASI.

Permanently Storing Grades

The PowerSchool Permanently Store Grades process is used to copy and store student's current grades from teacher PowerTeacher Pro or gradebooks as historical grades.

Before Permanently Storing Grades

• Verify that grade scales, final grade setup, and the current grade display have been set up. The Student Schedule Listing report and the Class Rosters (PDF) report can be used to verify that grades are correct.
• Populate the Alternate Term Code & Final Mark Store Code found via Start > School > Years & Terms > Edit Terms > select term > Alberta Information Required for PASI Direct Connect.

To permanently store grades:

1. Log in to the appropriate school.
2. On the start page, choose System from the main menu.
3. Click Permanently Store Grades.
4. Enter data into the following sections, if applicable. To expand a section, click the arrow on the left-hand side of the header. See the table below for details on each section.
   • Which Grades
   • Exclude/Include Class Enrollments
   • Additional Filter Options
   • Classes by Term Length
   • Options for Classes Enrolled at Other Schools
   • Options for Withholding Credit
   • Advanced Potential and Earned Credit Options
   • Variable Credit Storing Preferences
   • Repeated Course Grade Suppression
   • Alberta Settings
5. Enter data in each appropriate field for the Grading Term and Grade you have selected in the Which Grades section.
6. Click Submit and verify that the process completed without error.
7. Repeat for any additional grading terms as the process can only be run for one grading term at a time.

• If you notice that you entered incorrect data after storing grades, repeat the above procedure for the same store code and final grade code. PowerSchool overwrites the existing grades with the new ones.

• If errors are encountered during the Storing Grades process, refer to the Errors section of the How to Permanently Store Grades Knowledgebase Article.

Field	Description
Which Grades
Use this Final Grade/Reporting Term	Enter a two or three-digit code or use the pop-up menu to choose one to indicate the term in which the students earned the grades, such as Q1 or S1. The first character must be a letter, and the second and third characters must be a number. Notes: Do not use the same store code twice in one year. The system will overwrite the grades you stored under the store code the first time with the grades you store the second time. This value is stored as TermBinsName in the StoredGrades table and is accessible using DDA, DDE, importing and exporting. Save with this Historical Store Code
Save with this Historical Store Code	Enter the term code from which you want to save the grades. The term code is usually the same as the store code, such as Q1 or S1. For more information about defining term codes, see Final Grades Setup in the Grading User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x.
Exclude/Include Class Enrollments This section allows you to store current grades, based on students' enrollment or dropped class dates. If you leave the date-related fields blank, PowerSchool stores a grade for every enrollment record, including classes that students dropped during the term. Typically, schools enter a two-week grace period at both the beginning and end of the term. This grace period allows for all of the add/drop procedures at the beginning of the term to be ignored in the store grades process. Also, PowerSchool does not store grades for students who enroll in your school during the last two weeks of the term.
Exclude enrollment records where the student enrolled in the class after this date	Select the checkbox to exclude enrollment records where the student enrolled in the class after this date. Enter the date or click the Calendar icon to select a date.
Exclude enrollment records where the student dropped the class before this date	Select the checkbox to exclude enrollment records where the student dropped the class before this date. Enter the date or click the Calendar icon to select a date.
Additional Filter Options This section allows you to narrow the grades to be stored based on currently selected student, track, grade level, and exit date.
Store grades for currently selected [number] students only	To filter by student selection, do one of the following: Select the checkbox to permanently store grades for only the currently selected students. Deselect the checkbox to permanently store grades for all students in the current school. If there are no students in the current selection, the checkbox is inactive.
Request that grades be stored only for a specific section	To store grades for students in a specific course section only, enter the course and section numbers, separated by a period. For example, enter 113.04 for Course 113, Section 04. You can do this when teachers are late in entering their final grades or when testing the process of storing grades. Store grades for one course section before you store grades for all course sections. Leave this field blank to store grades for all course sections. This setting is only applicable to this school and not remote schools. All other settings in the Additional Filter Options section are applicable to this school as well as remote schools.
Student Grade Level	To filter by grade level, select the checkbox(es) of the grade level(s) by which you want to filter the student storing selection.
Track	To filter by track, select the checkboxes of the tracks by which you want to filter the student storing selection.
School Exit Date	To filter by exit date range (the first day the student's enrollment is not active or the day after the student's last day in class), enter the date range by which you want to filter the storing selection in the From and To fields, or click the Calendar icon to select a date. This setting does not find students who were enrolled through the specified range, but finds students whose school exit date falls within the specified range.
Classes by Term Length This section allows you to indicate the terms for which you want to store grades.
[Terms]	The name of the term and date range of the term appears. The field is read-only.
Store	For each term, choose one of the following from the pop-up menu: Do not store. Store with credit. Store with no credit. If the Show All Terms is set to Yes and Store with credit or Store with no credit is selected, the following message may appear "The [term name] is a [past, recently started, future] term. Are you sure you want to proceed with configuring to store grades for this term?" Click Yes to confirm. Otherwise, click Cancel.
% of Course Credit	If Do not store is selected, the percent field appears shaded and no value can be entered. If Store with credit is selected, enter a percentage of the course credit to award at the time grades are permanently stored. Valid values range from 1 to 400. If Store with no credit is selected, the field is automatically populated with a 0. The value may not be changed from 0.
Show All Terms?	By default, terms that are in progress or recently passed appear. If you are storing grades for a term that is not in progress or recently passed, you may need to display all terms. If a term was already stored, you will overwrite the grades for that term and may affect graduation credit, GPAs, and transcripts. Indicate the terms for which you want to store grades: Select No to show only terms that are in progress or recently passed. This option is selected by default. Select Yes to show all terms for the current school year term. Notes: If the Show All Terms is set to Yes and the server date does not fall within a scheduling term, the term defaults to the Default Term When Between School Years setting. For more information, see Miscellaneous District Settings in the Grading User Guide for PowerSchool 7.x. The name of the term and date range of the term appears based on your selection. Current terms appear bold, past terms appear not bold, and future terms appear not bold and italicized. Past terms indicate the term ended beyond 30 days from today's date. Recently started terms indicate the term started within 10 days prior to today's date. Current term indicates the term has not started within 10 days prior to today's date and has not ended within the last 30 days from today's date. Future terms indicate the term has not yet started.
Options for Classes Enrolled at Other Schools This section provides options on whether to store grades for all schools or for the selected school only. For example, if a middle school student takes a class at the high school, the middle school must select this option when permanently storing grades. When storing grades for students taking classes at other schools, the TermID fields must match between the schools for those enrollments to store correctly.
Store grades for classes enrolled at	Choose whether to store grades for all schools or for the selected school only. If storing for the selected school only, PowerSchool will not store grades for the other schools at which students may take classes.
Record the school name of	Choose which school name to use when storing grades, either the other school or the current school. This should always be the name of the school the course was taken at (Other School).
Options for Withholding Credit This section allows you to indicate whether or not students who receive a specific number of attendance points during the date range you enter do not receive credit for the course and earn an entirely different grade. For example, the student originally receives a C; however, due to excessive absences, the student receives a WC and no credit for this course. Complete the following steps:
[Checkbox Selected]	If the checkbox is selected: Enter the number of attendance points the student must have received and the date range during which he or she received them to earn the grade you enter. Enter a comment in the teacher comment field if you want the original grade the student earned before counting the attendance points to appear with the comment.
Advanced Potential and Earned Credit Options This section provides options for storing potential and earned credit. Advanced Potential and Earned Credit Options may or may not be used with the Variable Credit Storing Preferences below. If used together, the Advanced Potential and Earned Credit Options withhold earned or potential credit even if a teacher has specified awarded (earned) or attempted (potential). For example, if a teacher has specified 1 for Variable Awarded Credit and Variable Attempted Credit in PowerTeacher gradebook, then the administrator uses the Advanced Potential and Earned Credit Options to Store Potential Credit Only, then the result would be 1 credit for attempted (potential) and no credit for awarded (earned).
When storing with credit	Choose one of the following from the pop-up menu: Store Both Potential and Earned Credit Store Potential Credit Only Store Earned Credit
Variable Credit Storing Preferences This section provides options for storing variable credit. These options only apply if variable credit is enabled. Variable credit may be enabled for an individual section or for multiple sections.
Store these credit hours	Indicate which credit hours you want to store by choosing one of the following from the pop-up menu: Awarded and Attempted - Earned and potential credit. Awarded - Earned credit. Attempted - Potential credit. None
Store this when teacher has not entered variable credit hours	Indicate how to handle variable credit where no value has been entered by teachers by choosing one of the following from the pop-up menu: Credit hours for course/gradescale - Store the credit hours as defined in the course and gradescale. 0 - Store the credit hours as zero.
Round or truncate	Indicate how to handle variable credit values entered by teachers by choosing one of the following from the pop-up menu: Round Truncate
Number of decimal places in variable credit hours	Indicate the number of allowable decimals by choosing one of the following from the pop-up menu: 0 1 2 3 4
Repeated Course Grade Suppression This section allows you to indicate whether to apply repeated course grade suppression policy rules. If enabled, stored grades related to grade scales that allow repeated course grade suppression will be evaluated by the repeated course grade suppression rules during the permanently store grades process.
Apply Repeated Course Grade Suppression Policy Rules	Select the checkbox to allow repeated course grade suppression. Otherwise, leave blank.
Alberta Settings
Do not Update if Previously Stored Grade has not Changed	This checkbox is selected by default - the process will run only for Permanently Stored Grade records that have changed. If this checkbox is not selected, the process runs for Permanently Stored Grade records both changed and unchanged.
Filter Course Grades to be updated	Choose one of the following course grade types from the pop-up menu: Non-Diploma Course Grades Diploma Course Grades

Other Resources for Permanently Storing Grades

To learn more about the Permanently Store Grades process, visit PowerSource and review the following Knowledgebase Articles:

• How to Permanently Store Grades
• How to Permanently Store Grades for a Single Section
• Storing Grades for Classes at Another School: Course.Section
• Storing Grades For Students At Other Schools
• Tutorial: Permanently Storing Grades Setup
• Tutorial: Permanently Storing Grades: Awarding Credit at the End of Each Term
  
• Tutorial: Permanently Storing Grades: Awarding Credit at the End of Each Class
• Tutorial: Permanently Storing Grades: Excluding Enrollments
• Tutorial: Permanently Storing Grades: Options for Classes Enrolled at Other Schools
• How it Works: Permanently Store Grades Process (7.5.x and earlier)

Resources for Manual Grade Entry

PASI Direct Connect works with the currently supported Manual Grade Entry in PowerSchool. This section provides a list of existing resources and the updates made to provide direct integration with PASI.

• Create Multiple Historical Grade Entries: https://support.powerschool.com/article/5701
• Create a Single Historical Grade: https://support.powerschool.com/article/6371

Notes:

• When creating a Course Mark, the student must have a corresponding course enrolment in PowerSchool.
• Entering marks with the Multiple New Entries option is not supported by PASI Direct Connect integration.

Entering a New Stored Grade

To create a new course/evaluated mark:

1. On the Start page, select a student.
2. Under Historical Grades, click Single New Entry.
3. Select a Mark Type; Course Mark or Evaluated Mark.
4. Select a School Name. This is the name of the school where the student received the mark.
5. Enter the School Year in which the mark was received.
6. Enter the Store Code that the school uses for the term the mark was received to synchronize with PASI. Store Codes are determined on the Edit Term page under Years & Terms.
7. Enter the Hist. grade level, which is the grade level of the student when they received the mark.
8. Enter the Course number – Section number. A student must have a course enrolment to submit a course mark. Evaluated marks may be entered without a corresponding course enrolment.
9. Enter the Course Name.
10. Enter the Teacher Name.
11. Enter the Grade. This is the mark the student received, either Alpha or Numerical.
12. Enter the Percent the student received if applicable. This is a numeric value.
13. Enter the Potential credit hours. This is the total number of credits the student could have earned.
14. For Course Marks:
    • Enter the Mark Assignment Date. This is the day the student was awarded the mark.
15. For Evaluated Marks:
    • Select Funding Requested; Yes or No.
    • Select the Course Evaluation Method.
    • Select the Course Evaluation Province. This is only required when the Course Evaluation Method is Out of Province.
    • Enter the Mark Assignment Date. This is the day the student was awarded the mark.

As of 2017-2018, Challenge Courses (CHA) can not be entered as evaluated marks; instead, Challenge Courses must be created as sections with course enrollments.

Manage SCM/CTS Validations

The Manage SCM/CTS Validations process replaces both the SCM Validations and CTS Validation reports used to complete course enrolments and set the proper funding flag value based on the PASI business rules.

Completing Course Enrolments

PASI Direct Connect provides a mechanism to complete course enrolments in PASI using the Special Function named SCM/CTS validations. Course enrolments are course enrolments on the cc table in PowerSchool. For course enrolments to be marked as completed, marks must be stored prior to completing the enrolment.

The SCM/CTS Force Update group security setting is required to overwrite a completion status that is already populated,

Introduction

To complete SCM course enrolments:

1. On the Start page, click Special Functions.
2. Under the Alberta PASI Data Validations, click Manage SCM/CTS Validations. The Manage SCM/CTS Validations page appears.
3. Choose SCM for the validation.
4. Choose the Exam Course Type (Diploma or Non Diploma)
5. Choose a Term (course length) and a Store Code (as per the Alberta info in Years & Terms). These are populated based on the stored grades records for the current year.
6. Choose Student Selection (All students by default).
7. Click Search.
   • To process specific students/course enrolments individually select them from the list if needed, no selection from the results will process all students.
8. Click the Next button.
   • A new drop-down will appear.
9. Select a Status for marks less the 25 percent.
   • Choices are Incomplete or Withdrawn
10. Click Submit.
    • You will be brought to a new (results) page.
11. Click Refresh or set a refresh timer.
12. Click the number under Records Updated to view the results.

To complete CTS course enrolments:

1. On the Start page, click Special Functions.
2. Under the Alberta PASI Data Validations, click Manage SCM/CTS Validations. The Manage SCM/CTS Validations page appears.
3. Choose CTS for the validation.
4. Choose a Term (course length) and a Store Code (as per the Alberta info in Years & Terms). (These are populated based on the stored grades records for the current year)
5. Choose Student Selection (All students by default).
6. Click Search.
   • To process specific students/course enrolments individually select them from the list if needed, no selection from the results will process all students.
7. Click the Next button.
   • A new drop-down will appear.
8. Select a Status for marks less the 50 percent.
   • Choices are Compete, Incomplete or Withdrawn
9. Click Submit.
   • You will be brought to a new (results) page.
10. Click Refresh or set a refresh timer.
11. Click the number under Records Updated to view the results.

Notes:

• Complete = Failing Mark will go up along with either Funding as Yes or No (if mark is below 25% will default to No for Funding - if 25% or Over will default to Yes for Funding) This will show on a transcript.

• Incomplete = No mark but Funding will be Yes or No (if mark is below 25% will default to No for Funding - if 25% or Over will default to Yes for Funding)

• Withdrawn = No mark (will need to verify if Funding goes up as yes or no)

• Force update of all records is very rarely used as it will overwrite ANYTHING that is already populated this includes marks that were manually stored for early completion etc. However, you can choose Specific students/course to update just those records. Access to this option is tied behind a group security option.
• If you have quarter ending CTS courses - suggest you do the validations at the end of the quarters.
• You will need to do all “Terms” for course lengths (example if you have quarter ending courses and Full semester courses) you will have the validations for each term. If you only have Semester Courses you only need to do the Validation for the Semester Term.
• Should you want to make changes to course enrolments, click on All Enrollments for that student then Edit for the course in question (Funding Requested & Course Enrollment Status), clicking on the links on the validation page will bring you to the Edit Course Enrolment page for that record.

School Course Marks Approval

The Permanently Store Grades process takes care of submitting a course mark to PASI linked to a student's course enrolment. However, this mark still needs to be approved by an administrator because, by default, the marks are unapproved after the course has been completed.

Approving Course/Evaluated Marks

PASI Direct Connect provides a mechanism to approve course marks in PASI using the Special Function named Course/Evaluated Marks Approval. Course Marks are Historical Grades that are linked to a course enrolment in PowerSchool. An Evaluated Mark is a Historical Grade that does not require a course enrolment in PowerSchool.

To approve course/evaluated marks:

1. On the Start page, click Special Functions.
2. Under the Alberta PASI SCM Functions, click Course/Evaluated Marks Approval. The School Course Marks Approval page appears.
3. Choose Course Enrolments or Evaluated Marks from the Item pop-up menu.
4. Choose a Mark Approval status.
   • Leave blank to get results for both approved and unapproved marks.
5. Choose a Diploma Type.
   • Leave blank to get results for both diploma and non-diploma courses
6. Click Get Results.
   • You can filter the results by clicking any heading.
7. Click the Approve button at the top of the results.
   • To approve marks individually, choose Approve from the pop-up menu in the Mark Approval column and submit the page.
8. Click Submit.

Notes:

• To unapprove a mark, repeat steps 1 to 6, then click the Unapprove button.
• When a Course Mark is approved, it displays under the Official Marks tab on the PASI Student Profile page.

• If the course enrolment associated with the course mark has any Warnings, the mark cannot be approved.

Viewing Historical Grades

PASI Direct Connect provides two columns on the Historical Grades page: DIP (Diploma) and O(B)M (Official (Blended) Mark). When Diploma Exam Marks and Official Marks are populated on the stored grade, the marks will display under the appropriate column.

Alberta Information Required for PASI Direct Connect: Alternate Term Code & Final Mark Store Code