PowerTeacher Gradebook

Introduction The Stamford Public School district acquired the Pearson PowerSchool suite of student information management tools to take the place of StarStudent. PowerTeacher is one of the web-enabled modules that is integrated with our PowerSchool student information system. It provides teachers with a variety of classroom management tools including an online gradebook. 2

Overview PowerSchool Gradebook will be rolled out to Stamford Middle and High School teachers starting in the fall of The gradebook implementation will then be followed by opening the public portal for students and parents during the fall of the school year. 3

Teacher Benefits It will save teacher’s time. PowerTeacher Gradebook is seamlessly integrated with PowerSchool, so almost no setup is required for teachers. All classes, rosters, student demographic information, grading periods, standards, rubrics and grades scales are automatically loaded. Teachers can access Gradebook from almost any web-enabled device. 4

Benefits of Student Portal Enabling students to view their grades in real time throughout their classes instead of having to wait for a report card to show up once per quarter will empower them to take ownership of their learning. Students can direct their own learning and assume responsibility for their own work. 5

Benefits of Parent Portal The parent portal enhances our school- to-home communication by providing our parents real time access to attendance, assignments, assignment scores, teacher comments, final grades, school announcements and much more. 6

Key Dates April 8, 2014: A core group of approximately 25 teachers from our Middle and High Schools participated in Gradebook training presented by a Pearson trainer on April 8 and 9, May 15, 2014: Gradebook Implementation Steering Group meeting to review goals, implementation timeline, launching of Parent/Student Portal and any other rollout details that will emerge. June: PowerSchool Gradebook PD Leader position to be posted. Summer 2014: Teachers selected to serve as PowerSchool PD Leader to provide the August 29 training will convene for a train-the-trainer session conducted by Paula Ward and Kelly Murphy. 7

Key dates August 29, 2014: Teachers at middle and high schools attend a hands-on training class for 2 hours. This professional development will be delivered by the PowerSchool Gradebook PD Leader. Topics covered: Setting up courses using weighted categories; Weighting semester/quarters and The creation of semester assignments September 2, 2014: Teachers begin using PowerTeacher Gradebook. September 8 to October 3, 2014: Gradebook support will be provided by the PowerSchool Gradebook PD lead and by Central Office staff onsite throughout the school day. November 4, 2014: 2 hour follow-up training for Middle and High School Teachers. Fall-Winter 2014 – Parent and student portal will be opened 8

Gradebook Features PowerTeacher GradeBook provides real-time access to student rosters by scheduled class. As information is updated in PowerSchool, PowerTeacher is also updated. Conversely, as data such as attendance and grades are posted to PowerTeacher GradeBook, PowerSchool is updated. 9

Gradebook Features PowerTeacher GradeBook provides the teacher with the ability to post and publish all components that will be used to calculate marking period and final grades including homework, projects, quizzes, and exams 10

Class Content Teachers can post expectations and links to resources that describe and support a particular assignment or task. With the Class Content feature, teachers can maintain their own libraries of resources that can be linked to the assignments, or to the class description. When we go live with PowerSchool’s Parent and Student portal, parents and students will be able to view these assignments/tasks online. 11

Gradebook Features As students complete assignments and teacher evaluates student work, grades can be posted. Based on district and teacher parameters, the grades will be continually calculated to show student progress. 12

Individualized Assessment The Student View of gradebook provides the teacher with overall view of each student’s work and provides an alternative way to enter the student's grades. 13

GradeBook Reports PowerTeacher GradeBook has a variety of reports including attendance, demographic, grade and roster reports. Each report can be run on an individual student, a select group of students or all students. 14

Parent/Student Portal Features When we go live with Parent Portal, teachers will be able to publish the components of what will make up marking period and final grades including assignments, projects, tests and exams. This information will help parents keep up with their child’s academic progress and attendance. 15

Resources An online portal will be developed by Central Office personnel to house: Pearson website PowerSource Gradebook training materials Pearson videos 16

PowerTeacher Gradebook