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Discover how to sync and update grades across PowerSchool with the Grade Sync feature.
Audience: ✅District Admin
In this article
PowerSchool gradebook entities
Changes after Grade Sync activation
Supporting Grade Sync to PowerSchool offers flexible grading options that cater to diverse grading methodologies used by educators. It supports various grading scales, including traditional percentage-based, points-based, and standards-based grading. This flexibility allows teachers to align their grading practices with their instructional goals and reporting requirements.
PowerSchool gradebook entities
Line item entity
Note:
The Line item name cannot exceed 50 characters.
POINTS value must be in uppercase.
The Line item is an individual graded item, such as an assignment, or assessment associated with a unique identifier. It captures information about the item's title, description, maximum points, and other relevant details.
For sync score with points, the Line item contains metadata where the POINTS value is set up for the scoreType attribute. By default, the scoreType attribute is applied as GRADESCALE (that is, A, B, C..).
Category entity
Note: Each Category name must be unique for each user (teacher) and it cannot exceed 30 characters.
The Category is a way to group related Line Items together. For example, a category can be created for "Quizzes" or "Homework." Categories help in organizing and presenting grade data. Each PowerSchool Category links to teachers in the PowerSchool SIS and contains metadata with the following attributes:
- userDcid: A teacher identifier, assigned to a specific category.
- TermID: A local identifier, assigned to the annual calendar. The default value is set to 3200.
Note:
If you use the Blackboard Learn app, there are duplicates will be created in the School Passport for all categories of classes for each teacher. The reason for this is that categories are associated with teachers in the PowerSchool SIS, and with classes in Blackboard. Therefore, for each teacher, the School Passport will have separate records for the categories they teach in each of their classes. To retrieve all duplicates for category, apply a filter using the "Metadata Extension" attribute based on the "categoryId".
Prerequisites
Contact the GG4L Support Team and request a Grade Sync functionality and a special PowerSchool plugin.
Enable Grade Sync
Note: The Grades Sync can only be enabled during the app creation process.
- Sign in to School Passport and click Connect.
- From the Application Gallery, choose a PowerSchool app > Activate.
- On the Sync Mode, select the desired mode and click Next >.
- Import mode allows importing roster data and additional gradebook data.
- 2-Way Sync mode enables bidirectional sync between the data source (SIS) and PowerSchool. This mode is recommended for seamless data sync and integration between platforms
- (If Import mode) Request the Grade Sync activation through the GG4L Support Team. Once the activation is confirmed, proceed with configuring.
- On the Delivery Config, upload the special PowerSchool plugin, you requested earlier, and then paste API credentials. For information about installing a PowerSchool plugin and available advanced settings, see PowerSchool.
- Customize other settings and complete a PowerSchool application configuration.
To prevent data duplication when synchronizing data from PowerSchool to School Passport, it is necessary to set up the Master Fields for various data entities. For detailed instructions on how to customize the Master Fields correctly, see Manage Master Fields for Grade Exchange.
Changes after Grade Sync activation
When Grade Sync is successfully activated for PowerSchool, there are following changes appear:
Grade entities
In Settings > Attribute Mappings, the grade entities, such as Line Item, Result, and Category, display.
Gradebook
After data syncing, the Gradebook data displays at the Data Browsing > Gradebook.
PowerSchool identifier
The Identifiers panel displays a unique Powerschool Id identifier for each individual record.
Each entity has a distinct format for its PowerShcoolId:
- For the Categories, the PowerShcoolId format is UUUU_WWWW, where UUUU - teachercategoryid, WWWW - sectionsdcid.
- For the Line Items, the PowerShcoolId format is XXXXX#YYYYY, where XXXXX - assignmentid, and YYYYY - assignmentsectionid.
- For the Results, the PowerShcoolId format is XXX#ZZZ, where XXXXX - assignmentid, and ZZZ - studentsdcid.