PowerSchool

School Passport supports Secure Data Sync with a wide range of the district's student information systems (SIS). One of them is PowerSchool SIS.  PowerSchool is the #1 leading education technology platform for K-12, serving more than 32 million students, 66 million parents, and 100 million users in over 70 countries around the world.

Configuration of data sync with PowerSchool SIS consists of the following steps:

1. (optional) Locate the necessary fields for Custom Plugin 
2. PS Plugin installation 
3. Configuration of the PowerSchool app on the Connect platform

(Optional) Locate the necessary fields for Custom Plugin

To create a custom plugin for you, GG4L needs to know in which tables of your database the necessary fields are located. Very often there is confusion between the name of the table extension group and the name of the extension table in that group. To learn more about where the required field names are, see Find Fields Names.

For a better understanding, here are screenshots from a PowerSchool base. You can find the table extension groups and extension tables in it in the Start Page -> System Administrator -> Page and Data Management -> Manage Database Extensions.

Please, see the example below ⬇️, where:

In order to find the necessary table and fields names, you can as well follow the recommendations below:

1. Log in to your PowerSchool SIS as admin. On the Start Page Choose the necessary User Role and click View Field List:

You will see all the fields for the chosen role:

2. In the Filter field type in the name of the user field you are looking for.

If you see a name not separated with a full stop - it is a field name in the respective table (ex. if you chose the user type Students in the first step - Alert_Medical field is located in the STUDENTS table):

If you see the name separated with a full stop (like: StudentCoreFields.immunization_dpt, where StudentCoreFields is the table name, and immunization_dpt is the field name.)

PS Plugin installation

Please follow the instructions below:

1. Log in as a system administrator in PowerSchool and navigate to: System > System Settings > Plugin Management Dashboard.
2. Click INSTALL.
3. Choose the PS plugin zip file (please, use the following URL to download the default PS plugin) and click INSTALL.
   Note:  If there is a need for a custom PS plugin, please reach out to GG4L Customer Support, or if you have already received a custom plugin from the Support Team, please install that one.
4. Enable the plugin by selecting the Enable/Disable checkbox in the plugins list (plugin name is "GG4L Data Sync").
5. Click Enable in the pop-up window to confirm enabling.
6. Navigate to GG4L Data Sync > Data Configuration.
7. Click Data Configuration and copy credentials: Client ID and Client Secret.

Configuration of the PowerSchool app on the Connect platform

 Please, follow the instructions below:

1. Log in to your School Passport  profile, and navigate to the Connect (Data-Sync) module;
2. Go to the Application Gallery, and find the PowerSchool app.
3. Click Activate. You will be redirected to the configuration page.
4. 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
5. Insert copied credentials (Service URL, OAuth Client ID, OAuth Client Secret) in the corresponding fields of the Delivery Config tab:
   There are also Advanced Settings present here. Press the following button to open a drop-down list:
   
   
   You will be offered to populate checkboxes related to additional settings.
   
   • Do not use the Contact Module (Note: Contact Module is deactivated by default; to activate the functionality, please uncheck the checkbox);
     We can use a filter for contacts if we use CM:
     
     If CM is OFF, we can parse the contact name - use the rule, input a character between pattern elements:
     
   • Sync Co-Teachers. PowerSchool data source supports Co-Teacher Roles in Sections.

   Note: By default, GG4l does not import co-teachers data from PowerSchool SIS. If you want to sync co-teachers, you need to install a new PS plugin. You can learn more about the Sync Co-Teachers feature in the following article: Pull Co-Teachers from PowerSchool

   Please contact support@gg4l.com with a request to provide a new PS plugin to activate Sync Co-Teachers. 

   • Bulk upload mode. The system will detect deleted records based on a comparison with the last upload.
   • Data will be uploaded from multiple data sources (for example, from the SIS and the Active Directory). Do not check the box if you plan to upload data from a single data source (e.g. only from the SIS).
   • Compare records accordingly to the Domains of Uniqueness.
   • Preview of data upload (you will have to approve every data sync). Your new data will be not available until you accept the changes.
   • There is the ability to set up a “Sync hold threshold”. If the system detected significant changes, updated data would not be available for export until you approve changes.
    Also, you can set up the SIS prefix field. The prefix is used mainly for multiple Data Sources of the same type to avoid merging entities with equal SIS IDs.
   

   
   After making all the required settings, you can test the connection with PowerSchool SIS by clicking the corresponding button:
   

6. In the Schools Mapping step, select all or individual schools’ data you want to be synced with School Passport. To choose an individual school just drag the button slider to the right in front of the school you need. To select all, click on the AUTO MAPPING button. 
7. In the Attributes Mapping step, you can configure under what attributes, data of a separate entity from PowerSchool will be synchronized to School Passport.
   
   
   

   Note: You can finish the configuration of the PowerSchool App in this step. To complete the configuration, click the corresponding button at the top-right corner of the screen.

8. In the Data Requirements step, you can configure what actions should be taken if some data attributes are missed. There are two options here: Report if Missing; Skip if Missing. 
9. In the Filter Rules step, you can set up data filtering by different entity types. There are seven entity types: student, contact, teacher, course, class, calendar, and admin. To make the filtering process easier to use, ready-made templates are provided. The additional attributes for more accurate filtering are present in the ready-made templates. Also, you can add a Custom Filter where custom attributes and conditions can be used. 
10. Domains of Uniqueness define parameters that require to be unique. The main goal of Domains of Uniqueness is to avoid duplicates in the data system. There are seven entities you can set DoU for: Student, Contact, Teacher, Course, Class, Calendar, Admin. First Name, Last Name, and Email attributes are set by default in DoU to be unique, but you can also select (add) others: birth date, gender, grade, phone number, etc.
    
    
11. Master Fields step: data to a district account can come from multiple data sources. One data source may not have a complete list of required data, or this data might be inaccurate. In order to avoid duplication of data from different data sources, the user can configure which attributes from which data source will be the main ones. This configuration occurs in Master Fields.
    

    Note: For more details about Master Fields click here.

12. In the Sync Schedule section, you can set up periodicity (daily, weekly) and the exact time for the sync. You can also choose the date when data sync will be expired.
13. In the last "Done" step, click the FINISH button to finalize the configuration.
14. Once the configuration is complete, you can force data sync by clicking on the RUN IMPORT button.
    
    

If you have any questions about the PowerSchool App configuration, please reach out to GG4L Customer Support.

How to reach out to the PowerSchool Support Team

See also

Activate Grade Sync with PowerSchool