Introduction
As students are entered into the PowerSchool Database, and move through our school system over time, it is the responsibility of each school to ensure that individual student information is accurate, comprehensive, and up-to-date.
When student information is missing or out-of-date, schools may run into various problems ranging from tuition payment issues to compromised student safety. PowerSchool contains many fields and pages for storing different pieces of student data, and while all of this information is important, there are a number of fields that must always be populated and accurate to help ensure that positive student outcomes are achieved.
Multiple reports have been created to help assist with tracking, managing and monitoring the accuracy of student data. The following resources can help to assist with identifying and resolving potential areas of concern.
Using the "Student Enrolment Summary" Report
A summary report has been created to display key data points surrounding enrolment, as well as identify any areas of potential concern. Much of the time, data gaps and/or issues exist simply because certain fields have not been populated correctly, or not populated at all. To view this summary, go to:
Start Page > SQL Reports > Student Enrolment Counts > 1.0 Student Enrolment Summary
NOTES:
1. Each row displays the data for a specific year level
2. The final row displays total counts for all year levels combined
3. Some of the columns are interactive, allowing the user to click through to related reports for more details
Sample Scenario
1. When viewing the first row in this report (Year 7), there are a total of 102 students, 45 of which are male and 57 of which are female. The ‘Blank Gender’ column in this row is showing a count of ‘0’. This means that there are zero students in the system that currently have a blank ‘Gender’ field. Moving further along the row it can be seen that 83 students are LDS, and 15 students are Non-LDS. Unfortunately, it is also showing that there are 4 students (underlined) that have a blank ‘LDS’ field, which is an area of concern. All LDS fields must be populated, so it is up to the school to ensure that the records for these 4 students are quickly updated to show whether they are LDS or not.
2. To identify the specific students that have a blank LDS field, click on the underlined number in the ‘Blank LDS’ column.
3. This action will open a new tab in the browser, directing the user to another report that they can use to list the names of the students that do not have any information in the LDS field. Click on the Submit button, to run the report.
4. Use the Edit Data button provided in each row to edit the details of each of the students with missing data.
NOTE: The “Student Details (LDS=Blank)”report will display all of the students with a blank LDS field in the school – not just the specific Year Level that the user may have been investigating.
5. While in the Information page, it may pay to check that all the other required fields have also been populated. Required fields are highlighted in yellow and marked with an Asterix to make for easier viewing and identification.
A Reminder About Enrolling New Students
When new students are enrolled in the PowerSchool database it is imperative that all required fields are populated when the record is first created. Sometimes, Support Specialists may be inclined to enter the student name and a few other quick details, and then “come back” and “finish off” entering the rest of the data later. This is not good practice and should be stopped immediately if it is happening.
When a new student is enrolled, PowerSchool will run a few checks to help link family members together as well as check to see if a record for that student already exists. Once PowerSchool has run those initial checks, the person entering student data should then go into the student pages and finish filling out the Information page. All mandatory fields are highlighted in yellow.
More information about properly entering new student data can be found in these articles:
How to Pre-Register NEW Students for an Upcoming School Year
The PowerSchool Enrolment Checklist Guide
Resources for Finance Clerks and other School Partners
Similar reports can be used by Finance Clerks and other School partners to help them in their efforts to perform their various functions.
While it is the responsibility of the school itself to enter, update and manage student data, other approved partners may have access to certain SQL Reports that can show them where certain gaps or inaccuracies in data may exist.
The Student Enrolment Counts report for instance, can be used at a District level to view key data points across all Year Levels at all Schools. To use this, or similar reports, go to: SQL Reports > District Counts > Student Enrolment Counts.
After submitting/running the report, the user will have the option to view consolidated data for each school. In this example we will expand the Moroni High School group and view the current stats. The last row for each school shows the school totals. We can see in this example that the total number of student with a blank LDS field is currently 26. We can also see that there are 54 students that do not have an Ethnicity stipulated.
Even though it is not the responsibility of Finance or other partners to update this data, this information could be used by approved partners to help notify or remind the school offices of gaps and inaccuracies that exist. A friendly call or email to the school office from approved partners may be appropriate and helpful in such instances.
Maintaining Data Integrity
School Support Specialists, under the direction of their Principals, should be checking the Student Enrolment Summary report (and other related reports) on a weekly basis to make sure that all of their data is up-to-date. If the data is checked consistently and properly, it should not take the school office more than a few minutes each week to maintain and manage the integrity and cleanliness of their student data.
NOTE: Right-click on any image and select "open image in new tab" to view the image at full size.