Session Catalog

General Topics

Security: Groups, Roles, and Page/Field Permissions
This session will bring you up to speed on best practices for managing security groups, user access roles, page permissions, field level security, and more. Come and learn critical information for ensuring the security design of your system is intentional and your users have the access they need!

PowerTeacher and PTP Gradebook: Ask Anything
Bring any questions you have around PowerTeacher and PTP (Gradebook)! This session will be a topic-specific Q & A where we can dive into your questions, wonderings, and calculation configuration mysteries.

Final Grades: Pieces of the Puzzle
Understand the key pieces of the PowerSchool puzzle that lead to the grade results you see in Historical Grades and on transcripts. Learn how terms, grading periods, course structure, grade scale setup, gradebook configuration and the storing process all come together.

Graduation Planner
This session will look at setting up the graduation planner, assigning graduation plans to students, running reports and using the graduation planner functions to track students’ progress toward graduation.

GPA Overview & Troubleshooting
There are a lot of moving parts to a properly-calculated GPA in PowerSchool. We will look at the source data building blocks, the differences in various calculation methods, how to use and export GPAs in various parts of the system, and finally troubleshooting when something doesn’t seem quite right.

Object Reports
Object reports are PowerSchool’s built-in paginated PDF reports tool. Learn how to build an object report transcript, including the transcript object, credit and GPA DATs, and test scores. Explore other projects, such as form letters and student photo directories. Learn where there are freely shared templates on Exchange and how to install them.

Health Management
The session will offer a complete review of all health features in PowerSchool SIS and how to use them.

MBA Report Creator Lab
Come with all of your MBA Report Creator questions to learn from the developer of the plugin. Whether you’ve never used the plugin and you’re wondering if it’s right for you or you’ve been using it in your organization and need some help with a feature, this session is the place to get answers.

Data and Reporting

Data Half-Day: DDE/DDA, Import/Export, Data Hairpins, and more! (double session)
Explore how to work with data in PowerSchool. Learn the core table structure and relationships and how to work with DDE and DDA. Practice exporting and importing data using Quick Import, Quick Export, Data Import Manager and Data Export Manager. Experience how to manipulate and analyze data in Excel. Take advantage of the new ability to schedule Data Imports to automate the update of data like email, SSO Global ID and the Home_Room field. This class is divided into two parts to allow for scenarios that apply the learning.

sqlReports and PSCB Dev Pro Reports Bundles
sqlReports and PSCB Dev Pro Reports Bundles are two very popular subscription-based customizations that add extremely useful data reporting functionality (including basic charts and graphs) to PowerSchool. We will deep dive into both these tools and understand how they can enhance data access for your users and remove the system administrator as the “data bottleneck.”

APEX (Enterprise Reporting)
Dive into the world of PowerSchool’s Enterprise Reporting powered by Oracle APEX. This session will guide you through the essentials of accessing, customizing, and creating interactive reports within PowerSchool. Learn how to utilize the APEX Application Builder to develop new reports, modify existing ones, securely sharing with the school users, and leverage SQL queries for dynamic data analysis. Whether you’re aiming to enhance data-driven decision-making or streamline reporting processes, this session equips you with the tools to harness the full potential of PowerSchool’s Enterprise Reporting capabilities.​

Build Your Own Data Dashboard in Google Looker Studio
In this session, American School of Dubai Data Analytics Specialist Ken Simonds will present a hands-on tutorial on building your own Google Looker Studio Data Dashboard. Participants will learn how to go from a Google Sheet to a live, functioning dashboard. We will walk through the entire process, including structuring data effectively in Google Sheets, connecting it to Looker Studio, and building different visualizations and controls. No prior technical expertise is required besides a general familiarity with spreadsheets. A Google account is required (personal one is OK).

Case Study: Data Dashboards at the American School of Dubai
ASD Data Analytics Specialist Ken Simonds has designed and developed numerous beautiful and useful dashboards in Google Looker Studio to aggregate and analyze data from across many sources at the school. These include demographics, enrollment, testing, admissions, discipline, sustainability, housing/utilities, finance, and more. Come to this session to see examples of Ken’s work and learn how these dashboards are used as a foundation and resource for data-based decision making.

Customization/Coding

Intro to PowerSchool Customization
Want to start customizing PowerSchool? Learn the basics about Language Translation, Database Extensions, Custom Screens, and Custom Pages. We’ll demonstrate some beginner examples using Manage Custom Pages.

jQuery, Page Fragments, and Insertion Points
Websites are made dynamic and interactive with Javascript. jQuery is a fast, small, and feature-rich library that simplifies Javascript and is used by millions of web developers. jQuery is included in PowerSchool and this session will examine many examples of how it can be used to add rich interactivity to your web-pages and help you discover how to leverage jQuery for its most popular PowerSchool use – to code your customizations as Page Fragments and avoid directly modifying the stock pages. With Page Fragments you avoid the pain of missing out on PowerSchool updates and minimize conflicts with other customizations that affect the same screen.

PowerQueries
PowerQueries are SQL queries that, when bundled properly, are embedded as part of the PowerSchool API. The results of these queries can be retrieved and scheduled in PowerSchool’s Data Export Manager. The queries can also be accessed in custom pages as a more secure alternative to tlist_sql, and exposed to select third-party applications to facilitate integration. We will discuss the process of creating and installing PowerQueries as PowerSchool plugins.

Building a Plugin From Start to Finish
Are you interested in a customization example and/or want to learn how to share your customization as a plugin? This session will put everything from the previous sessions together and walk participants through the process of creating a full working plugin for PowerSchool. Not a deep dive, but more of a complete example of combining Database Extension, Page Fragments, and customization topics covered more in depth in other sessions. It will include tlist_child, Direct Access, and GridWidget code that help you work with one-to-many tables, and then bundle it all up as a plugin. Source-code will be provided. A basic knowledge of customization, SQL and database extensions is recommended.

Intermediate SQL
After a brief review of SQL basics, this session will focus on a deep understanding of SQL joins – the difference between inner and left joins. Other topics will include Oracle functions: string manipulation, numeric and date formatting, and aggregation. Additionally, grouping of data (group by) and conditional logic (case) will be covered.

Advanced SQL
This session includes a discussion of subqueries and CTEs (the WITH clause). Unions and flashback queries as well as a discussion of querying database extensions will follow. The session will end with an introduction to generating JSON with Oracle SQL – json_array and json_object.

Visualizing Data with Fusion Charts
Learn to build various types of charts in PowerSchool using the Fusion Charts library and tlist_sql.

Customization Lab
This lab is for anyone with questions about anything related to PowerSchool customization. Get help with a customization you’re struggling with, or come with questions about the best approach to solving your organization’s problems using PowerSchool customization.

Scheduling

2-day Build and Load Workshop (remote presenter)
Comprehensive PowerScheduler training over two full days! Learn about the full PowerSchool schedule building and loading process from beginning to end. If you sign up for this you are committing to attending the full two day workshop.

Course Prerequisites, Recommendations, and Student Course Selection (standalone session)
Come to this session to learn how to set up course prerequisites, train teachers to enter course recommendations for students, and finally how all these pieces fit together in allowing students to select and submit their course requests from the student portal in preparation for scheduling season.

Other PowerSchool Suite Products

Digital Forms: Expanding your PowerSchool SIS Offering (Ecollect, Enrollment Express, Enrollment, and Special Programs)

Personalizing Education: Connecting your SIS with PowerSchool LMS, Assessment, and Curriculum Tools (Schoology, Curriculum, and Performance Matters)

Communicating Effectively with Families: Student Information and Communication, all in 1 place (MyPowerHub Engagement and Communication)

Sponsor Sessions

MBA Plugins: Attendance Monitor, Alert Creator, and More
Watch a demonstration of several of MBA’s most popular PowerSchool plugins!